Our new church is complete!!!

The first service in our facility was held on Sunday, November 24, 2019! Since that opening service, we have been working on a few things like making improvements and fixing flaws, and learning how to maintain the building.

St. Sophia's Window Icons

Here is a short description and explanation of the window icons in our church.

The upper windows of our church are composed of three groups of icons. The first group consists of the twelve rectangular windows, which are made from icons describing the twelve major feasts of the Ukrainian Catholic church. The copies of the twelve feast icons were given to us from the Eparchy.

These icons have been placed in feast date order, starting with the first icon in the northwest window and going clockwise around the church, with the last feast icon being in the southwest window. This is described in the image below.

Our liturgical year starts in September, so the first icon [1] is the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos on September 8. The remaining feasts are listed below, along with links to the Eparchy's website, where you can learn more about each icon and its symbolism. For icons with no link, go to https://www.oca.org/saints/lives for more information.

The Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary – September 8 Link: Icon of the Nativity of the Theotokos
The Universal Exaltation of the Honourable and Life-giving Cross – September 14 Link: Exaltation of the Precious and Lifegiving Cross
The Entrance into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos (The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple) – November 21 Entrance into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos
The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Christmas) – December 25 Link: The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ
The Theophany of Our Lord Jesus Christ (The Baptism of Our Lord) – January 6 Link: The Theophany of Our Lord Jesus Christ
The Encounter of Our Lord in the Temple – February 2 Link: The Encounter of Our Lord in the Temple
The Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos – March 25 Link: The Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos
The Entrance of the Lord into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday) – changes related to Easter cycle. Link: Palm Sunday
The Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ – changes related to Easter cycle. Link: The Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ
The Descent of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost) – changes related to Easter cycle Link: Pentecost
The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ – August 6 Link: The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ
The Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos – August 15 Link: The Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos

The next grouping is the middle two windows on each side. These four windows are the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We have put them in order as they are in the bible, starting with the windows on the left side and going right. To help recognize each Evangelist, their symbol representing them has been placed above each of their icons.

St Matthew – angel - November 16
St. Mark – winged Lion – April 25
St Luke – winged Ox – October 18
St. John – Eagle – May 8

The last four windows are the following:

Protection of the Theotokos (Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God) – October 1
Link: Protection of the Theotokos
Synaxis of the Holy Archangels – November 8
Resurrection (Descent into Hades) - Easter
Link: Resurrection
Saints Peter and Paul (Paul and Peter) – June 29

Winter and night views

Here is a YouTube video of the raising of the dome on Wednesday, May 8, 2019,

https://youtu.be/C8Wlo-8yddk

The dome installation, from 8 March 2019

Here is a construction update from 7 February 2019:

The dome has been delivered and the building is expected to be completely enclosed sometime in early March 2019. In spite of cold weather, the building has been progressing, with occupancy expected in July 2019!

Here is a photo of the piles being poured for the new building:

And here is a link to a July article from Catholic Alberta describing the inaugural ground-turning for the new church:

St. Sophia’s Ukrainian Parish One Step Closer to Having a Home

St Sophia's Parish

Sherwood Park, Alberta

Our new church is complete!!!