Exaltation of the Holy Cross Parish in Surrey, British Columbia (within the greater Vancouver area) met with Bishop Michael this week to discuss their plans for a vibrant future beyond this Jubilee Year.
Holy Cross Parish has been one of the longer standing and active parishes of the Eparchy of New Westminster. Ukrainian Catholics began settling in the area of the City of Surrey after the Second World War. Records suggest that the first Divine Liturgy was celebrated in Surrey back in 1955 by a Father Markian Bilyk at a local Roman Catholic Church. (Our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters have graciously hosted us so often in times of need from pre-eparchial times.). Fr. Markian was born near Rohatyn, Ukraine, but came to be ordained in Canada and serve the Ukrainian faithful across Canada. It is likely that he travelled from Edmonton on mission tours into British Columbia, during which he would have met with the Ukrainian settlers in the Surrey area and offered them the greatest gift – a Eucharistic Liturgy. Upon completing his life of ministry, he eventually died in Vernon, BC in 1969.
It was in the summer of 1967 that an enterprising woman, Vivian Ostrowercha called a meeting of several families and spoke to them about a meeting that she had with the Bishop of Edmonton, Most Rev. Neil Savaryn about starting a parish in the area. They agreed to the Bishop’s guidance and in the autumn of that same year, a Ukrainian Catholic parish was established in Surrey. Within a few weeks, a schedule of regular Divine Liturgies had been arranged and the first “AGM’ was held and a Parish Council was elected with a Mr. Nick Ostrowercha as the president.
A former Anglican church was purchased in 1970 while the energetic Fr. Bohdan Hanushevsky was serving from New Westminster. As they say, the rest is history. The parish began to thrive with organizations, catechism, youth groups, parish bazars and lotteries and dinners and fundraisers. The church and office building mortgage was paid off by 1988 as the Ukrainian nation celebrate a thousand years of the Christian Faith lifting up their people to this day.
Several priests have served the parish over the years – including Frs. Kratko, Kuzma, Sabara, Chornenkyi, Werbowy and Sakvuk. The present parish priest is Father Mykhailo Postoliuk who was appointed in January of this year.
Holy Cross Parish recently held elections for their Parish Pastoral Council. The executive of that parish council held a meeting with Eparchial Bishop Michael Kwiatkowski to have a frank discussion about our Parish in Surrey and the direction to take for a bright and thriving future.
Several meetings have been held with the Surrey community over the last two years on various levels – either Parish Pastoral Council or the entire parish community. The challenges that the parish now faces is partly due to losing the old church building and residence a couple of years back, the parish again finds itself in a similar situation as in their pioneer years. They have a strong and willing community, but are again holding their services at a local Roman Catholic church and their parish priest is living offsite. Their hope, of course is to once again have their own place of worship, but also a place where they can meet and where catechism classes and other programs can be revived on a more regular basis. With the blessing of the former Bishop, the parish did invest in a large building where they hoped their parish priest could live and where they would have a small place for worship and for parish activity. This was realized for a time and in part, but not to the extent that the parish truly needed. Thus, the meeting.
The meeting this week was one of frank talk and of sharing of hopes and anxieties and crosschecking that with reality. After all of that, the plan was, of course, more than ever, to move forward. The immediate goals can be summed up into two:
1. The Parish Priest, Fr. Mykhailo, together with Parish Council executive will formulate their goals and plan for at least the coming year, AND 2. they will move expeditiously to transform the property that they now own into a source of support for the active parish life that they want for this coming year. This is exciting! This will provide a clear pastoral plan for the immediate future as well as the basic support needed to realize that plan.
COME JOIN THIS RENEWING PARISH!
All those who live in the Surrey area are invited to join this transforming parish community and become involved in their exciting future! You will be most welcome!
Come attend their regular Sunday services on Sunday at 2:00 PM presently held at Precious Blood Parish Church at 17475 59 Ave in Surrey. Meet Fr. Mykhailo and the other parishioners and learn how there is a place for you in this community!
To contact Fr. Mykhailo Postoliuk call him at +1 (204) 892-2180 or email him at pastor@crossparish.ca
Mailing address (parish centre): 17665 66A Ave Unit 208, Surrey, BC V3S 2A7
The old parish website: https://crossparish.ca/
