St. Seraphim of Sarov Orthodox Church
Orthodox Parish in a Historic 1872 Chapel, Richmond Hill
Since 2000, Russian speaking Orthodox believers in the north of the Greater Toronto Area have had a parish of their own, named for St. Seraphim of Sarov. It belongs to the Orthodox Church in America, serves on the Old Style calendar in Church Slavonic, and has gathered since 2012 in a historic chapel where the first services were held as far back as 1872.
The parish was born at the peak of the wave of Russian speaking immigrants arriving in Canada from Russia, other countries, and Israel. Toronto's older Orthodox churches filled with new worshippers, and it became clear that new parishes were needed, especially in the north of the city where our compatriots were settling. The appeals of the faithful were supported by the clergy and parishioners of Toronto's oldest Russian Orthodox church, Christ the Savior, and the Archdiocese of Canada of the Orthodox Church in America gave its blessing to found a new parish in the North York area, named for the saint known throughout the Christian world, St. Seraphim of Sarov.
Come to us if you would like to:
- Attend the Sunday Divine Liturgy, celebrated on the Old Style calendar in Church Slavonic
- Stay after the service for a shared meal and conversation about spiritual and everyday life
- Bring your children to the Christmas tree celebration
- Celebrate Maslenitsa before Great Lent
- Pray at the services of the first week of Lent and Holy Week
The parish gathers in a historic building that remembers its first services in 1872, so prayer here takes place in an atmosphere of true antiquity.