St George's Church (Ottawa)

St George's is the parish for the English speaking Catholics in Westboro/West Wellington Village, within the city and archdiocese of Ottawa.

The parish of St George was founded in 1923, its territory carved out of St Mary's Parish. It has become the home of Ottawa's growing Eritrean Catholic Community.

George Prudhomme was appointed the first pastor, and the name of new parish was in honour of his own patron saint. Newspaper accounts say Msgr. Prudhomme was a builder and a very sociable and popular pastor. A graduate of the University of Ottawa, where he was a star athlete, Msgr. Prudhomme came to St. George's from Our Lady of the Visitation Church in Gloucester. He later served as pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish (1933–39) and St. Patrick’s (Basilica) Parish downtown (1939–51).

For the first months, starting on 30 September 1923, masses for the new parish community were celebrated at the Sisters of the Visitation Convent. The parish rented the convent chapel for a year until a new church was built. A special relationship was created between the parish and the nuns at the convent, who contributed handmade items to the parish for bazaars and fund-raisers. A few nuns remained at the Visitation Convent when the order recently sold the property. The convent remains as a heritage building.

One of the earliest parish groups was the Catholic Women's League, which set up a Council in 1923 and was a dominant force in the parish for the remainder of the 20th century.

Cooks' Tours were one of the social highlights of the year with parishioners visiting different houses where food from various countries was prepared and served, e.g. Irish stew, pea soup, and ice cream - Ireland, France and Canada. Judging from the menu and the number of countries represented, no one returned home hungry. With the houses located on the tour only a short distance from one another, the parishioners could easily walk the route and get some exercise between courses.

In 1929, the Catholic Women's League held a weeklong fall fair or tombola at the Hibernian Hall, next to the firehouse on Parkdale Ave. The parish netted over $5,000 for the event, a huge sum of money at the time. Later, the fair was held at the corner of Island Park Dr. and Richmond Rd., on the property of the Champlain Garage, with many attractions, including merry-go-round and Ferris wheel rides. The CWL also organized its members into groups to canvass for the Stations of the Cross, the Tabernacle and other needs of the new church.

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