St Volodymyr’s Church

The memorial church of St. Volodymyr in Canberra is the newest Ukrainian Church in Australia and was built in 1988 to mark the Millennium of Christianity in Ukraine.

Prior to the Church’s opening, Ukrainian Catholic parishioners attended services conducted by the local parish priest in a chapel within a house, which also served as the presbytery. The house had been purchased through local parishioner donation in 1972. Shortly afterwards, the Church Brotherhood was established with Ivan Pojdynec as the first president.

In 1973, Patriarch Cardinal Joseph Slipyj visited Australia to attend the Eucharistic Congress in Melbourne. He also visited Ukrainian Catholic parishes throughout Australia. During his visit to the Canberra-Queanbeyan parish, Cardinal Slipyj decided that the capital city of Australia should have a Ukrainian Catholic Church and centre to represent the Ukrainian people. He immediately established a church building fund with a substantial personal contribution.

The Bishop of Australia and New Zealand, Ivan Prasko appointed Father Ivan Shewciw of the Sydney parish as project manager. Local parishioners successfully applied to the ACT Government for a grant of a suitable parcel of land for the new centre and over the following years, Ukrainians from all parishes in Australia and New Zealand donated to the building fund. An Australian building company was subsequently engaged to commence construction.

A blessing ceremony was held on the land on 14th June 1982 and on 25th December of the same year, the foundation stone was laid. Just on a year later, on 16th December 1983, over one thousand people attended a special blessing of the new church of St. Volodymyr.

Following the blessing of the church in 1983, almost ten years elapsed before it was consecrated. It was as if through God’s Will that the important Church was consecrated by the Confessor of the Faith, Bishop Pawlo Wasylyk. This was significant since both Bishop Pawlo and Patriarch Cardinal Joseph Slipyj, the founder of St. Volodymyr’s, had together endured imprisonment and persecution by the occupying Soviets in the gulags of Siberia. The consecration of the church occurred on Sunday, 28th July 1991 and this date, which is also the feast day of St. Volodymyr, has become an important day in the Church’s calendar.