The Holy Ghost church in Insinger Saskatchewan is becoming one of the most well known abandoned churches in Saskatchewan.
We do not know much about this church. We know that it was built sometime in the 1940’s, it’s Ukrainian Orthodox and it’s not brick on the outside, its faux brick (you know that shingle material with the brick design). The Holy Ghost Ukrainian Orthodox church in what’s left of the town of Insinger definately stands out. The town is along a main highway, highway 16, in Saskatchewan and although Insinger is more of a ghost town these days, it has many remaining buildings. We have driven by and through this town multiple times a year since about 2008. The church itself was always secure with a locked door and it was closely watched. Being along a busy highway can help or hinder the survival of a church. It’s clear this church hasn’t been used for services in many years but these churches are still part of a local eparchy, this one is no expection.
To be honest, we gave up hope of ever seeing the interior of this church so we kept documenting the exterior. Fast forward to 2019 when the back door was pushed open. It was like this for a couple weeks and you bet, we drove up as soon as we heard the news. We took the time to document the interior and were pleased to see it still had the pews, paintings, mini church and details. It has some vandalism but it was in much better shape then we predicted. The door was boarded shut and the church was re-secured.
Unfortunately, it didn’t take to long for more things to get broken, windows and the front door. Being on a busy highway with an open door did not help its demise. The place became heavily vandalized inside and out. We returned in 2021 to document it again and it was very different, no pews, no paintings, no important details. We hope that the church was cleared out before it was “abandoned” but its hard to say, due to it’s location. From what we understand, it is still part of the eparchy.
Today, it has graffiti inside and outside, people are trashing the interior and it’s a sad site. We did do a short video walkthrough in 2021 so join us as we visit the abandoned Holy Ghost Orthodox church in Insinger.
