Not long after his ordination to the holy diaconate, Deacon Richard René and his family arrived in Calgary from St. Vladimir’s Seminary in Yonkers, New York, USA. He was a recent graduate. Deacon Richard and his wife settled in Calgary, and they lived in one of the houses owned by the parish (the parish had purchased several properties next to the Temple). Immediately, Deacon Richard began to help Fr. Larry serve the parish. On 6 March, 2005, Deacon Richard was ordained to the holy priesthood at St. Peter’s. As the second priest, he further helped Fr. Larry care for the germinal mission in Cranbrook-Creston, British Columbia, which St. Peter’s was nurturing. In 2008, Fr. Richard was transferred to the new Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne’s Mission in Cranbrook. The warm and friendly relationships that had been developing between Calgary and Cranbrook communities continued afterwards through many personal visits.

Kevin Wigglesworth, a Calgarian, had studied elsewhere, and he was received into the Orthodox Christian Church in British Columbia. After further study, he was tonsured a reader in January 2006 at St. Peter’s. From 2007 to 2011, while living in Winnipeg, he studied Orthodox theological courses at Saint Arseny Institute. He was ordained a subdeacon in August 2009. After he returned to Calgary in 2011, he served in this parish, and he was ordained to the holy diaconate on 22 July, 2012, by Bishop Irénée (Rochon).

In 2008, Kirill Kyle Parrott, a young man with Protestant missionary experience abroad, and having an education in history and Greek and Roman studies, and his wife Leanne, a photographer, were received into the Orthodox Church and married at St Peter’s. In 2011, they entered St. Vladimir’s Seminary in Crestwood/Yonkers, New York, and their daughter Sophie was born.

During the more than 15 years that Fr. Larry Reinheimer served the parish, the community continued to grow. Properties were purchased near the church, along 33rd Avenue, with a view to possible construction. However, this was not to be. Despite one attempt to purchase an Anglican church building in a neighbourhood some distance away, and despite proposals to build on the existing properties, neither direction bore fruit. Rather, the community continued to grow and to consolidate.

By 2010, another possibility began to appear. Although there was not yet anything firm, this possibility later became a reality.

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