Saint Sava Missionary Parish, Lethbridge

Priest: Archpriest-Staurophorus Obrad Filipović (administrator; protaobrad@gmail.com )

History

This is a small Serbian colony in southern Alberta. The first Serbian settlers appeared in this town between the two world wars. Among the first were Milan Vučenović and Milan Vučurović. Vučurović bought a farm and bred bulls that he sold in Canada and exported to America.

After World War II, new Serbian immigrants arrived and found work in the nearby mines and farms. It is said that in the post-war period, around 1948, over 800 Serbs lived in Lethbridge. But in search of better living conditions, they did not stay in this city for long. They dispersed throughout Canada, and soon, and still today, there were barely twenty Serbian houses left in Lethbridge.

The beginning of church life in Lethbridge is associated with the visit of Bishop Sava, who stayed in this city in 1969, and then in 1970. During this second visit, with his entourage: priest Vladimir Milinković and deacon Nedeljko Grgurević, he served the Holy Liturgy in Provincial Park. At that time, this parish was formed and the first administration of the church and school municipality was elected under the presidency of Ilija Bulatović, while the secretary and treasurer was Jovo Štetić. Serving the parish was entrusted to priest Bogdan Zjalić. With his departure from Calgary, the parish was served for a while by the Russian priest Vsevolod Drachinsky. With the stabilization of church life in Calgary, the missionary parish in Lethbridge again passed under the permanent jurisdiction of the Serbian priest in this city.

Today, about twenty Serbian families live in Lethbridge, mainly engaged in farming and wheat cultivation. Among the Serbs who contributed to the maintenance of church life in this small parish, we would like to mention the Petrovic brothers (Steva, Dragutin and Stojan), Branko Stankovic, Slobodan Stanojevic, Milan Subotic, the Vucurovics (Voltera, Steva and Bilo) as well as the Vukadinovic family. Also prominent in church life were Sretko Dubroja, Ilija Ilić, Boris Koreshenkov, Milan Kostadinovic, Branko Miličević, Dr. Mitson, Mihajlo Papaz, the Markovic family, Dragan Sudar, Dragan Mirkovic and Slađana Čolić. The late Dragoslav Jurisic, a distinguished professor of Slavic studies, also lived in Lethbridge.