St. Dymytro Parish – Hilliard

St. Demetro Parish in Hilliard was formed by early Ukrainian settlers who built a strong faith community in the rural Beaver Lake area. The parish began with meetings in parishioners’ homes in the early 1900s; the first chapel was built in 1903, and a new church was constructed in 1926 and blessed by Bishop Nykyta Budka. Over the years, the parish became a spiritual centre for local families, with a church hall, cemetery, and many faithful parishioners supporting parish life.

The parish was originally associated with the name St. Nicholas for legal reasons, but the community returned to its original identity as St. John the Baptist. Sadly, the church building was destroyed by fire in 2007, but the history of the parish remains an important part of the Ukrainian Catholic story in the Hilliard area.