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 Introduction
The early years of building,
unification and growth would serve an additional good
purpose: providing a strong and positive foundation
for hard times to come. There were many storms on
the horizon. Difficult things had to be weathered
in Canada, at the same time as Archbishop TIKHON (soon
to be Patriarch) and the church abroad in Russia,
were also passing through a time of heavy ordeal.
International events, such as 1914-1918 War and the
Russian Revolution greatly affected the Orthodox communities,
and these were followed by the Great Flu epidemic.
In the midst of all of this, the rise of nationalism
and its effects on religious adherence brought a wave
of turmoil that affected families as well as communities.
Patriarch Tikhon held firm through to the end of his
days and likewise, the Church in Canada weathered
its difficult days. As the 1920s were drawing to a
close, the Diocese in Canada found itself once more
under the care of an able spiritual leader, the former
Archimandrite Arseny, now returned as Bishop ARSENY.
He brought peace and perspective wherever he went,
and where there was suffering, there was comfort in
knowing that he, bearing an even greater brunt, was
standing firm and trusting fully in the triumph of
the Church against all adversity. New challenges lay
ahead for the Orthodox in the 1930s, set against the
larger dilemma of a widening economic depression.
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1914-1918 War
The Great War took men
to the front, in all about 2,000 Slavic Canadians. Father
John Osvanitsky, the first Orthodox Chaplain, served as
a chaplain for these volunteers. WWI, twenty Greeks from
Montreal joined; three were killed and seven wounded.
The War also brought Canada’s
first national internment operations directed against previous
citizens of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, largely Ruthenians
(Galicians). Between 1914 and 1920, five thousand Ukrainian
Canadians were interred in twenty-six ‘camps’
and work sites across the country. Approximately 88,000
others had to register as ‘enemy aliens’ with
regular reporting to the authorities. In 1917 the passage
of the War Time Elections Act disenfranchised all of the
‘enemy aliens’ who had been naturalized since
1902, affecting an estimated 143,000 Ukrainian-Canadians.
The Great Flu
The Spanish Influenza that
followed on the heels of the Great War attacked communities
across Canada. The Orthodox districts were also ravaged
by its onslaught. Healthy neighbours helped sick ones, and
even children were sent to care for others, young Evdokia
Fuhr of Nisku remembered how, as a child, she had helped
to prepare the body of a departed person for burial. The
flu was a test of faith and stamina, with many opportunities
for good works. It was a time of answered prayer, too: Paraska
and Yurko Danyliuk of the Canora area were ridden with the
flu, unable to care for their household and stock, when
just at that time, Yurko Oleksiuk, who had been searching
across the country for his sister, Paraska, appeared on
their doorstep—healthy and strong.
In all, an estimated 50,000
persons in Canada fell to the flu.
The Russian Revolution,
Nationalism and Religious Dissension
The downfall of the Tsar
and the establishment of a provisional government in Russia
in 1917 resulted in much change for the Orthodox church
throughout America. An All-Russian Church Council was convoked,
and the Archbishop EVDOKIM (Meschersky) returned to Russia
for it, leaving the Vicar Bishop ALEXANDER (Nemolovsky)
who had overseen Canada prior, in charge of the whole church.
Archbishop Evdokim’s temporary absence became lengthy,
and Canada was placed under the care of Archimandrite Adam
Philipovsky, which he continued until 1926. Metropolitan
PLATON was appointed in 1923. The Revolution presented new
hardship for the Diocese as financial assistance and the
supply of priests were cut off.
When Archimandrite Arseny
was appointed Bishop of Winnipeg and Canada in 1926, he
returned to a church in difficult straits: parishes in need
of revitalization; the diocese had changed considerably
in a matter of a few years. A major factor was the establishment
of the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada, established
in 1918. Various parishes throughout the country had opted
to join the new nationalist body, and there was extreme
dislocation and at times, considerable hostility at the
local level. From 64 parishes and 47 clergy in 1918, the
Russo-Orthodox mission had fallen to 34 priests by 1934.
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