As any regular readers here will know, no one gets a free pass, least of all churches. 😉
However, there was an article in the Windsor Star last week, that really got me fired up. It sickens me the way groups and businesses turn their back on their roots and on the core of the City that has housed them for the last eight decades.
But in a City where sprawl, big box houses and big box retail are looked at in a positive light, it only seems fitting that sprawl churches are the way to go…
After 80 years, Olga and Vladimir parish to move
Rita Poliakov, The Windsor Star
Published: Tuesday, October 28, 2008In 1925, the community of Sts. Vladimir and Olga Ukrainian Catholic Church was first blessed. In 1926, the basement of the church was built. And now, in 2008, the congregation will say goodbye to more than 80 years of history and move into a new church.
“Our present church is (around) 80 years old,” said Glenn Kehoe, chairman of the building committee. “The facility is quite old, the repairs are extensive…. Rather than do a retrofit on the building, we figured it was time to move.”
The church is one of only two Ukrainian churches in Windsor. It currently stands near Langlois Avenue and Shepherd Street East.The old church has been sold and will be torn down and the site redeveloped for housing.(A correction ran a few days later:CHURCH NOT SOLD
A story on page A2 Wednesday should have said that the Sts. Vladimir and Olga Ukrainian Catholic Church was not yet sold.)
The congregation’s new church, which will be in Southwood Lakes at Howard Avenue and Lake Trail Drive and will cost around $5 million, has been planned for the past five years. Construction started last week and the building is expected to be completed by next Christmas.
“We’ve owned the land for 40 years, just the need wasn’t there,” Kehoe said. “We bought it for future consideration, now our future is here. Now it’s time to build a new church. The majority of people live out in (the new) area. It’s convenient.”
Kehoe, whose wife is Ukrainian, has been coming to the church for about 32 years.
“I was married in the church,” he said, surveying the yellow cranes that have taken over the construction area. “It’s very exciting. When you look around, a lot of churches are closing. This is very encouraging.”
Leisha Nazarewich, the chair of church council, has been a member of the church since the 1950s.
“As soon as my parents moved to Windsor (from Ukraine), we were immediately attending the church. I had my first communion in the church, I saw my cousin get married in the church, I remember the dinners and banquets … the St. Nicholas pageants that took place, those kinds of things.”
Nazarewich hopes that the new building will lead to an expansion of the church’s current programs.
“I’m very excited about it, I’m looking forward to it. I hope that we will be able to build the new community and expand programs. I’d like to see a Ukrainian school, Ukrainian child programs expanded and built up there.”
While some members of the church are hesitant to move, Nazarewich has high hopes.
“I know the others will become excited about it as soon as it’s completed. It’s new. Newness brings with it its own invigoration. It’s a beautiful site. It will provide space for our people, it’s going to be friendly to the older generation and the newer generation,” she said.
There are about 300 families in the congregation. Rev. Eugene Halitsky, a pastor at the church, agrees, but acknowledges that some may find it hard to let go.
“There is an attachment to that. Many can say, ‘We got married there.’ But they know we will have to have a vision (and) look ahead. To fix the building will require (around) $500,000. This building will not be able to serve us. The building has served its purpose for 80 years.”
In an attempt to preserve history and save money, the congregation will be bringing the icons and pews from the old church to the new one.
© The Windsor Star 2008
The Church started out by building the basement of the first in 1926, and holding services there until the funds could be raised to build the church above. Those funds were raised and the Church above was built in 1937.
Now, Langlois and Shepherd doesn’t cut it, so it’s off to Southwood Lakes.
As one of only a few domed Orthodox Churches in the city, it would be a big loss to the architectural makeup of the City if this church met the wrecking ball.
This is what we’ve become. Old is crap. New is better. Throw it away.
If anyone reading this is a member of the church, and would like to give me a tour and show me what repairs need to be done to the building that can’t be fixed with $5 million, please leave a comment or send me an email.
I’d be happy to see where a new $5 million building is a better choice than repairing your history…
so….where is hungarian fest gonna happen? in southwood lakes?!?!?!?!?!? give me a fricken break! that’s my old hood they don’t think is good enough anymore! i really can’t understand the move. that’s a super dense area for population, and has been since that church first set up shop. where did the congregation go? are they not coming anymore because THEY live in southwood lakes? NO they keep coming to the church they love, why move?
you read the one guy say that when they moved to the country that’s the first place they went. well, when 10, probly poor hungarian immigrant families move to windsor next year, they are more then likely going to move right into this neighbourhood, because it’s cheap, they’re lots of housing and OHHHHH….no church for them. unless they want to take kids in tow, jump on the ottawa 4 downtown, transfer to the dougall 6 and stay on that thing for another 45 minutes and hopefully, they are perfectly clear on the english reading thing, or they miss the stop.
