PHOTO | JOHN WETHERILL
September 14, 2015
SPECIAL TO THE WCR

LUMNI - With no Mass in St. Theresa's Church here since 2009, parishioners have decided to sell the 86-year-old church.

That decision made, a final Mass was celebrated by Father Adam Daniluk Aug. 23 with more than 200 people filling the church.

Former parishioners of St. Theresa's now belong to St. Anne of the Prairies Parish in Trochu.

St. Theresa's Parish grew out of Masses celebrated in area homes until Lumni School was built in 1914.

The church, surrounded by maple trees and caragana bushes, was constructed in 1929 by Catholic settlers who included Slovak immigrants. In the 1940s, that foliage was replaced by tall spruce trees.

The school burned down in 1939, but its bell was saved and placed in the church steeple.

Mass was said weekly at St. Theresa's until 1995 when liturgies were cut back to every second Sunday. After being amalgamated with the Trochu parish in 1999, Mass was celebrated three or four times a year.

The last Mass prior to Aug. 23 was the funeral of Joseph Nakaska in 2009.