A tale of two churches

West Kildonan

Anatoliy Shevchuk could see the need almost right away. It was early 2024, and the licensed pastor for the newly minted Step of Faith Ukrainian Church was busy administering to his quickly growing congregation, 95 per cent of which was comprised of newly arrived refugees escaping the war with Russia.

Step of Faith was using the Christian Life Church located at Jefferson Avenue and Pipeline Road in the Maples, scheduling services in the afternoon. With weekly attendance reaching close to 150 parishioners, there was no other option but to look for another, larger space to accommodate the group. Shevchuk, who volunteers his time with the church and is heavily involved in helping his fellow Ukrainians get settled in their new home, began to cast his net around for a new building in West and North Kildonan.

Enter the historic Kildonan Community Church, located just north of the Chief Peguis Trail and celebrating its 175th anniversary this fall, and Kevin Pauls, leader of community ministry for Kildonan. Shevchuk came calling in the fall of 2024 and Pauls proposed sharing of the building to Kildonan leadership. It was met with an enthusiastic endorsement and fit with the church’s desire to help other Christian communities looking to get established in Winnipeg.

This past summer, the two church groups partnered on youth-oriented summer camp offerings, where Pauls met Bohdan Prokopovych, a current Grade 11 student at West Kildonan Collegiate. Prokopovych’s family had escaped to Poland a step ahead of the Russian invasion in the later part of 2022, and the family of six eventually landed in Canada and Winnipeg, looking for a safe and welcoming place to start their lives again. Prokopovych’s family is from Pidvolochys’k, a smaller town of approximately 25,000 located in the western part of Ukraine.

Pauls could see right away that the 16-year-old Prokopovych was keen on becoming part of the community and he was soon hired to work the summer months in the Kildonan cemetery, doing odd jobs and helping maintain the final resting place for many of the first settlers to come to Manitoba.

Prokopovych regularly attends both services at Kildonan now, in the morning with the traditional congregation, and in the afternoon with the Ukrainian group, a service done entirely in his native language. He is an active part of the team welcoming newcomers to Step of Faith, making sure everyone has what they need to feel safe and secure during the service. He also feels very comfortable with the members of the Kildonan congregation, many of whom have taken an active interest in his well-being and his future. Prokopovych would eventually like to go to university and then become a police officer or part of the military. In the meantime, he will continue to serve as a bridge between the two congregations and a sign of how vital community connection is in these uncertain times.