“It’s very exciting. When you look around, a lot of churches are closing. This is very encouraging.†…….and moving to the burbs!!!!!!!!!!!! you could move this building to the new site for 5 mill.
now i’m angry andrew, and i don’t even go to church lol
I remember that seeing that ad myself and didn’t quite understand it. They are gonna build a new church for $5mil when they can fix the old one for 10% of that amount.
Where’s the continuity with past? There’s continuity with an old religon and old symbols, yet the building itself isn’t an old symbol of that religion. Where’s the continuity with tradition by going to the old one?
And, why shut it down? The article states that some may find it hard to move. Fine. If that’s the case, set up a second congregation in that building for those who find it hard to move so they can choose between two congregations and those want to move can go to the new one. If they can raise $5mil, it shouldn’t be that hard to raise another $500,000 for repairs and whatever’s needed to have another congregation here. Maybe they can even ask for some kind of heritage grant from the province since it says on it that it’s a catholic church.
The way history is so readily discarded in this city makes no sense to me. Shame on them for not wanting to keep the old one open.
that’s a good point david. why can’t there ever seem to be two churches?
maybe it’s only easy for them to raise 5 million so long as it’s placed in richie-rich’s back yard as their own personal church. i DO understand that churches need to grow as it’s membership increases. but personally, i would have spent some of that money on expanding the church we see here a bit, and purchase the empty lot from which andrew took picture #1 and made it a parking lot. then maybe build another church of similar size out in southwood lakes for members out thata-way.
That is what I don’t understand. There are so many amenities in these neighbourhoods and yet people want to move far away from them only to complain they have to drive to get what they want. Whether it is church services, shopping, a cohesive neighbourhood where kids can play on the street…so what do most people do instead? They bitch and complain until those amenities follow them only to leave the people who call these neighbourhoods home with nothing.
Pure unadulterated greed is what I call it. Me, me, me and screw the rest! But these are the same people who complain about spending $5 million on a church or $8,000 to upgrade their house or complain about their high property taxes or poor traffic or even better complain because of all the road work being done.
Folks, it is YOU who are the cause of everything I just listed. No one else but your sickening greed! Thanks for turning your backs on your own people, neighbourhood, greater community and city.
I for one appreciate the high taxes that I pay so that you can fill your disgusting SUV to drive your pompous kids to every sporting event you signed them up for so that you can drive on endless amounts of newly paved or ever expanding roads. I also thank you for turning the remainder of MY neighbourhood into a poverty stricken hole that may never come out of this tail spin. But hey! At least you got yours right?
Talked to a parishioner last night and she said that there were errors in the article. The building has not been sold yet, and so far it has not been put up for sale. They do want to eventually sell it to someone or a group who will use it as a church or hoping for adaptive reuse. They may also keep the building. The parish bought the land in South Windsor in the 1960 and sold a large parcel of it to a residential developer raise more funds. The remaining acres will be used for the new church and for future senior’s residence. They hope the move will encourage younger membership.
This beautiful, old church will likely remain empty, and will eventually meet with the wrecking ball. Look at what is happening with Christ the King Church. It’s a shame so many want to see the history of our city disappear.
Rich, thanks for the update. However I think it is really naive of the parish to think that building a new church will bring in new younger membership. It hasn’t worked all that well for any other denomination so I can’t see it working for this one either. Good intentions but we know where that road leads….
