I achieved another milestone in my writing career last week with the arrival of twenty-one cartons of my latest book on my doorstep. The book, titled “The Ukrainian Church by the Northern Sea”, is my translation of the history of the northernmost parishes of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in northern Ontario and Quebec written by the indomitable Monsignor Lev Chayka, who served these parishes as parish priest for some seventy years.
He was assigned to this northern hinterland in 1952, freshly ordained as a priest, after having completed his theological studies at the University of Montreal. Back then, there were no Ukrainian churches in the north, but there were a lot of newly arrived Ukrainians that had immigrated there from the DP camps in Europe after the war, having secured steady if dangerous employment in the booming mining industry.
Each of the many mining towns in the area such as Val D’Or, Malartic, Amos, Rouyn-Noranda, Kirkland Lake, VIrginiatown, Timmins and others, boasted of growing new populations of hundreds of Ukrainians.
Prior to the arrival of then Fr. Chayka, these Ukrainians only saw a Ukrainian priest sporadically when they visited occasionally from their bases in Montreal or Toronto. Services were held in recently constructed Ukrainian community halls or in existing French Catholic churches.
Subsequent to his arrival, Fr. Chayka embarked on a whirlwind organizational effort, persuading the local Ukrainian community to form parishes and build their own churches. By 1955 the first church together with a parish hall had been erected in Fr. Chayka home base in Val D’Or, Quebec. This was followed by a similar effort in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, where a new church was completed in 1960. By 1971 a new church was also completed in Kirkland Lake, replacing a small chapel that had served the Ukrainian community there for several decades.
As well as churches, Fr. Chayka initiated the construction of several priest’s residences and a scouting camp on a lake near Val D’Or. He also organized Ukrainian schools, sporting leagues for the youth, a local PLAST branch and secular Men’s, Ladies and Youth organizations in all his parishes. For almost five decades, Fr. Chayka also broadcast a weekly radio program on many of the local radio stations to keep the Ukrainian community informed on current events within the community and world at large. He was a unique individual and one blessed with prodigious energy and exceptional leadership and organizational skills.
I first became acquainted with Fr. Chayka as a young boy growing up in Rouyn-Noranda when I was impressed to serve as one of his altar boys, which I did for several years until my family pulled up stakes and moved to southern Ontario when I was twelve years old. As an adult, I kept in touch with him on an irregular basis, and he made the effort to keep in touch with his many parishioners even after most of them had left for more comfortable climes and more lucrative as well as safer job opportunities in the south.
Over the last several decades of his life, Fr. Chayka began writing a history of his life and times in these northern parishes, and he approached me several years ago with the request that I translate his Ukrainian manuscript into English for the benefit of posterity. I agreed to do so and have been working on and off on this task for the past several years. I finally completed the translation and subsequent editing several months ago and had the book printed. Regrettably, the now Msgr. Chayka passed away in March of 2022 at the age of 99 before the book was published. Nonetheless, the executors of his estate encouraged me to follow through with getting the book published and provided the financial wherewithal to have this done.
So, I now have 20 cartons of books sitting in my garage, which over the next few months will be distributed to all the Ukrainian Catholic parishes throughout Canada, as well as Ukrainian libraries, institutions and universities with Ukrainian studies programs as per the terms of his last will. The books are also available for sale to the general public for the nominal sum of $20, with all proceeds after expenses going to support charitable efforts in war-torn Ukraine.
Anyone interested in purchasing a book should contact me at [email protected] or send me a request by mail (with a cheque enclosed) to 230 Lorindale Dr., Oshawa, ON L1H 6X4. Although I must admit that the book itself may not be a literary classic, nonetheless it is an important historical account of the life of several notable Ukrainian communities in Canada during the latter part of the last century.
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