Having received a good amount of money, the Bukovinians proceeded to buy a piece
   of land on Somerset and Arthur Street and built a new church there in 1965. At that time,
   three families decided to quit the parish, considering themselves loyal to ROCOR's bishop
   Vitaly. They started holding services in the basement of a private house. Eventually, in
   1968, having collected $3000, they bought a house on 10 Arthur Street to conduct services
   there. A priest came regularly from Montreal to conduct services for the 6-7 families.
   Unfortunately, there were regular disputes between these seven families, and by the end
   of 1969, Bishop Vitaly decided to close this scandal-prone community.

          On February 1, 1970, I was designated priest-in-charge for this community at 10  
   Arthur St., where there was a small chapel, and on the second floor, an apartment for     
   the priest and his family. Due to the lack of funds, the community felt a permanent priest 
   was not necessary and that a visiting priest once a month was considered preferable. My
   answer was this: I was sent here by the Bishop to try and test, to see what the future would
   hold. At the end of May 1970, we bought an old Protestant church at 267 Richmond Road,
   which I undertook, with my father, to transform into an Orthodox church. The first thing
   was to redo the floor which had a steep slope in order to accommodate benches for
   protestant services, then to build an elevation for the sanctuary and the ambon, and to put
   up the iconostasis. I ordered icons from Germany and glued them on boards. All of this
   required substantial financing. My father and myself bought boards and nails from
   second-hand stores.

         On October 1 (Gregorian calendar), on the feast of the Protection of the Holy Virgin,
   we asked Bishop Vitaly to solemnly consecrate our church, which he reluctantly agreed to
   do.

         At the end of December of the same year, we bought a parish home with three
   apartments: one for the rector and his family, the other two being rented for parish needs.
   Then in 1982, I started looking for a piece of land to build a true Russian church and a
   house for our parishioners.

         In 1985, I eventually bought a convenient piece of land and started to lobby for a
   building permit. Many steps needed to be taken, for as the Adversary tried hard to block
   everything. Some of our parishioners were unhappy with our plans. With the support of
   Bishop Vitaly, they created a division in our parish and organized a new parish in Kanata.

        However, we persevered and completed construction and in August 1988, we
   consecrated our church, assuming however a heavy financial burden. We received
   nothing from ROCOR, except additional problems.

        In 1999, the parish council, reflecting the views of the vast majority of our parishioners,
   expressed its desire to be reunited with the Mother Church, the Moscow Patriarchate. On
   September 26 of the same year, at a general meeting, 83 present out of the 100 or so
   members unanimously voted in favor of this resolution. The following day, a ROCOR Vicar
   Bishop took us to court. After a series of court trials, we had, together with our school, to
   vacate for the time being our church property.

       This is the third year that we have been fighting back at this unjust banishment from
   our own church. But Our Lord sees and knows everything about our current situation, and
   we believe that, with the intercession of Our Lady and the Mother of our God, the Virgin
   Mary, this situation will soon be resolved, in view of our appeal, which was heard in court
   on August 14, 2002 in Toronto.

Let God arise and His enemies be dispersed!

The Rector of the Protection of the Holy Virgin Parish in Ottawa, the Very Reverend
                                                                                                               Dimitri  Sever