Parish History

St. Augustine Parish began as a mission of Holy Family Parish, which has since become the Cathedral of the Holy Family.

In June, 1975, Bishop James Mahoney presided at a meeting in Holy Family Parish to discuss the St. Augustine area of East College Park. It was decided to build a chapel attached to the new school and this would become the centre of a future parish. At that time the chapel cost $28,000. Mass was first celebrated there on October 5, 1975. One year later on October 3, the official opening and blessing took place.  During this time, pastors from Holy Family Parish would come and preside at our liturgies. The following summer, 1977, Fr. Des Leeper was named pastor of the area. 

A house was bought to serve as Fr. Leeper’s rectory (14 Laurentian Drive) at a cost of $47,000. The first parish council was formed in March 1978 with Jerry Meckelborg as chairman. Later that year in August, Fr. Bob Chisholm, a member of the Basilian Community, was named pastor.

In November, 1979, discussions began of building a church. At that time it was estimated that we had 400 families, with approximately 180 of those families being regular supporters. Some of the people on the Building Committee were:  Brian Noonan, Ron Brons, Brian Hicke, Ivan Kowalski, Alan Hoffman, Bob Wollbaum, Jerry Kristian, Wilf Hiebert, John Daunt, Al Haubrich, Maurice Tremblay, Randy Warick, Lorne Keller (many of these people are still active parishioners here at St. Augustine) and Sr. Juliana who was principal of St. Augustine School.  Early in 1980 Bishop Mahoney approved a plan to build a church on to the school. Approval from the Diocese is granted on the condition that half of the funds needed would be in the bank before construction begins. The estimated cost of the church was $320,000.00. So began a round of fundraising — dances, raffle tickets and a walk-a-thon, followed by the canvassing of parishioners. The original plan was to build the church alongside the school gym, but with doors that could be opened up to utilize the gym area as part of the church.  However, the School Board decided to build a larger gym at the west end of the school. It was decided at that time to build the church (a self-contained facility) at the same time as the new school gymnasium to save construction costs. The Chapel was sold to the school for $25,000. If you are in the music room sometime, the raised portion is actually the area, where the sanctuary used to be. The passageway between the church and music room used to be the confessional.

The sod turning ceremony took place on June 21, 1981 with Miners Construction completing construction by May, 1982. The opening ceremony for the new church was held on June 20, 1982 with Bishop James Mahoney presiding. In June, 1986 having paid off the mortgage on the church, we had a mortgage burning ceremony, at Fr. Bob Chisholm’s farewell.

March, 1983 — A parish branch of the Catholic Women’s League was set up.

April, 1991 — Knights of Columbus Council #10587 was formed. 

Needing a larger meeting room and office space the rectory at 14 Laurentian Drive was sold and the rectory at 53 Malcolm Place was bought in 1994.

As the years passed, we have had different pastors. After Fr. Bob, Fr. George Sylvester came in 1986 – 1992.  Then Fr. Edwin Kline came and was here for nine years, other than an eight month sabbatical that he took in 1995, when Fr Jay Walsh filled in. Due to the shortage of priests, the Basilian Fathers decided to no longer staff St. Augustine Parish as of July 1st, 2001.  After much re-structuring in the Diocese at that time, we welcomed Fr. Michel Bedard, a diocesan priest, as our pastor. Since then, several other diocesan priests have served as pastor: Fr. Don Hamel, Fr. Kevin McGee (also Vicar General of the diocese), and as of December, 2021, Fr. Darryl Millette (also Chancellor of the diocese).

With the different pastors, we had to adapt to new personalities and what makes each pastor unique. We’ve also adapted to their pets, including Fr. Don’s birds, and the dogs which have accompanied Fr. Kevin and Fr. Darryl.

It’s always interesting to dig through the boxes of old records and archives.  We can learn much from the past, as we look forward to the future. Let’s keep each other in prayer!

(Sections of the above journey through our history are from Toni Ducklow’s contribution to the 2007 parish photo album.)