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“Oftentimes if you go to these settlement communities you’ll find that a church was constructed within a couple of years of the pioneers arriving. That really speaks to how dedicated these people were to their religion,” Demchinsky said.
“They were nailing shingles on the roof of their church while their own houses still had thatched roofs.”
Like many immigrants to Canada, Demchinsky’s great-grandparents arrived in the late 1800s and settled in the prairies, where he grew up and where hundreds of Ukrainian churches still dot the landscape.
So for Demchinsky, the project is also very personal, connected to both his family’s history and his own faith.
“I did feel that God was calling me to take on this particular project and I kind of thought, well, why me? And then I thought, well, if not me, then who? Who else is going to do it?”
Demchinksy, who remains connected to two Ukrainian churches in Ottawa, says it was an obvious way to make use of his talents.
“I don’t have a calling to be a priest or anything like that, but this is something that I can do to contribute.”
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