Orthodox Christian dating in Florida
Orthodox dating in Florida: from Tarpon Springs and Tampa to Orlando, Miami and Jacksonville, and how to look for a spouse. Free, no subscription.
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- Greek
- ROCOR
- Antiochian
- OCA
- Serbian
- Monastery
Short answer
If you are Orthodox and single in Florida, the Church is here and has been longer than in almost any other state: the first colony of Greeks to come to America landed here in 1768, the sponge divers of Tarpon Springs built their first church in 1907 and paid for the cathedral out of every harvest, and today five jurisdictions keep cathedrals, parishes and two monasteries between the Panhandle and the Keys. The people are real, the calendar is full, and the distances are long: Florida is a peninsula five hours from end to end, and every search here is a decision about which of its worlds you belong to.
This page leads to cana.love, a free dating site for people who want marriage, with a questionnaire that asks which church you attend and how often, what you do about fasting, and which of twelve Orthodox jurisdictions you belong to, so that a Greek from Tarpon Springs and a convert from Miami Lakes meet by practice and not by a label.
It is not only for Orthodox Christians, and who else is here is stated further down.
Orthodox Christians in Florida
Orthodoxy in Florida is older than the United States. In 1768 the first colony of Greek people to come to America arrived in Florida with Corsicans, Italians and Minorcans, and their odyssey ended in St Augustine, where the St Photios Greek Orthodox National Shrine on St George Street keeps their memory a few steps from the old city gates. A second beginning came with the sponge boats: Greek immigrants reached Tarpon Springs in 1905, built a frame church to St Nicholas in 1907, and when it grew too small the divers funded the cathedral by giving a portion of each sponge harvest, until it was finished in 1943. Miami's St Sophia dates from 1927, Jacksonville's St John the Divine from a charter of 1916, which the parish counts as the third oldest Greek parish in the state, and the Russians consecrated St Vladimir in Miami in 1947.
Since then the largest change has been the converts: adults who came to the faith with no Orthodox family behind them. It has been counted: in twenty parishes across six jurisdictions and fifteen states, the Orthodox Studies Institute found two thirds of the people received since 2013 were under forty, that the thirties were the largest single age group, and that 44 percent came in unmarried.
Orthodox Studies Institute, 2024; national figures, not Floridian
Florida was not measured on its own, but the person in those figures is the one you will meet at coffee hour in Maitland or Jacksonville: an adult who chose the Church, often from a Protestant family, and who is still single. The Orthodox Church in America's cathedral in Miami Lakes says plainly that all its services are in English, and its parish in Jacksonville describes itself as the first church to complete the OCA's church planting programme; both were built for people arriving from outside, not for a diaspora keeping a language alive.
Five jurisdictions shape the state. The Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Atlanta covers Florida among its eight states, with cathedrals in Tarpon Springs and Miami and the two monasteries near Ocala. The Orthodox Church in America's Diocese of the South has its Florida cathedral, Christ the Saviour, in Miami Lakes and parishes in two deaneries from Jacksonville to Naples. The Antiochian Archdiocese governs its whole Diocese of Miami and the Southeast from Coral Gables, where St George Cathedral is the seat of Bishop Nicholas. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia has a Florida deanery with cathedrals in Deerfield Beach and St Petersburg, and the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Eastern America has its cathedral of St Simeon in North Miami and parishes from Clearwater to Longwood. Romanian, Bulgarian and Georgian parishes exist as well, and the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops keeps the directory that lists them all.
Where the community gathers
Florida is four Orthodox worlds strung along its highways: Miami and the Gold Coast, Orlando, Tampa Bay, and the old north around Jacksonville and St Augustine, with the Panhandle thinning out beyond them.
Miami and the Gold Coast
Miami and the Gold Coast have the most cathedrals of any Florida room, and the most languages. St Sophia stands on SW 3rd Avenue near Brickell, a Greek cathedral since 1927; St George, the Antiochian cathedral and seat of the Diocese of Miami and the Southeast, is on Palermo Avenue in Coral Gables; Christ the Saviour, the OCA cathedral, is in Miami Lakes; St Vladimir, the Russian church of 1947, is on NW 46th Avenue; and the Serbian cathedral of St Simeon is in North Miami. Up the coast, St Demetrios in Fort Lauderdale has been a Greek community since 1953, and the Russian Church Abroad's Resurrection Cathedral is in Deerfield Beach. Spanish is the street language here, and a parish coffee hour may run in Spanish or Russian as easily as in English.
