Growth

Churches began to spring up in the midst of the rural settlements across the prairies. Holy Trinity at Stary Wostok was built in 1897-1898; Holy Transfiguration in Star nearby was built in 1896, but it was not clear whether it was Uniate or Orthodox until litigation in 1902 ending at the Privy Council in London clearly determined it was Orthodox. Regular visits, usually in the summer months, were made by clergy from Seattle in these very early years.

In September, 1897, Father Mikhailo Malyarevsky visited the communities in neighbouring Manitoba and Assiniboia, where there were whole block settlements of Bukovinians, who were Orthodox; after that they began to be visited about twice a year. These early visits provided the people with confession, Holy Communion, baptism, marriage and the blessing of graves.

Getting to the parishes was always an adventure. In 1899, Father Kamnev reported a harrowing experience in the Blackmud Creek area during his travels to the Alberta colony of Rabbit Hill:

Nine miles south of Edmonton (Strathcona) a terrible catastrophe occurred: our train while crossing a bridge across the Blackmud River, derailed into the water! Fortunately for the passengers, numbering about 60, the bridge was not very high, only 20-25 feet and the river (more a slough) was very shallow, only about 4 feet deep. The train had 12 wagons, and ours was the very last one, and just ahead was the car with immigrant-Galicians, and they got the worst of it: three of them broke ribs or legs, two of them had head injuries, several women and children suffered. The conductor and train workers suffered a good deal. No one was fatally injured, although the cars and bridge were reduced to absolute splinters! We, thank God, got away with only some serious bruises and a lot of fright, like the rest in our wagon, which by a real miracle, did not fall off the bridge, but just hovered over the edge. In the middle of the night we returned to Edmonton. For the next two days we felt quite unwell, and spent the whole time in Edmonton, visiting the Immigration sheds, where the ones who had suffered the accident were lying. It seems that two of the Ruthenians who had broken ribs might be crippled from the accident, and the railway company has paid each of them $150. Vestnik, 15/27 August 1899

Soon after there were other parishes being formed and churches being built: the Dormition of the Holy Theotokos (Assumption) Church at Shandro, Alberta, St. Demetrius Church, Gardenton, Manitoba and St. Elias Church, Pakan. In the fall of 1900 the first permanent priest was sent to Alberta, Father Jacob Korchinsky. He arrived in the Edmonton area in November, 1900, travelling to Rabbit Hill and staying at the home of Ivan Borys.

By 1900, five churches were either in the process of being built or were finished: in Manitoba, St. Nicholas Church, Sandy Lake and Holy Resurrection Church at Sifton, Manitoba; Church of the Archangel Michael at Sochava, St. Nicholas Church, Wostok-Bukovina. At Rhein, North-West Territories, Holy Ascension cemetery was formed. In these years, the priests visited many farms throughout Alberta and near Stuartburn, Emerson, Winnipeg, Yorkton, Ounz River, Tetlock, Crooked Lake and Buchanan. Early reports make reference to the large settlements of Bukovinians who were staunchly Orthodox and wanting churches, so that parishes began to spring up every few miles among them.