Fonds ARCAE-37 - St. Joseph and Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish (Spruce Grove and Stony Plain) Fonds

St. Joseph’s Church was first established in 1898 to serve the community of Spruce Grove. From 1898 to 1922 priests serving the Stony Plain Reserve provided service in Spruce Groves. In 1925 the parish was established to continue serving the pre-dominantly French-Canadian parishioners. In 1962 the church burnt down and as a consequence St. Joseph’s became a mission served by Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Stony Plain. For 20 years the parish was without its own building and mass was celebrated in various locations including a school gymnasium and St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church. From the insurance money a new church site was purchased. In Aug. 1980 Msgr E. Donahoe conducted a sod-turning ceremony for the new church and a year later on Aug.30 1981 Archbishop J.N. MacNeil blessed the new church which served over 700 families.
In 1927 under the care of Rev. Charles Keena the first church serving the community of Stony Plain was established. Archbishop H.J. O’Leary blessed the church on July 28th, 1929 and dedicated it to St. Philip. In 1945 the church received a donation of $2000.00 from Arthur J. Labo to build a new chapel and upon completion the church was renamed Our Lady of Perpetual Help in his honour. By 1963 the church was again in need of renovations where were completed a year later in 1964.
From 1962 until the merging of the two parishes St. Joseph and OLPH shared a priest. In 1990 the two parishes established a committee with a mandate to undertake a feasibility study regarding one common facility for the two parishes due to the following reasons, a chronic shortage of priests, the overworking of the priests serving rural parishes, overcrowding at masses, and the need for a new church building for the parishioners of OLPH.
In June 1999 Archbishop McNeil announced that the parishes of St. Joseph’s and OLPH whould amalgamate. To better facilitate the amalgamation it was mandated that the two existing church be sold and a new church be constructed. In 2000 the parishes celebrated a turning-the-sod ceremony and after two years of construction the new building was complete. On February 1, 2001 the parishes of OLPH and St. Joseph were suppressed and Holy Trinity Parish was established in their place.
Sources: Information taken from the parish files for St. Josephs and Our Lady of Perpetual Help kept at the Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton Archives.