St. Theresa’s celebrated their 50th Anniversary mass with a visit from Archbishop Smith, with a pastoral visit on September 28-29, for the Anniversary itself on Tuesday, October 1st.
The Catholic faith community of Southeast Edmonton has been a growing and vibrant community since the early 1970’s. Our mission has not changed since those early days: to actively live the Gospel through discovering the Spirit alive within our parishioners. St. Theresa parish continues to be a place where diversity is valued and everyone is welcomed.
Before St. Theresa Church was built, the Catholic Community of Millwoods celebrated Mass among 4 local schools with the first on February 12 1974, by Father Duncan MacDonnell, our then interim pastor.
The new Church of St. Theresa was solemnly blessed on the feast of St. Therese de Lisieux on October 1, 1981, with a seating capacity of 1500.
In the early years, we built community with many social activities such as parish picnics, dances, pie socials, and a bowling league. We grew in our spirituality with Lenten retreats, an annual Way of the Cross throughout Millwoods, and an Ash Wednesday fasting supper of soup and crackers.
In 2001, the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux visited Canada, and St. Theresa parish organized the visit to the Archdiocese. Over 35,000 pilgrims visited the relics in our Church, which stayed open for 48 consecutive hours. Hundreds of volunteers hosted this special visit of the “Little Flower” saint.
In 2015 St. Theresa Parish responded to the request from Pope Francis that each parish look at sponsoring a refugee family. It was an easy “Yes!” since we had already sponsored families from Vietnam and Romania. The parish sponsored four families from Syria and then a few years later a family from Eritrea. It was important to the committee that each family felt like they belonged in our parish community.
Project Jamaica started in the late 1990 by a group of Knights of Columbus from Council 7070. To-date there have been nine Mission trips to central Jamaica. Funds are raised to build a house for a family and to donate to other organizations such as clinics, schools and senior’s homes. To date this project has built 10 homes.
The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul is a Catholic lay organization that looks after the poor, neglected and the marginalized. St. Theresa’s Conference was aggregated in 2005. This Conference is very active providing furniture, household items and food. On average, they provide five food hampers a week.
St. Theresa parish has had a very active youth group, hosting summer camps for children ages 7 and up. Our youth group has also introduced outreach activities to spread joy of our faith. They began singing Christmas carols in the local mall, and music in the park. Retreats are held throughout the year.
Simbang Gabi was introduced to the parish in 1990. This Christmas Novena goes back 4 centuries; it was originally a “Night Mass” We adapted it to an evening Mass, starting December 15 and ending December 23, with inspirational speakers and uplifting choirs. After Mass parishioners get together sharing food.
St. Theresa Parish has a special richness in its numbers and diversity. People from many countries now call St. Theresa their home together. Many are proud to wear their traditional attire to Mass and to our celebrations.
We have a strong community enriched by many opportunities for social interactions such as our pancake breakfasts, parish picnics, Pentecost festivals, and rummage sales.
Read Archbishop Smith’s Homily: Pastoral Visit to St. Theresa Parish