St. Aidan Orthodox Church - Orthodox Church of America - Canadian Archdiocese  - English Language only - All Welcome!

St. Aidan Orthodox Church is the only Orthodox Church in BC situated in a community with a population of less than 90,000 people. We are situated in Cranbrook (population 20,000) between the Rocky and Purcell Mountain ranges and serve the entire Kootenay region. Our closest Canadian Orthodox neighbors are in Lethbridge 300K away or Calgary 400K from here. We are an English-speaking multi-ethnic parish with the majority of parishioners being converts and as the only Orthodox Church serving this large area we have gathered a small but wonderful Orthodox community of about 50 adult parishioners and 18 children under 12. In 2017 we purchased our 1952 church building from the Ukrainian Catholics as they were no longer active, and we had been leasing their building for 10 years previously as a start up mission parish. The building needed to be completely renovated and expanded to be a suitable Orthodox Church, and so after building a new roof system (thanks to a grant from Columbia Basin Trust) doing the absolute needed repairs, purchasing the house next door, and starting a community garden, we started on our ambitious addition and complete renovation project to install an elevator, stairs and a proper Altar, and make the Church more functional, accessible and beautiful to the glory of God! It has been a wonderful success other than having added considerably to our debt load in this new higher interest reality so your prayers and any financial help are most welcome. May God bless and reward your generosity!