About: Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples

The Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples is a Roman Catholic church in Edmonton, Alberta. Opened as the Sacred Heart Church in 1913 to serve the city's rapidly growing population, Sacred Heart has been a historic "nursery" for many of Edmonton's immigrant Catholic parishes. In 1991, facing an aging congregation and declining weekly attendance, the parish's inner-city location was seen as an opportunity to serve Edmonton's growing urban Indigenous population. On October 27 of that year, the Archdiocese of Edmonton's Native Pastoral Centre was moved into Sacred Heart as Archbishop Joseph MacNeil declared the church to be a First Nations, Métis, and Inuit national parish, the first of its kind in Canada.