The first attempts to organize a religious community in the Musidora area occurred between 1916 and 1920. Several meetings were held in an effort to establish a congregation, but activities remained informal with services occasionally being held at the homes of Safat Bikevich and Stefan Chanasyk. Apparently, local residents were divided as to their loyalties, with some preferring to be ministered to by the Basilian Fathers who were based in Mundare, others wanting to be served by clergy with the Russian Orthodox Mission. On the initiative of Reverend Kryzanowski, a Catholic church was finally built on the farm of John Kolisniak, though afterwards the majority of the Musidora faithful decided to sell this structure and instead pursue membership in the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church. Following this split, services were held at the residence of Wasyl Kolisniak or in the local National Hall, officiated by Reverend I. Kusey during occasional visits that he made in 1926.
In 1928-1929, a sanctuary was finally constructed by volunteers working under the supervision of a carpenter to provide a place of worship for the Orthodox faithful. Consecrated in the name of St. Mary, the church was initially served by Reverend Ivan Mayba. In early 1931 a request was made to the Consistory asking for the church to be incorporated under the charter of the UGOC, but a controversy soon erupted when some members insisted that the parish remain independent. The matter had serious implications, as there were still lingering fears in the community that the church could revert to Catholic control. Another concern was ownership of the cemetery that had been established in 1906 and blessed by Fr. Tymochko of the Ukrainian Catholic Church – which the congregation wanted to legally acquire as part of its landholdings. It took more than four decades to finally resolve the issue of incorporation, and while the cemetery continued to be shared for some time by local Orthodox and Catholic believers, title to it ultimately passed into the hands of the congregation of St. Mary’s.
From the mid-thirties to the outbreak of the Second World War there were problems getting clergy to provide pastoral care for the Musidora faithful. As the All Saints Greek Catholic church was built in nearby Morecambe around this time, the Consistory was informed that St. Mary’s could lose some of its members to the Ukrainian Catholics – no doubt to underscore the need to find a regular priest. Although, the situation seems to have stabilized by 1940, new tensions appear to have surfaced by the late 1940s, this time due to the proselytizing efforts of the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1948 a couple of Musidora members again submitted an official request to Winnipeg to have St. Mary’s congregation incorporated as part of the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada, probably to ensure their church’s allegiance to the Consistory. However, because the initiators of the petition also indicated that most of their fellow adherents were sympathetic to the Russian Orthodox Church, their submission was deemed legally unrepresentative of the will of the majority. Nevertheless, the congregation continued to be faithfully served throughout these difficult years by the UGOC, whose priests officiated at a dozen liturgies in the community in 1949.
In 1951, Musidora congregation was comprised of eighteen members, and in the following year fifteen Divine Liturgies were celebrated at St. Mary’s. Notwithstanding the fact that the Myrnam district constructed a manse around this time, 1952 proved to be somewhat unsettled year because of complications involving the assignment of clergy. On 20 July 1953, the St. Mary’s faithful hosted an evening prayer service with Metropolitan Ilarion, after which a reception was held at the National Hall, where the community was also addressed by the head of Consistory, Fr. Ie. Hrycyna.
The period between the mid-1950s to the early 1960s marked a high point in the history of Musidora church, which increased its membership to a peak of 28 families. Reflecting the optimism of the St. Mary’s congregation around this time, in 1959 the artist Wadym Dobrolige was commissioned by the congregation to produce original ikons for an iconostasis and to decorate the interior of the church.
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GPS Co-ordinates: 53.688421, -111.582769
Cemetery Co-ordinates: 53.67943, -111.59861
Affiliation: Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada
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