Father Mykhailo, a Ukranian Catholic priest from New Westminster, BC, is leading Holy Eucharist Cathedral on mission – evangelizing their community through every avenue possible.
Jacqueline Marie | July 17, 2025
Setting foot in the Holy Eucharist Cathedral in New Westminster, Canada, is a visually arresting experience. An artist-in-residence has filled every wall, ceiling, and corner of this Ukrainian Catholic Church with newly painted sacred art.
Perched above, in the glassed-in choir loft, a recently created non-profit daycare is buzzing with neighbourhood children.
All of this is part of the parish’s focus on evangelization. From art to Alpha, childcare to catechism classes, Holy Eucharist Cathedral is set on renewing the parish through reaching out to people in every way possible with the message of the gospel.
Father Mykhailo Ozorovych has had a fire for evangelization since childhood. He sees his calling to Canada as distinctly missional. An Eastern Rite priest, Father Mykhailo never thought he would end up in North America, let alone be the youngest parish priest of a cathedral. He says, “I came here to evangelize, to be a missionary.”
After doing his first three years of seminary in Ukraine, in 2012 he was invited by the Bishop of the eparchy of New Westminster to come to Canada. He finished seminary in Ottawa and was ordained a priest. Married and with his first-born son in tow, he arrived at Holy Eucharist Cathedral in New Westminster in 2018 as the parish priest – and only member of the staff.
The parish had just $7,000 in the bank and was kept alive financially through perogy dinner fundraisers. And while he technically began at the Cathedral as a “pastoral intern,” there was no one there to intern under.
“I came here to evangelize, to be a missionary.”
A few years earlier, as a seminarian, he attended the New Evangelization Summit in Ottawa and heard about Divine Renovation. “Father James [Mallon] was a presenter that year…I was very excited at what I heard.” He felt, “that’s why I came to Canada. The whole reason why I came to Canada was on missionary work.”
Divine Renovation’s movement from maintenance to mission resonated with him deeply. But back in 2017, DR was not a donor-funded ministry yet – the cost was prohibitive, and his heart sank: “I looked it up, and back then you paid for this program… I was like, you know, how can any parish afford that?”
He laughs when he says, “knowing what I know now I would be willing to spend the $10,000” for coaching but “looking back then, never.” He says, “80% of our people are temporarily placed Ukrainians or you know, people who can’t even tithe.”
Once in New Westminster, he met Father Justin Huang who pastors a church in nearby Vancouver. Father Justin was an early adopter with DR and was already in accompaniment and on the renewal journey with his parish.
Father Mykhailo says, when “I started as a priest here, I was sharing something with him [Father Justin] and he said, ‘I’ll get you $10,000 for your parish team formation because parish teams are the best things since sliced bread.’”
You know from $7,000, to dreaming about a $30 million development project...that's kind of the visual expression of everything that invisibly has been happening. All the transformation, renovation and for me now we're in construction, not just simply renovation but construction."
Father Mykhailo was shocked at Father Justin’s interest and support for his parish.
“We were doing fundraisers every month for everything… If perogy dinners didn’t happen, the parish would be bankrupt.” Father Justin helped them secure funding for team formation from the Parish Enhancement Fund from the Archdiocese of Vancouver. Father Mykhailo says, “for me, I was just puzzled, the guy believes so much that he would be spending that kind of money.”
Father Mykhailo did group coaching and is now in 1:1 accompaniment with a DR coach. He created a Senior Leadership Team and together they created a vision for the parish, a roadmap for evangelization, and have run multiple Alphas.
Alina, one of his parish leaders and Alpha Coordinator, shares:
“One girl came to the church because she saw the Facebook event offering help to Ukrainians with documents (mobile office). It was a snowy day, and nobody could come to the workplace or church… The priest [Father Mykhailo] said, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you with documents, but… you can come on Saturday evening to Alpha and have a hot dinner.”
And this girl came. She didn’t say anything at the table and hid in her hoodie, but evening after evening, the Holy Spirit worked on her, and she became more open and smiled.
In the end, she asked the priest to be the host of the table for the next session. She came to the church without the goal of coming to Jesus, but she chose the right path.”
The fruit is evident with adult baptisms every year for the last five years – something that was previously unheard of. The parish now also has 150 children coming to the Ukrainian and catechetical school on Saturdays.
Last year, Father Mykhailo, now also the Vicar General, got his eparchy onboard and all the priests joined a coaching cohort with DR (now completely donor-funded). He is multiplying parish renewal far beyond his parish walls. This past year he preached at two clergy retreats, one in the UK for Ukrainian Catholic priests and one in Alberta for all Ukrainian Catholic in the eparchy of Edmonton. He shares, “the whole topic was Divine Renovation.”
Just like Father Justin had done for him, Father Mykhailo is now showing other priests that parish renewal is possible.
Today, he has a growing staff. In an act of faith and creativity they hired an artist in residence as a full-time staff member whose beautification in the church is part of drawing others to faith through art.
They have sent multiple leaders to get training in everything from non-profit administration to catechism and have big dreams for the future including a project that could house all their parish needs and outreaches.
“You know from $7,000, to dreaming about a $30 million development project…that’s kind of the visual expression of everything that invisibly has been happening. All the transformation, renovation and for me now we’re in construction, not just simply renovation but construction.”
