The founding members of our church were Ukrainian-American immigrants. They had been attending St. Michaels Byzantine Catholic Church, which I would describe as an Orthodox Church that's under the Pope, AKA a Uniate Church. Around 1917 and 1918, the Roman Catholic bishops attempted to force Roman Catholic beliefs upon the churches that were in their control. Also at that time, forces in Ukraine were fighting to gain independance from Rome. The Pope authorized the killing of Greek Catholic and Uniate Christians fighting in the battle for their independance from Rome. That included our parish founders' fellow Ukrainians. In protest, much of the congregation stopped giving money to the Catholic church. That's when the congregation that formed our parish began a movement to separate from the Catholic church and continue to practice the religion of their forefathers, Orthodox Christianity. The Catholic priest was removed from St. Michaels by the Administrator of the church in 1919 because the parishoners refused to turn the property over to the bishop. The parishoners tried to have another priest assigned to them, but the Catholic diocese would not give them one. So they went and got their own. Early in 1920, They contacted Fr. Gregory Kabasa and he agreed to serve the parish. When the administrator found out, he sent them a Catholic priest. The dispute between the parish and the new priest was taken to court. Judge Reiber ruled that the church property belonged to the parish, but that they must accept a Catholic priest. After a lot of discussion, the majority of the parish decided it would be best to leave the Greek Catholic church and rejoin the Greek Orthodox church.

Back then, it was called a Greek Orthodox church because the Ukrainians got their Orthodox Christianity from the Greeks in the year 988. In 1920, the parish purchased some property and started building the Ukrainian hall. The first pastor was Fr. Gregory Klemovich. Tears filled the eyes of the parishoners as the Divine Liturgy and other services were served in their own language instead of in Slovanic. With that, the parish grew. In 1921, a large room at the hall was decorated and properly prepared for church services. It was then, finally, that the congregation elected a committee to work toward the construction of the new church building. Many of the parishoners couldn't support the church enough finacially, so they offered their labor to help build the church. Men and women of the parish worked hard toward it's construction; hauling bricks, stones and concrete, and also digging out the basement and mixing the cement. The construction took longer than expected, but the Church building was finished just before the end of 1922. The church was dedicated and the first Divine Liturgy was served early in 1923, by Reverend Gregory Klemovich. Later in 1923, the belfry and 3 bells were added, and also the parish rectory was built. All these great accomplishments in the name of God showed the great devotion of our founding parishioners. Many people in the surrounding community were amazed by their great progress, and their love, faith, and devotion.