This congregation was inaugurated during the tenure of Fr. Ivan Mayba in Smoky Lake, and subsequently remained part of the Smoky Lake Parish District. According to a letter sent to Consistory on 23 November 1933, by this time an initiative group of local residents was in the process of purchasing a four-acre parcel of land for a church and cemetery from the Great West Life Company in the Boyne Lake district. However, for the land ownership to be transferred it was necessary for the new congregation to be legally registered with a church. Consequently, a formal founding meeting of the Boyne Lake faithful was then held at the nearby Conrad School on 23 December 1933, when an application for incorporation as the Congregation of the Holy Cross was submitted to the UGOC in Winnipeg.
Approved on February 3, 1934, the land acquisition was then finalized a short while later. In June the Consistory was informed that the property had already been fenced in and had a cross placed on it, which it was hoped to have blessed that fall. At this time, it was indicated that plans were being made to begin assembling materials for the construction of a sanctuary in the coming winter. The Consistory was also informed that the new congregation was comprised of 20 members, some of whom were former Greek Catholics.
A modest rectangular church, 20’ by 24’ in size, was subsequently erected at Boyne Lake, with two small domes adorning towers flanking the entryway. Unfortunately, little information is available about the congregation’s existence in the latter years of the Depression and the 1940s. In 1951, five liturgies were reported to have been celebrated at the church, when the congregation consisted of just five members. Five years later the paid membership had grown to eleven families, and six Divine Liturgies were celebrated in the sanctuary over the course of the year, a figure that remained fairly constant in subsequent years. In 1958, the financially struggling congregation informed the Consistory that it could not afford to contribute its allocation to the UGOC budget and expressed concerns that it might fall apart. In 1960, just three Liturgies took place in the church, though membership was said to number 16 families.
In the mid-1960s it seems that the congregation decided to adopt Sts. Peter and Paul as its patrons. However, it subsequently reverted back to its original feast day and name, the Elevation (Vozvyzhennia) of the Holy Cross.
In July 1980, on the occasion of Alberta’s 75th anniversary, a cairn was erected on the church property with a plaque dedicated to the founding members of the church. By the first half of the 1990s, the church was being supported by little more than a handful of families, who nevertheless continue to lovingly maintain and worship in their sanctuary.
There is a hall behind the church, as well as metal bell tower.
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GPS Co-ordinates: 54.238197, -111.677424
Affiliation: Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada
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