Orthodox Christian dating in British Columbia
Orthodox dating in British Columbia: Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island, the interior and the north, and how to find a spouse. Free of charge.
Create your profileAn illustration, not a data map.
- Greek
- OCA
- Monastery
Short answer
British Columbia is the province where the Orthodox Church in America has its Canadian monastery and its longest list of missions. The Archdiocese of Canada lists, in its deanery of British Columbia and Yukon, the All Saints of North America Monastery at Dewdney in the Fraser Valley, a Holy Transfiguration Hermitage at Lone Butte in the Cariboo, a St Nicholas Hermitage at Gibsons, the Holy Resurrection Sobor on East 43rd Avenue in Vancouver, St John of Shanghai in North Vancouver, St Herman of Alaska in Langley, Holy Apostles in Chilliwack, two communities in Victoria, St Barnabas in the Comox Valley, St Michael in Kelowna, St Aidan in Cranbrook and missions in Gibsons, Kamloops and Kaslo. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Canada has St George Cathedral on Arbutus Street and Sts Nicholas and Demetrios on Boundary Road in Vancouver, the Community of Surrey and Fraser Valley, the Greek community of Victoria and Vancouver Island, and communities from Kelowna and Penticton to Prince George and Kitimat. The Russian Church Abroad, the Serbian and the Romanian parishes of the province were not searched for this page.
The site that publishes this page is cana.love: free, meant for people who intend to marry, and built around a form whose questions are the coffee-hour questions of Arbutus Street or Dewdney, your parish, your Sundays a month, your fasting, your jurisdiction among twelve. A Greek from Kitsilano and a convert from the Comox Valley start where they stand. The company is Chilean; the site runs in five languages, and this page is its English.
Orthodox-only it is not, and a section further down explains why.
Orthodox Christians in British Columbia
Vancouver first. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Canada has St George Cathedral on Arbutus Street in Kitsilano and Sts Nicholas and Demetrios on Boundary Road on the Burnaby line; the Orthodox Church in America has the Holy Resurrection Russian Orthodox Sobor on East 43rd Avenue and St John of Shanghai on East Windsor Road in North Vancouver. East along the Fraser, the Greek Community of Surrey and Fraser Valley is on 96th Avenue in Surrey, St Herman of Alaska on 198B Street in Langley, Holy Apostles on School Street in Chilliwack, and between them, at Dewdney on Hawkins Pickle Road, the All Saints of North America Monastery, one of the archdiocese's two monasteries in Canada, the other being in Nova Scotia.
Then the island. Victoria has the Orthodox Church in America's All Saints of Alaska and Arseny of Konevits on the Patricia Bay Highway and its St Alexander Nevsky Mission on Richmond Avenue, and the Greek community of Victoria and Vancouver Island on Elk Lake Drive, which also serves Nanaimo; up-island, St Barnabas in the Comox Valley is on Rosewall Crescent in Courtenay; across the strait on the Sunshine Coast, the Holy Theophany Mission Station in Gibsons has the St Nicholas Hermitage for a neighbour.
From the community list of the Archdiocese of Canada and the parish list of the Greek archdiocese, 20 September 2026
Then the interior. St Michael the Archangel in Kelowna is on Gerstmar Road in Rutland, with a Greek community in Kelowna and another in Penticton; St Nicholas Mission in Kamloops and a Greek community there; the Nativity of the Theotokos and St John in the Wilderness at Kaslo on Kootenay Lake; St Aidan of Lindisfarne on 7th Avenue South in Cranbrook, the parish of the East Kootenay; and the Holy Transfiguration Hermitage at Lone Butte in the Cariboo. The north has a Greek Koimisis in Prince George and a Metamorphosis in Kitimat.
Someone has counted who fills parishes like these, though on the other side of the border. In a survey by the Orthodox Studies Institute of twenty American parishes from six jurisdictions, two thirds of the converts received since 2013 had been under forty when they came, the thirty-somethings were the largest age group, and 44 percent had arrived single.
British Columbia was not among the twenty, and here the survey fits better than almost anywhere: the Orthodox Church in America's deanery in the province is a list of missions with English names and English services, St Herman, St Aidan, St Barnabas, Holy Apostles, with a monastery among them; the Greek parishes of Vancouver and Surrey are the grandchildren of the families who built them. The unmarried Orthodox thirty-year-old in British Columbia is as likely to be a convert in Langley as a Greek in Kitsilano, and Dewdney is an hour from either.
Two jurisdictions are on this page. The Orthodox Church in America's Archdiocese of Canada with its monastery, two hermitages and a dozen parishes and missions; the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Canada with its Vancouver cathedral and communities from Victoria to Kitimat. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, the Serbian and the Romanian churches keep parishes in the province that were not searched for this page.
