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The Church of the Virgin Mary & St. Athanasius
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
SAINT MARY’S COPTIC ORTHODOX CHURCH
KITCHENER, ONTARIO, CANADA
Father Athanasius was no stranger to St. Mary’s church in Kitchener. In the late 1970s, he accompanied Father Mittias El Souriany (His Grace Bishop Reweis before his ordination as a bishop) occasionally to celebrate the Holy Liturgy for the families in Kitchener. In 1980, he was serving at that church as a deacon and secretary of the Board of Deacons, under the late Father Ibrahim Attia of blessed memory.
In December 1980, three month before his ordination, Father Athanasius and the late Rifaat Zakhary, the Treasurer, concluded a deal for a small church in the neighbouring city of Cambridge at a price of $82,000. They also negotiated a Bank loan at prime rate. The church was prepared and was ready for use by Christmas Eve 1981. It was to this church that he now returned as a priest on September 5, 1989. The congregation was small, about 36 families from various cities. Families came from Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph, London, and Brantford. The income was hardly enough to cover the expenses and the attendance was poor because people had to travel from various cities to Cambridge.
By the end of 1990, the number of the families had more than doubled, and the donations had tripled. An ambitious program of church renovation was completed during 1990. A new Sunday School room and an office for the priest were built and equipped. A small room behind the Sanctuary was renovated into a confession room, a closet for the Liturgical vestments was also built in that room. The outdated electrical wiring was replaced. The ceiling, the flooring, doors and windows were replaced. The church was completely painted and new furniture purchased to replace the old. The congregation continued to grow, and it soon became apparent that a church with a capacity for 80 occupants cannot accommodate a congregation of 80 families.
In 1992, search for a new church started. This continued until 1994, when a large church in the city of Kitchener (where most of the congregation lived) was available. It was purchased for $585,000 on June 10, 1994. The first Liturgy was celebrated on June 12, 1994.
THE FIRST RENOVATION PROJECT:
The church building had problems. It was oriented to the West, had no sanctuary or centre aisle, and on the whole looked quite Protestant! Plans for a major renovation were started. The work commenced in the spring of 1996 and was concluded by the end of that summer. The church was reoriented to face East. A sanctuary, a niche and a second altar were added. The whole church was repainted and carpeted. The walls were covered with wood panelling. An iconostasis, complete with icons was built.
A new air conditioning system was installed, and imported chandeliers were hung from the 55 foot high ceiling. The pews had to be practically redone in order to allow for a centre aisle. The bathrooms were completely renovated and the boiler was replaced by a new one.
Left: May 15, 1996: His Grace Bishop Reweis inaugurates the renovation project for the new church in Kitchener. The shovel His Grace used was the same one he had used 12 years earlier, on May 15, 1984 at the ground breaking ceremony for the hurch of Virgin Mary and St. Athanasius in Mississauga.
Right: The church after the renovation was completed.
Left: November 28, 1996: His Holiness Pope Shenouda consecrates the corner stone for the newly renovated church in Kitchener. The corner stone was done using a computerized sandblasting technique in order to imprint His Holiness picture on the granite.
Right: His Holiness consecrates the new altar dedicated to Saint Athanasius that same day.
Left: His Holiness grilling Father Athanasius about the translation of the consecration service that he had prepared. In the end, His Holiness was pleased and asked for a few copies to use in future consecrations.
Centre: His Holiness consecrating the icon of Saint Athanasius.
Right:His Holiness delivering the sermon.
THE SECOND RENOVATION:
Soon after it became apparent that, with the continued growth of the congregation, the hall and the Sunday School classrooms were becoming too crowded. Accordingly, an addition was considered. The extension would increase the size of the hall and add four more Sunday School classes to the existing eight. The project was started in August 2001and was completed in May 2002. Together with the addition, the whole church was upgraded for wheel chair accessibility. This included a new wheelchair entrance, a lift, and a washroom for the disabled. The total cost of the renovation was $600,000.
THE PROPERTIES NEXT DOOR:
Barely six month after the second renovation was complete, our neighbour to the north approached us with a proposal to sell his house to the church. The property was acquired on December 9, 2002. Nine months later, the neighbour to the south of the church made us the same offer. The deal was signed on October 5, 2003, the feast day of Saint Maurice according to the Coptic Calendar. The land is large enough for the eventual construction of a chapel named after Saint Maurice.
THE CHURCH RETREAT:
On September 3, 2005, the church acquired a 90-acre parcel of very scenic land with tree-covered hills and ravines. There are several existing buildings on the property, including a gymnasium, a dining hall adjoining a large kitchen, a large swimming pool with a “wash house” containing change rooms, showers and toilette facilities for men and women, a small office, and a “nurse station.” There are also 12 cabins arranged in three clusters of four cabins each. Each cabin has 12 bunk beds. There is a basketball court on the property and a winding gravel road that leads from the main road which is paved. The property is within the city limits of Cambridge, which is located within an hour’s drive of most of the Coptic churches of Southwestern Ontario. Over the next two years, we expect to spend over a million dollars to upgrade the facility and make it available to all of our sister churches in the region.
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The Church of Saint Paul the Anchorite
London, Ontario Canada