Orlando
Orlando is the world in the middle, the one everybody passes through. Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church of Greater Orlando is in Maitland, on Trinity Woods Lane, and hosts the Orlando Greek Fest in November; the Serbian parish of St Petka is a few miles north in Longwood, and the OCA's St Stephen the Protomartyr is in the same town. Orlando sits an hour and a half from Tampa and three and a half from Miami, which makes it the crossroads for anyone willing to travel.
Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay is where Florida's Orthodox story is most visible. St Nicholas Cathedral on Pinellas Avenue in Tarpon Springs, finished in 1943 and a cathedral since 1979, is the church the sponge divers built, and on 6 January the procession walks from it to Spring Bayou for the Epiphany cross. St John the Baptist on West Swann Avenue has been Tampa's Greek parish since 1956; the Russian Church Abroad's St Andrew Stratelates Cathedral is in St Petersburg; the Serbian parishes of St George in Clearwater and St Sava in St Petersburg are minutes away. Everything here is within an hour of everything else.
Jacksonville and the north
The north is older and quieter. Jacksonville has St John the Divine, chartered in 1916 and now on a new campus on Beach Boulevard, and the OCA's St Justin Martyr on Old St Augustine Road; St Augustine has the St Photios Shrine; the University of Florida in Gainesville has an OCF chapter; and south of Gainesville, off I-75 near Ocala, are the two Greek monasteries, the Annunciation of the Theotokos at Reddick and Panagia Vlahernon at Williston, both founded at the end of the 1990s with the blessing of Elder Ephraim. The Panhandle beyond is thin: a Russian parish in Tallahassee, and from Pensacola a five-hour drive to Jacksonville.
Cathedrals and parishes worth knowing
A Greek community since 1927, and host of the Miami Greek Festival in late February.
2401 SW 3rd AvenueMiami
The seat of the Diocese of Miami and the Southeast; the parish bought the building in 1966 and it was consecrated as a cathedral in 1967.
320 Palermo AvenueCoral Gables
Founded in 1962, consecrated in 2018; all services in English.
16601 NW 77th CourtMiami Lakes
Consecrated in November 1947, for decades the only Russian church in Miami.
101 NW 46th AvenueMiami
A Greek community since 1953, and host of the Fort Lauderdale Greek Festival.
820 NE 14th AvenueFort Lauderdale
Host of the Orlando Greek Fest, held in early November.
1217 Trinity Woods LaneMaitland
The Serbian parish of Greater Orlando.
1990 Lake Emma RoadLongwood
First church 1907, the present cathedral 1943, paid for by the sponge divers; a cathedral since 1979 and the home of the Epiphany celebration on 6 January.
36 North Pinellas AvenueTarpon Springs
Tampa's Greek parish since 1956.
2418 West Swann AvenueTampa
A stavropegial cathedral under the Chairman of the Synod of Bishops; services in Russian and English.
6465 54th Avenue NorthSt Petersburg
Chartered in 1916, the third oldest Greek Orthodox parish in Florida, and host of the Jax Greek Fest, 13 to 15 November 2026.
12760 Beach BoulevardJacksonville
Founded in 1989, the first parish to come through the OCA's church planting programme; in its own temple since 2005.
12460 Old St Augustine RoadJacksonville
For the rest of the peninsula's parishes, the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops keeps the directory that every jurisdiction contributes to.
Distances that decide everything
A schematic, not a map. Driving times as given in the text.
Florida is long, and the numbers are honest: Miami to Orlando is about three and a half hours on the Turnpike, Orlando to Tampa an hour and a half on I-4, Orlando to Jacksonville about two and a half on I-4 and I-95, and Tampa to Jacksonville about three. Miami to Jacksonville is five hours and more up I-95; Pensacola is five hours from Jacksonville and belongs, for practical purposes, to another map; Key West is three and a half hours down US-1 from Miami. Inside each world the calculation is subtler: Tarpon Springs, Clearwater, St Petersburg and Tampa are one bay and one hour, Miami to Fort Lauderdale is forty minutes without traffic and twice that with it, and the monasteries near Ocala are a day trip from Orlando, Tampa or Gainesville but a weekend from Miami.
