Archives collection celebrates Manitoba’s Ukrainian church history
Building History: The archives of the Manitoba Eastern European Heritage Society launches February 27
Join the University of Manitoba Archives and the Manitoba Eastern European Heritage Society (MEEHS) to celebrate the launch of a unique collection documenting the architectural and cultural history of Ukrainian churches around Manitoba. At the event, Drs. Roman Yereniuk and Stella Hryniuk, MEEHS founders and collection donors, will speak to the 40-year history of this collection from development to donation.
Building History: The archives of the Manitoba Eastern European Heritage Society
Thursday, February 27, 2025 2:30 pm
University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections
3rd Floor Elizabeth Dafoe Library
Documenting Manitoba’s disappearing Ukrainian church history
Due to a concern over the increasing loss of Manitoba’s Ukrainian Byzantine-rite churches, University of Manitoba professors Drs. Stella Hryniuk (Department of History), Roman Yereniuk (Department of Religion and Theology, St. Andrew’s College), and Basil Rotoff (Department of City Planning, Faculty of Architecture) came together to form MEEHS in 1983. The focus of their research was documenting the architecture, art, and history of these buildings.
In 2008, MEEHS donated their collection to the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections. The fonds consist of material relating to their work and research about the history of Eastern European communities in Manitoba. Out of the 240 churches they identified as still standing in 1983, they have compiled research material on 150 churches. Since the collection was donated to the Archives, almost 5000 slides have been digitized and placed in UM Digital Collections.
Collection donation allows for new research opportunities
Dr. Yereniuk notes “for researchers, the collection offers an opportunity to write studies and compare parallel works in other provinces, especially Saskatchewan and Alberta, on topics such as icons, iconographers, liturgical practices, feast days, architects (both grassroot and professional), and aspects of the religious life of Ukrainians in Canada.”
Dr. Hryniuk highlights that descendants of Ukrainian immigrants in Manitoba could benefit from learning about the churches in areas where their families lived. She states there is a possibility for academic research “on village society in Manitoba; especially in the earliest settlements of Ukrainians in Manitoba (1891-1945).”