Where the community gathers
British Columbia's Orthodox gather in Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, on Vancouver Island and the coast, and in the interior.
Vancouver and the Fraser Valley
Vancouver and the Fraser Valley are seven of the fourteen parishes on this page: the two Greek churches and the Sobor inside the city, St John of Shanghai across the harbour in North Vancouver, Surrey forty minutes east on the SkyTrain, Langley an hour, Chilliwack an hour and a quarter, and Dewdney, the monastery, an hour up the valley on the north bank of the Fraser.
The Island and the Coast
The island and the coast are the three communities of Victoria, three and a half hours from Vancouver by ferry and road, St Barnabas in Courtenay two and a half hours up-island, and Holy Theophany in Gibsons, forty minutes by ferry from Horseshoe Bay.
The Interior
The interior is St Michael in Kelowna, four hours from Vancouver by the Coquihalla, and St Aidan in Cranbrook, nine hours east; the missions of Kamloops, Kaslo and Lone Butte are their neighbours, each hours from the next.
Cathedrals and parishes worth knowing
The cathedral of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Canada on the West Coast, in Kitsilano.
4500 Arbutus StreetVancouver
BC V6J 4A2
The second Greek parish of the city, on the Burnaby line.
4641 Boundary RoadVancouver
BC V5R 2N5
The Orthodox Church in America's cathedral parish in the city.
75 East 43rd AvenueVancouver
BC V5W 1S7
A mission of the Archdiocese of Canada on the North Shore.
195 East Windsor RoadNorth Vancouver
BC V7N 1J9
The Greek parish of the valley.
13181 96th AvenueSurrey
BC V3V 1Y2
A parish of the Archdiocese of Canada in Willoughby.
7221 198B StreetLangley
BC V2Y 1R9
The parish of the upper Fraser Valley.
8871 School StreetChilliwack
BC V2P 4L5
The Archdiocese of Canada's parish on the Saanich Peninsula.
5363 Patricia Bay HighwayVictoria
BC V8Y 1S2
A mission in Fairfield.
307 Richmond AvenueVictoria
BC V8S 3Y2
The Greek parish of the island, serving Nanaimo too.
4648 Elk Lake DriveVictoria
BC V8Z 5M1
The parish of the mid-island.
2364 Rosewall CrescentCourtenay
BC V9N 8R9
The mission of the Sunshine Coast, beside the St Nicholas Hermitage.
1224 Chaster RoadGibsons
BC V0N 1V4
The Archdiocese of Canada's mission in the Okanagan, in Rutland.
585 Gerstmar RoadKelowna
BC V1X 4B3
The parish of the East Kootenay.
201 7th Avenue SouthCranbrook
BC V1C 2J6
Distances that decide everything
A schematic, not a map. Journey times as given in the text.
British Columbia is a coast, a valley and a wall of mountains. Vancouver to Surrey is 25 kilometres and forty minutes on the SkyTrain, to Langley 45 kilometres and an hour, to Dewdney 70 kilometres and an hour, to Chilliwack 100 kilometres and an hour and a quarter; to Gibsons a forty-minute ferry from Horseshoe Bay; to Victoria the Tsawwassen ferry, an hour and thirty-five minutes on the water and three and a half hours door to door; Victoria to Courtenay 220 kilometres and two and a half hours; Vancouver to Kelowna 390 kilometres and four hours by the Coquihalla, to Cranbrook 850 kilometres and nine.
How far a search reaches is a Sunday's question: Liturgy, coffee hour, and home before dark, which on the coast in December is half past four. That makes Vancouver with the North Shore, Surrey, Langley and Dewdney one circle, Victoria with the Saanich Peninsula a second, the Comox Valley, the Okanagan and the Kootenays each their own; between the mainland and the island is a ferry before every first meeting, and whether you would take it is worth a line on your profile.
The Orthodox year in British Columbia
Patronal feasts
St George on 23 April on Arbutus Street; St Nicholas on 6 December and St Demetrios on 26 October on Boundary Road; the Resurrection at Pascha on East 43rd Avenue; St John of Shanghai on 2 July in North Vancouver; St Herman on 9 August and 13 December in Langley; the Holy Apostles on 30 June in Chilliwack; St Alexander Nevsky on 30 August in Victoria; St Barnabas on 11 June in Courtenay; the Theophany on 6 January in Gibsons; St Michael on 8 November in Kelowna; St Aidan on 31 August in Cranbrook. On its patronal feast a parish is at its fullest and a stranger is least a stranger.
Pascha
One Pascha for every parish here, 12 April in 2026 and 2 May in 2027, and one calendar the rest of the year; the Paschal night on Arbutus Street and on East 43rd Avenue is the night the two halves of Vancouver's Church are awake at once.
