St. Luke's Parish Maple Ridge BC
St Luke's Parish's history is based in a devotion to Our Blessed Mother Mary and our strong Marian devotions continue to this day under the protection of St. Luke. The 'parish" started out as a mission chapel under the patronage of "Our Lady of Grace". Later it became a "Parish Church" named {for a short while} "Our Lady of the Valley". When the archbishop came to bless the church, the name was changed to "Most Pure Heart of Mary". Finally, the church building, was moved to its present site on Dewdney Trunk Road and the name was again changed, to St. Luke's.
A Brief “History” of St. Luke’s Parish.
St Luke’s Parish Church has a bit of a ‘mobile’ history. It started in Pitt Meadows in the 1920s, as a mission chapel on Dyke #2 “ under patronage of “Our Lady of Grace”. In 1941 the Diocese opened a Japanese Mission on Advent Road in Pitt Meadows. However, shortly afterwards, in 1942, the Japanese were “evacuated” to internment centres. Soon after this, the mission congregation of “Our Lady of Grace” moved into the vacated Japanese Hall.
As the congregation grew, the need for a new church arose. Since most of the 35 families now lived in Port Hammond, Father Finnigan {of St Patrick’s in Haney} obtained permission from Archbishop Duke to move the mission church there. One of the parishioners, who was a foreman at the Hammond Cedar Mill, arranged for the Mill manger to donate a couple of old bunkhouses to the church. With nearly two thousand hours of Volunteer labour by the men of the Parish, and with the ladies providing “sandwiches, tea and sweets”, the new church was finished in time for Mass on St. Patrick’s Day, 1944. The Building committee and Fr. Finnigan, named it “Our Lady of the Valley” church. A short while later, on October 1st, 1944, Archbishop Duke “blessed” the new Church. He said he preferred that it be named “ Most Pure Heart of Mary”, which the building committee quickly acceded to.
In 1947, the parish church caught fire and everything inside was destroyed except the statue of “the Most Pure Heart of Mary”. The rebuilding of the church started right away with financial help from Hammond Forrest Products and the Church Extension Society, along with the money from the fire insurance company. A shed, which had been the wood shed, was renovated and used to celebrate Mass during the rebuilding.
The frame of the new church was raised on August 22nd, 1947 {then, the Feast of the Most Pure Heart of Mary}. The new church was completed and “blessed” by Archbishop Duke on September 11th, 1949.
The Parish continued to grow and spread out . The need for a better location seemed immanent. A new site was located on Dewdney Trunk Road {the current site of St. Luke’s Parish} This land, just over 4 acres, had been owned by a displaced {“evacuated”} Japanese family. It was purchased, by the Parish, from the new owner for $25,725.00. The Church building in Port Hammond was moved to this new site by Nickel Brothers House Movers in March, 1963. On May 21st, 1964, with approval of Archbishop Johnson, Fr. Bohnenburger had the name of the Parish changed from “Most Pure Heart of Mary” to “ Saint Luke’s “
This building served as our Parish Church for many years. In the summer of 1983, Father Henry Bader took over as Parish Priest. He saw the urgent need for a larger church. He organized and dedicated himself enthusiastically to the new church building project. Sadly, Fr. Henry Bader never had the satisfaction of seeing his project brought to fruition. He died of throat cancer on July 6, 1989. Then under the direction of Fr. Donald Neumann, our current Church was built. The “new” church was blessed by Archbishop Carney on December 15th, 1990.