Patriarchial Parishes in Canada

From Edmonton, two traveling priests serve a number of rural churches in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.

The Russian Church had prior claim to all of North America because of its missionary activity in Alaska and California.

The first Orthodox service in Canada was held in 1897 by the Reverend Dimitri Kamnev and Deacon Vladimir Alexandrov.

They had been dispatched by Bishop Nicholas of the Russian Orthodox Church Mission in San Francisco, USA to the tiny settlement of Wostok near Edmonton.

The original building, sitting on the same site as the present on top of Grierson Hill, was a converted two-story residence.