Long before there was any settlement in Vernon or Lumby there were thriving Catholic missions among the Indians and the few whites, conducted by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a French order of missionary priests and brothers. Before the OMI settled in the Okanagan, the Jesuit Missionary priests made occasional visits throughout the entire province.

Fathers Pandosy and Richard came north from Colville, Washington under order from their Superior. On October 8th, 1859 they arrived at what has become Okanagan Mission. After the gold strike in 1862, the missionaries included Cherry Creek and later White Valley, known then as Bull Meadows, on their circuit, coming by the way of Mission Creek and over the mountains at first. The celebrations of the Mass were held wherever possible.

After Pierre Bessette built his house, it was used as a church until the building of the first church in 1893 by Napoleon Bessette and his son Nap, on Pierre's land. This church was in use until 1917 when it was found to small, too far from town and too dry, due to the lack of water at the site.

These problems were actually realised in 1912 and plans for a new structure were made then. Due to the World War these plans had to be held up for lack of materials. The church did however acquire a parcel,of land, roughly described as from where the railway track crosses Highway Six, east to the Rod Chrisholm's house; from the highway south to the creek. Today the Shell Service is there. The church also owned two plots of land on Shuswap Ave.

The priest would stay, and soon one was permanent in Lumby, in the house on the first property. When it was possible to start on the new building, the priest of that day, Father Carroll (1921-1922) traded the two Shuswap Ave. lots for two on Park Ave. The materials and labour were mostly donated. Horses, wagons and scrapers were used by parishioners to excavate the basement.

The cement was poured and a roof put on. Then the basement was used as a church.The floor of the upper part, which became today's church, was made from lumber donated by the Gallon family. Additional lumber was donated by Quesnels, LeFrancois, Le Blancs, Bourcets, Legers and others. It was milled by Bessette and LeBlanc. All the work was done by volunteer labour under the direction of O. Bonneville and N. Bessette.

The next priest to come to Lumby, Father Smith, did some finishing work inside the church: made the Stations of the Cross and a very fancily carved altar. He was responsible too, for the building of the Parish Hall and the rectory. At first the rectory was between the church and the hall, but was later moved to where the parking lot is behind the church by O. Bonneville and G. Leger. Fred and Cecil Morris plastered the walls inside the church.

Father Smith's plan for the hall use was to hold sports there. He had a balcony running around the top inside and put chicken wire over it to keep stray balls,etc. from hitting the spectators. Unfortunately it was only used for badminton as far as sports were concerned.

The ladies had formed an Altar Society to take care of the church. They held socials and dinners in the hall.

Father O'Reilly was the pastor who remodelled the hall, taking out the balcony, enlarging the windows and putting panelling on the walls. After Vatican II, the church was again remodelled under Father Frank and completed under Father Malone. The sanctuary was enlarged and the altar, purchased by the Catholic Women's League, set so that the priest would face the congregation. The carpeting in the sanctuary was donated by Gladys Duke, Leah Forester and Mary Cutler; a memorial to their parents, Napoleon and Josephine Bessette. The Tabernacle was given to the church in memory of Louis Bourcet by his family. A new, larger and more convenient kitchen replaced the lean-to on the hall and a nice little rectory replaced the old one.

Priests who have served the parish of Sacred Heart: Fathers Pandosy, Richard, Durieu, Le Jacq, Grandidier, Bunoz, Cornellier, Roy, Coccolla, LeChapelle, Doheny, Carroll, Smith, Cronin, Joly, Coady, Kane, Downy, O'Brien, Cragg, Andrews, Hayes, Harrison, Trainor, O'Rielly, Frank, Malone and Doherty.

At this point,1981, we changed from the Nelson Diocese to the Kamloops Diocese. Continuing with Fathers Desmond, Kerr, Johnson, various Priests from Vernon throughout 1987, Dunn,and Sheehan.