Lac Ste. Anne Parish Lac Ste. Anne AB

Lac Ste. Anne Parish welcomes Christians and those who seek to connect to Christianity in the Lac Ste. Anne area.

We aim to make contact with and encourage others to join us in our life-changing Christian journey.

We are a friendly Christian community where we welcome others to join us in our worship and service to God.

Our vision is to make an impact for God, here in Lac Ste. Anne, Alberta by helping people understand the enriching messages of eternal hope given to us by Jesus Christ through His words and deeds.

Everyone is welcome, no matter your age, beliefs, or background. Come just as you are - we'd love to get to know you better.

 

Download Lac Ste. Anne Parish vCard with Mass Times

Click here to contact the church  

Download Pastor Fr. Leszek Kwiatkowski OMI vCard with bio

Click here to contact Fr. Leszek Kwiatkowski OMI  

 

https://lacsteanne.caedm.ca/  

 

 

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Liturgical Ministries

Schedulers - prepare monthly schedule for Sunday Liturgical Ministers
Co-ordinators – ensure all ministers present on Sundays, recruit people to bring up Offertory gifts, provide special intentions to lector
Lectors - Proclaim 1st and 2nd readings and Intercessions at Offertory time
Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion - distribute the body & blood of Christ
Hospitality Ministers - greet parishioners, hand out missals and other material before Mass and receive back after Mass.
Music Ministers - The Lac Ste Anne Parish enjoys the participation of three choirs, each scheduled to cover the Sunday Masses. As Coordinator of the Music Ministry, Jeannette Symbaluk invites anyone to become a member of the choir to sing or accompany with an instrument.
Altar servers - is a lay assistant to the priest during the religious service. Attends to supporting tasks at the altar.
Ushers – take up collections, direct people to seats when church starts to look crowded.
Sacristans –set up the altar for Mass including large missals, wine, water, linens, clean and polish chalices and other vessels, etc.
Pastoral Care Ministers – take communion to shut-ins and others who can’t travel to church
Lay Leaders – lead services when no priests are available, e.g. lay Sunday Services, Stations of the Cross during lent, and others as required

Support Ministries

Altar, Sanctuary, and Chapel decorators – assist sacristan by decorating altar sanctuary, and chapel for Advent, Christmas, Easter, Summer, Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day, etc., and washing and cleaning of altar cloths and other sacramental linens
Counters – count collection receipts after Mass on Sundays
Groundskeepers – maintain grounds by weeding, planting, pruning, etc. (note: grass-cutting is contracted-out)
Building Maintainers – maintain all aspects of the building including arranging for tradespeople and others assistance who may be required  

 

Lac Ste. Anne was the first permanent Catholic mission in Alberta. It was founded by a diocesan priest Fr. Jean-Baptiste Thibault in 1842. He blessed the lake and renamed it Lac Ste. Anne, which was previously called "Manito Sakahigan" or "Spirit Lake" by the Cree people. Aboriginal people camped on the west end of the lake which became the pilgrimage grounds considered sacred for generations and widely known as a place of healing. It came to be known as "Devil's Lake" by Hudson's Bay Company traders.

The original church was built at Lac Ste. Anne in 1844; Father Albert Lacombe and Father René Remas began the service by Oblate Missionaries in 1852. The Oblates have continuously served the area since then. Father Lacombe also set up a mission in St. Albert, and along with the Sisters of Charity of Montréal, a school to facilitate the growing Catholic population. The Oblates have continued to serve the religious needs of the citizens in Lac Ste Anne and St. Albert ever since.

The Lac Ste Anne Settlement grew until there were over 2000 people in the community. The Hudsons Bay Store, a separate school, orphanage retreat, North West Mounted Police Barracks, dance hall, post office, several stores and hotels moved into the area complementing the Church, Rectory and Convent. At one time the settlement was larger in population and commerce than Fort Edmonton.

In 1859, three Sisters of Charity of Montreal (Grey Nuns) journeyed from Montreal to form a school for the community. While the sisters were at Lac Ste Anne, they learned the Cree language and prepared a 185-page grammar text which was incorporated in Fr. Lacombe's dictionary of the Cree language and published in 1874.

The first annual Pilgrimage to St. Anne was organized by Fr. Lestanc, OMI in July 1889 and 400 people attended. In the early 1900's, the Pilgrimage was attended by about 1000 pilgrims each year and by 1926, over 5000 people attended the gathering. By the 1990's over 40,000 pilgrims attended the week long event. The annual Pilgrimage, now a national historic site, has continued each year, during the week of July 26 (the feast day of St. Anne, mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary) and has become one of the most unique and memorable spiritual gatherings of pilgrims in North America and is especially close to the hearts of our many First Nations people who continue to attend annually.

The church had deteriorated over the years, and Father Joseph Jean-Marie Lestanc persuaded Bishop Grandin at St. Albert to approve a new church building, which was blessed in 1889. In this same year, the first Pilgrimage took place in Lac. Ste Anne. On December 2, 1928, the church was completely destroyed by fire with all the contents, including the Altar, statues, bells and even the crutches and canes left by pilgrims following miraculous cures.

In May of 1930, Father Pierre-Marie LeBre, bought an unused dance hall and moved it to Lac Ste. Anne to replace the church destroyed by fire in 1928. Several farmers laid fence posts and rolled the hall about a mile by pulling it with their tractors. The building was converted into a church, serving the parish community from 1930-2009.

In 2009, after several years of fundraising, some very generous donations, plus with funds realized from the sale of the Catholic Church in the Village of Alberta Beach which was no longer in use, the parish had sufficient monies in hand to allow them to qualify for a mortgage from Archdiocese of Edmonton for the building of a new church on the Mission site.

Approval was received from the Archdiocese in the summer of 2009, construction was started in September 2009, and the first Mass in the new building was celebrated February 28, 2010, by our late Pastor, Fr. Alex Carrier OMI, with his assisting priest Fr. Maurice Joly OMI concelebrating.

The new church was officially blessed by Archbishop Richard Smith on August 7, 2010. One week before the Official Blessing the parish was blessed to receive a large and completely anonymous donation which allowed them to fully pay off their mortgage and move forward debt-free.