Our History at Holy Redeemer

In the summer of 1965, under the direction of the Archbishop of Saint Boniface, a new parish was set up to serve residents in North Kildonan, East St. Paul and the Bird's Hill area. This new parish, as yet unnamed, celebrated its first Mass with its newly appointed pastor Father Eugene Raimbault on September 5th, 1965 at Springfield Heights Elementary School. By the end of the year the congregation had 150 registered members and was officially named Holy Redeemer Parish on February 13th, 1966.

The Archbishop granted permission to proceed with the building of a church in December 1967. The first service at our present location on Donwood Drive was celebrated on September 29th, 1968. The church was, however, in a precarious position as a year later, on Saturday, September 6th, 1969 at 7:45 p.m., the roof of the church collapsed. Thanks be to God the church was empty at the time and the only casualty was that the congregation had to return to the school for services for nine months while the roof was under repair.

The original building served the community well for many years, however by the 1990's we were desperately in need of a larger facility and plans to build an addition to house a new sanctuary and parish hall, and to convert the existing church into a gathering space, office and classrooms, were well underway. Our new spacious "House of the Church" was opened in September 1995 and is home to our parish family - a loving, supportive and spirit-filled community that reaches out to each other and beyond our four walls through numerous ministries into the community. Our parish community has proven that the spirit of a Church surpasses temporary structures and the span of human lives to create a legacy of faith, hope and charity for future generations.

Holy Redeemer Parish has been blessed with eight dedicated pastors in its 45 year history: Father Eugene Raimbault (1965-72), Father Gideon Trudeau (1972-76), Father Carl Tarnopolski (1976-79), Father Olivier Valcourt (1979-89), Father Raymond Baudry (1989-2004); Father Wenceslao Rebillaco (2004-07); Brother Gerry Craig, Capuchin (2007-08), Brother Thomas Schmied, Capuchin (2008-2010), Fr. Josepth Lourdusamy, Capuchin (2010-2016), Fr. Doss (2016-2020), Fr. Owen Steeves (2020-present).

Approx 300 families are registered members of the parish.