With estimates of nearly 100,000 people with Serbian roots in Ontario, our Church plays a vital role in gathering Canadians of Serbian heritage. In 1983, the congregation had bought the building and the property on Dixie Road. The struggle to acquire that property was successfully fought from the end of the 1982, until June of 1983. A small group of very enthusiastic people toiled so that the Serb
ian community won the bidding, money was collected, loan approved, purchase completed, and that construction work starts on the property. The existing hall building on the property was adapted for the Divine Liturgies on the lower level, and for the celebrations and meetings on the upper level. Between 1984 and 1985, the building was renovated and the lower level was adapted to serve as a temporary chapel. At the end of May 1989, a new iconostasis was consecrated in the chapel. In 1986, renowned architect of Belgrade, Predrag Ristic, architect of many Serbian churches in Serbia, started the new project – new church building. He based plans on well-known Serbian middle age monasteries. In the end, the project was not executed, as Ristic did not have Canadian license to architect buildings. His plans were put through several variations, and in the end, the plans were given to architect of Toronto, Milutin Kopsa. Keeping the original vision of the plan, he modified it, and gave it his own spirit and idea. Today, the church building is an architectural jewel of Mississauga, and at the same time, modern and functional place for Orthodox Divine Liturgies. The cornerstone of the building was consecrated by Patriarch Pavle, on June 1994, when he was visiting Canada. The foundation were consecrated on November 26th, 1995. Due to the civil war in the Balkans, construction of the building was stopped, as Serbians were preoccupied with the relief efforts in the motherland. In 1999, construction was continued, supervised by the president Zoran Ćurčić, and parish priests: Mihajlo Doder and Prvoslav Purić, and made possible by many donors. On September 12th, 1999, when the congregation was celebrating the patron saints of the church, $200,000 was collected. Construction work continued, and there was a hope that consecration would take place in September of 2001. Even though, everybody was making extra effort to make that happen, circumstances brought the construction to the end in the spring of 2002. This beautiful church building is architected in Byzantine style, which is traditional for Orthodox churches. The building has three balconies for choirs, and hand made iconostasis, with icons made in one of the best icon painting places in Belgrade. Our congregation is enriched by the active participation of St. Sava Oplenac folklore group, and the Ladies Auxiliary. Dejan Obradović, Zlatibor Đurašević and Milojko Dimitrić.