Dewdney
All Saints of North America, the monastery's feast on the second Sunday after Pentecost, is the day to see the monastery with its gates open; an hour up the north bank of the Fraser from Vancouver, it is the nearest monastic feast for every parish on this page.
One calendar
Both jurisdictions on this page keep the new calendar, so Christmas is 25 December from Kitsilano to Cranbrook; a couple with one foot in a Julian-calendar parish of another jurisdiction keeps 7 January too.
The ferry year
Victoria, the Comox Valley and Gibsons live by the sailings; the last ferry decides when a Sunday on the island ends, and the sailing schedule is the first thing to check before a feast there.
Dating across jurisdictions, and with converts
A city separates the Greek cathedral from the Sobor, a ferry the mainland from the island, a mountain range the coast from the Kootenays. The cana.love form was built with those distances in mind, and it comes down to four things.
What it asks: four questions first
What it asks: four things before any photograph counts, your parish, the Sundays a month you are really there, how you keep the fasts, and whether you mean to marry; then, if you are Orthodox, your jurisdiction out of twelve, OCA, Greek, ROCOR, Serbian, Romanian, Antiochian and six others, Catechumen included, since the survey above shows who is filling the missions.
What it speaks: five languages
What it speaks: five languages on every page, English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Russian, which here means the English of St Herman's and St Aidan's and the Russian of the Sobor, not the Greek of Arbutus Street; should the person you write to have picked another of the five, an optional AI feature will offer a translation and do nothing until you say yes.
What it checks: every profile and photograph
What it checks: each profile and each photograph before any other member lays eyes on them, a person taking over where the automatic check stops; and anyone who asks another member for money is out for good, with no first warning.
What it costs: nothing
What it costs: nothing at all, there being no subscription and no paid tier; your visitors and your likes are shown for free, precisely the two things most sites sell; the optional AI helpers run on credits, 150 of them at registration and none on sale for now; and you sign in with a one-time link or code sent to your email, so no password exists to be kept.
What cana.love is and is not
cana.love is not an Orthodox-only platform.
Catholics, Protestants and people without a confession who are after the same kind of marriage belong to it as well, and each member's own filters decide who appears. In a province whose Church is one monastery and a string of missions hours apart, any narrower promise would be untrue. The promise the site does make is precise: jurisdiction, practice and intention are questions on the form, answered by everyone you will meet, as you answered them. Behind the site stands Cana SpA of Santiago, Chile; the About page tells the rest.
Meeting safely
- On cana.love, being asked for money by someone you have never met in person is a reason to report, and the one who asked is removed for good.
- Meet the first time somewhere public, tell someone you trust where you are, and let the conversation leave the site only when you choose, not when the other person does.
Reviews, reports and appeals are set out on the guidelines page.
Common questions
Is cana.love available in British Columbia?
Yes: any adult can join from anywhere, British Columbia included, with nothing to install, since the site runs in the browser of a phone or a computer, in English, Spanish, Portuguese, German or Russian.
How far should I search in British Columbia?
Vancouver with the North Shore, Surrey, Langley and Dewdney as one circle, Victoria with the Saanich Peninsula as a second, the Comox Valley, the Okanagan and the Kootenays each as its own; between the mainland and the island is a ferry before every first meeting, and your profile can say whether you would take it.
Which Orthodox parishes in British Columbia serve in English?
The Orthodox Church in America's missions and parishes, from St Herman's in Langley to St Aidan's in Cranbrook, serve in English by the custom of their archdiocese; the Greek parishes keep Greek and English side by side. The door is the place to ask.
Is there an Orthodox monastery in British Columbia?
The Orthodox Church in America's All Saints of North America Monastery at Dewdney in the Fraser Valley, an hour from Vancouver, and two hermitages, the Holy Transfiguration at Lone Butte in the Cariboo and St Nicholas of Myra at Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast.
Where is the oldest Orthodox parish in British Columbia?
This page does not say: neither archdiocese's list gives founding years, and no date on this page is older than the lists themselves.
Where can I find every Orthodox parish in British Columbia?
In the Orthodox Church in America's list of communities of the Archdiocese of Canada, under British Columbia and Yukon, with addresses and clergy; and in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Canada's list of parishes, by city.
Are the two calendars a problem for a couple?
Between the parishes on this page, no, since all keep the new calendar; a couple with one foot in a Julian-calendar parish of another jurisdiction ends up with two Christmases, 25 December and 7 January, and a single Pascha.
Next steps
Start with a profile on cana.love; before you write to anyone, read the community guidelines and the About page, which says who runs the site. After that come your city, its patronal feast or its drive to Dewdney, and the person.
Reviewed on September 20, 2026.