Uncertain Origins in Canada
It is known by documents that the first official Orthodox Divine Liturgy was served in June of 1897 in a field belonging to Theodore Nemirsky at Wostok, Alberta. It is also known that at this Liturgy, approximately six hundred Greek Catholics and others were united to the Orthodox Faith. It was served by the Seattle-based missionary Father Dimitri Kamnev (assisted by Vladimir Alexandrov, then a reader).
A summary of these uncertain beginnings may be found in an article written by the Priest Matthew Francis, found at the following internet address:
http://orthodoxhistory.org/2010/06/03/the%E2%80%91mysterious%E2%80%91roots%E2%80%91of%E2%80%91orthodoxy%E2%80%91in%E2%80%91canada/
Father Matthew writes about at least one possible occasion when a Divine Liturgy may have been served on the west coast in the 16th century. Another possible indication he provides is Lennoxville, Québec. Somehow, there may have been a service provided for Syrian settlers in the Eastern Townships (there were Syrians and Lebanese settling also in the Maritimes):
“In 1879, Bishop’s College in Lennoxville, Québec received a gift of a rare and valuable book, an 1862 edition of the 4th century Codex Sinaiticus. The letter accompanying the donation reads as follows:
November 11, 1879. To the Principal of Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, from the Russian Minister to the U.S. on behalf of the Emperor of Russia. Concerning the donation of the Codex Sinaiticus at the request of Mr. James Simpson.
The story, as it is often relayed in Orthodox circles, is that this donation on behalf of Tsar Alexander II was in some way in thanks to the College for allowing Orthodox services to be held in their chapel. Bishop’s College, an Anglican school then primarily concerned with the formation of clergy, has a reputation for such hospitality. [...]”
Several persons, parishioners of the Archdiocese of Canada, have had occasion to see this inscription at a time when this book was displayed. It has sometimes mistakenly been understood to be a Gospel Book rather than the Codex Sinaiticus.
There were other attempts to address the needs of immigrating people in Canada through visits by clergy to the Winnipeg, Manitoba area around about 1898. These clergy travelled north from Minneapolis, Minnesota for this purpose. However, these visits are known less by documentation than by a reliable local oral tradition.
Father Matthew Francis is careful to point out that the OCA Archivist, Alexis Liberovsky, has written that just now, documentable evidence about the activities in early days is limited. Much more careful research must be done to be able to find anything more (if indeed anything tangible does remain to be found). It is exasperating to researchers that so many things have been thrown away by children of pioneers, who did not comprehend the great worth of many documents and photographs which their ancestors had kept. Father Matthew is also careful to note that the work of other missionaries, such as Fathers Michael Andreades, Jacob Korchinsky, and Igumen (later, Bishop) Arseny (Chahovstov) is important, significant, formative and foundational. We do know that as people arrived in Canada to settle in this new world, there was a serious attempt made by the local Orthodox Church to encounter them where they settled, and to help them to begin to worship more and more regularly on the foundation of the serving of the Divine Liturgy.
Our Saviour, Jesus Christ spoke a series of parables, a selection from which follows here, from Matthew 13:1-33; 36-43. These words not only describe how we each live our life in Christ, but they also describe something of the history of the Orthodox Church as she has been planted and grown, first in Alaska, then in the USA and Canada, then in Mexico and Central America.
On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: ‘Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!’
And the disciples came and said to Him, ‘Why do You speak to them in parables?’ He answered and said to them, ‘Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: “Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them”. But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
‘Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty’.
Another parable He put forth to them, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, “Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?” He said to them, “An enemy has done this”. The servants said to him, “Do you want us then to go and gather them up?” But he said, “No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn’”’.
Another parable He put forth to them, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches’.
Another parable He spoke to them: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened’. [...]
Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field’. He answered and said to them: ‘He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world; the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!’