Ukrainian Orthodox Church of St Michaels
Churches in Winnipeg

The seed of the Orthodox Faith was sowed on the Canadian land, but by simple peasants, not by missionaries, who came from Ukraine and established themselves on the Canadian prairies. The Bukovynians arriving in North America usually incorporated themselves into the Russian Orthodox Mission, which was already in existence. The Halychany, but the Vatican wished to attached them to the Roman-Catholic Church already in existence, where visited once in awhile by Greek-Catholic priests, settling in Canada, which would have assimilated them. It is indeed on this simple, but at the same time deep, faith of the Ukrainian peasants-pioneers that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada was established.Most of the first Ukrainian settlers came to Canada from Halychyna (where they were Greek Catholics) and from Bukovyna (where they belonged to the Orthodox Church). Nevertheless, the Ukrainian immigrants desired to have a Church with a Ukrainian character, which would be closer to the spiritual and cultural needs of the Ukrainian people, and this led to the formation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada.