As with most Ukrainian Orthodox parishes in Canada, church construction and subsequent maintenance are paid for by a congregation’s parishioners. St. Volodymr’s Ukrainian Orthodox in Sudbury, Ontario was no exception.  The cost of building the new church structure designed by G. Kodak in 1954 was estimated to be $75,000, as reported by “The Sudbury Star” on September 1, 1954.  The church members of this parish achieved their dream of a traditional Ukrainian church by volunteering over 50,000 hours of work over the course of four years of construction, for a final cost of approximately $100,000. (Figures from Church Memorial Dedication Book 1938-1964, p. 38).

Designed in the traditional Eastern Ukrainian style, the church has one large cupola and four smaller domes.  Each of the domes is 13 feet high, weighs 250 pounds and cost $400. The main cross which is seven feet high is made of stainless steel with goldleaf applied, weighs 250 pounds, and, at that time, cost $500. The architect minimized expenses in creating the traditional Baroque design features by avoiding the use of expensive pre-cast forms, creating instead the desired Baroque patterns in the brick by using a cut-out technique.

The Building Committee members were as follows:  C. Yemchuk,  Rev. Father E. Czyziv,  G. Kodak,  O. Dobrowski,  M. Marchenko  and  M. Tyhonchuk. Construction began in 1954 and was completed in 1958 with a formal blessing ceremony by Archbishop Myhail in November.

Today, due to changing demographics, and a drastic decrease in the number of church members, a handful of loyal parishioners struggles to maintain St. Vololdymyr’s physical structure.