In a hilly rural area west of Toronto, the parish church of St. Elias the Prophet rises high on the Peel Plain above the Credit River Valley. A wooden structure of heavy timbers (Douglas Fir), it is sheathed in Western red cedar. It has been constructed according to an architectural style known as “Boyko”, derived from western Ukraine. The three sections (altar, sanctuary, and narthex) are each topped with a dome or cupola. According to Byzantine liturgical typology, the dome is an image of the heavens. The narthex is the world fallen after the sin of Adam, the Sanctuary is the world redeemed following the Passion and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, and the Altar is the World to Come, an image of the New Jerusalem. The cupolas on the church of St. Elias are in the 17th century Cossack style. It is one the only two Boyko churches that have fi ve cupolas rather than the usual three (the other being St. George’s in Drohobych, Ukraine). Steeped in the Byzantine Ukrainian tradition of wooden architecture, St. Elias Church was designed on the principle that architectural form should follow liturgical function.