Such vile rhetoric from some contributors. Windsor was always kind of a rough town….Having witnessed great swaths of my own history fall to the wrecking ball my suggestion is – get over it! Populations shift. Demographics change. Buildings outlive their usefulness or become uneconomical to maintain. You wanna pay the heating bill for this 80 yr. old structure? Is it even morally justifiable, given the need to reduce carbon emissions,to expend the energy? Embrace the future and work towards efficient, aesthetically pleasing and socially responsible designs on a human scale instead of disrespecting this congregation which has obviously moved on and is no longer part of this neighborhood. Or come up with some creative ideas on preservation and re-adaptive use.
i just don’t see why they have to go build there, and abandon here. i do like Rich’s response though and it makes me feel alot better. i had a creative idea in my second post. my first post will stand true for new comers to this city as well ( in which i said hungarians, oops), when they have no local place of warship anymore. i doubt they’ll be coming from the ukraine with enough money to buy a home anywhere even remotly close to southwood lakes. how can a congregation as a whole…move on, out of a neighbourhood? why can’t there be more then one or two church’s?????? why should THIS community be left without one, when you could keep this one for the families that live HERE, and build a new, modestly sized one in southwood lakes for the people who have moved out there?? i just don’t get it.
i certainly hope they hold out for a buyer with a real purpose for this building. if there is ONE thing in this city that should be preserved, it’s our church’s. weather you go too’em or not, they are the single most important reason, the glue that held the communities together though the good times, and the horrors of the 20th century.i’m sure the building itself, built with the hard earned dollars of the congragation of 1926, who held mass in what’s really nothing more then a foundation for 11 years (during the depression, i might add) until they raised enough to build the actual church, was expected to be in use for alot longer then this when they built it. but nope…..so long church, and thanks for the memories. it’s more “conveinent” for our members who can afford the cars that enable them to travel, then for those who can’t. those who can’t will suffice with their body as a temple.
holy ramble Aaron, and W-I-E….i hope i didn’t come across as yelling at you, i appologize if i did. i just don’t like this mass abandonment of windsors core in general, and there are different ways to do things….especially with $5 mill in your pocket. and i lived one block up, had many a freind who attended this church, and it just kinda strikes a personal nerve.
Windsorite-in-exile, that doesn’t mean having to stay the course we are currently on nor does it mean I should “live with it” either. That is the reason we have lost so much history in this city. The time to stop the destruction is now! The time to change the course we have been on for 3+ decades is now!
As for the huge heating bills, I didn’t hear that it was an issue wit this church. Besides for about $6,000 they can blow in cellulose and reduce their heating bills by as much as 35% and get a tax credit to boot!
I stand by me previous posts which is what got here in the first place.
Hmmm….$5 million to build a new church or $500,000 to fix the old one? From a purely economic standpoint the answer seems obvious to me. This just seems like more of the “new is good, old is crap” mentality. Everyone’s going to be driving there anyway, so what does the location matter? Admittedly I don’t know much about the local demographics, but is the Ukrainian community growing? This doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense.
Nobody could be more sympathetic about the architectural horrors being perpetrated on this city. Personally, I’m heartbroken over the loss of this church, and I was raised Orthodox. However, I seem to be the only Ukrainian to respond to this blog, so I’ll tell it like it is. ALL Ukrainian churches are dying. The old ways and old attitudes have turned the community into a giant monster that devours its own tail. They’re moving because the old generation is dying off, many of whom have never let go of Old World politics and have repulsed their kids and grandchildren right out of church life and the culture. If the church wants to have any existence at all down the road it HAS to interest those who can keep it alive, not those who gave it life and then slowly killed it. Why can’t they stay on Langlois? Because they did what immigrants of that generation did best – they raised their kids to be prosperous and to move the hell out of Dodge. The relocation creates a new centre that will be easier for those from the surrounding areas to also attend, since Ukrainian churches are kind of hard to find from here to London. That means inclusion of county folk. We’re kind of insidious that way – living in cities and towns and farms and not just the Ukrainian ghetto. In a way, a new physical building creates a new psychological site of renewal as well – an opportunity to leave the stupidity of their parents’ and grandparents’ generations behind and to reclaim their church and their culture for a new millennium. Trust me, wait till you see what happens to St. Vlad’s on Tecumseh. My dad used to say it would be sold to store potatoes, that’s how stupid the future looks for it. Personally, I think Katzman will buy it and turn it into Windsor’s biggest live sex show.
Is there an update on the fate of this church building? I have heard that preparations are being made to remove the pews. Will the building meet the same fate as St Anthony of Padua? Basically why is thecongregation moving? Is there any residual dissention/backlash despite what Ukrainska states? Has the Ukranian community abandonned the city and have the ‘new generation’ broken away with the history and traditions of their parents and grandparents? Will a new structure revitalize their ‘faith’ if parents and grandparents refuse to attend the new site?
I heard a rumour that the new church opens today.