Religion

An estimated 75 to 80 percent of Czechs in Canada are Roman Catholic. The remainder are Protestants, primarily Moravian Brethren (Unitas Fratrum), Baptists, and Lutherans. The most well-known Czech Protestant church, the Moravian Brethren, was established in Canada in the late eighteenth century, long before any significant numbers of Czechs arrived. Moravian Brethren missionaries founded “colonies” among native peoples for the purpose of conversion throughout British North America. Missions were established in Labrador during the 1770s and 1780s and at Moraviantown (London, Ontario) in 1798. The early Moravian Brethern missionaries were probably not Czechs, but rather Germanized Czechs or German, Danish, or English disciples of the exiled Moravian Brethren who had fled to Saxony after the defeat of Czech Protestant forces at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620.

Czech immigrants to Canada were rather late in developing church institutions, and when they did, it was often in cooperation with Slovaks. Prior to 1900 most Czechs and Slovaks either attended the churches of their co-religionists from Poland, Germany, and Ukraine, or established small parishes with a non-Slavic priest or pastor from the local area. Roman Catholic parishes without a Czech priest held services in Czech only sporadically, usually when a missionary from the United States or from Europe was visiting. Even when clergy of Czech background became available, English remained the preferred language of devotion. Only in a small number of parishes located in major Czech centres, such as Toronto and Montreal, were there monthly or twice-monthly services in Czech.

The earliest Czech and Slovak Roman Catholic parishes were in the prairies, and the most noteworthy achievement in the area was the construction of St Marie Fatima Czechoslovak Roman Catholic Church in Winnipeg in the 1930s. In Ontario, the earliest Czech and Slovak Roman Catholic parish was established in 1907 in Fort William, Ontario, which had a largely Slovak population. Subsequent Czech and Slovak parishes were established mostly in southern Ontario: in Chatham (mission in 1928, parish in 1948), Hamilton (1932), and Batawa (1939). The Roman Catholic Czechs of Toronto, who had previously worshipped at St Stanislas Polish Church, in 1951 founded a new Czech parish, St Wenceslas. In addition, the Czech Jesuits established a mission in 1960 at the Czech House of Loyola College in Montreal.

The various Czech Protestant churches established congregations at about the same time as the Catholics, but information about them is limited. It is likely that the Moravian Brethren Church, with its long-established missions in Canada, absorbed some Czechs into its congregations, especially in Toronto. The earliest Brethren parish founded by immigrants was the Hus Chapel, established in Glenside, Saskatchewan, at the turn of the century. Other Protestant groups were slower to establish churches. The Bethlehem Chapel of the Czechoslovak Baptist Church did not open its doors in Winnipeg until 1932. The Czech Baptists were particularly active and expanded their congregations extensively in Manitoba under the energetic leadership of František Dojaček, a well-known Czech-born publisher and community leader. Also noteworthy was the Czech Protestant chapel established by Charles Jelinek and George Fabok in Toronto in the 1940s. The Lutherans established missions in Toronto in the 1920s and created their first Czech and Slovak parish in 1942.