Set the radius of your search by the Sunday you would actually spend, liturgy, lunch and the drive back, and not by the peninsula as a whole. For most Floridians that is one world: the Gold Coast, Tampa Bay, Orlando or the First Coast. A statewide search finds more people and makes every first meeting a day on I-95 or the Turnpike; some are glad of it and some are not, and the profile is the place to say which.
The Orthodox year in Florida
Epiphany at Tarpon Springs
On 6 January, after the liturgy at St Nicholas, a procession walks to Spring Bayou, a dove is released, the Archbishop casts a cross into the water and young men of the parish dive for it. The tradition is close to a century old, and it is the one day of the year when Orthodox people from every corner of the state stand in the same crowd.
Parish festivals
The Greek festivals are the largest open doors of the year, and in Florida they bracket the winter: Miami in late February, then Orlando in early November and Jacksonville a week later. They look like food fairs and work like parish reunions, and they are the weekend when a stranger at the door is welcome by design.
Orthodox Christian Fellowship
The University of Florida, the University of South Florida, Florida State and the University of Central Florida all have OCF chapters. If you are a student or a recent graduate in Gainesville, Tampa, Tallahassee or Orlando, this is the network that already exists.
Pilgrimages
The two monasteries near Ocala, the Annunciation of the Theotokos at Reddick and Panagia Vlahernon at Williston, receive visitors by their own guidelines; Vlahernon closes its gates from evening to morning except during services. A monastery Saturday is where people from different parishes meet without a festival tent.
Sunday of Orthodoxy
On the first Sunday of Lent the parishes of a city keep one Pan-Orthodox Vespers together, every jurisdiction's clergy and faithful in one church, and the host changes from year to year; the diocesan sites announce it.
Diocesan gatherings
Assemblies, young-adult retreats and clergy-laity meetings are kept by each diocese on its own schedule, announced on the sites above; they are where the peninsula's worlds meet.
Dating across jurisdictions, and with converts
A Greek from St Nicholas in Tarpon Springs and a convert from Christ the Saviour in Miami Lakes are both Orthodox, and the first thing each needs to know is what the other does in Lent. The cana.love questionnaire is built for that conversation.
Practice, not labels
It asks where you worship and how often you are really there, what you do about fasting, and whether you want a marriage or a pen-pal. Orthodox members choose among twelve jurisdictions, each listed by name, and Catechumen is one of them, because many of the people looking are exactly there.
Five languages, Spanish included
Five languages, each fully translated: English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Russian. In Florida that reaches the Spanish of the south and the Russian-speaking parishes from Miami to St Petersburg, and an optional AI feature will translate a message between members who write in different ones.
Checked before it is visible
Before anyone else sees a profile or a photo, it is reviewed, and anything doubtful goes to a person. Asking members for money is a permanent removal without a warning.
Free, with no paid tiers
No subscription, no paid tiers, and the things most sites charge for, who viewed you and who liked you, are free. Optional AI extras run on credits, 150 at registration, and at present there is no way to get more. You sign in with a one-time link or code to your email; there is no password.
What cana.love is and is not
cana.love is not an Orthodox-only platform.
Catholics, Protestants and people who share the same values about marriage without a confession of their own are here too, and every member chooses whom to see by faith, practice and intention. In a state where the parish and the beach are the two places people meet, we would rather say that here than have you find it out after registering. What is promised is that your jurisdiction and your practice are questions on the form and that the people you meet answered them; the About page has the whole account.
Meeting safely
- Never send money to someone you have not met; on cana.love the request alone is enough for a permanent removal.
- Meet in public, tell someone you trust where you will be, and keep the conversation on the site until you choose to move it.
How profiles are reviewed, how a report is handled and how to appeal are on the guidelines page.
Common questions
Is cana.love available in Florida?
Yes. It is a web application open to adults anywhere, including Florida, in English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Russian; it runs in the browser, and there is nothing to install from a store.
How far should I search in Florida?
By the Sunday drive you would really make for a liturgy and lunch: one world of the peninsula for most people, the Gold Coast, Tampa Bay, Orlando or Jacksonville. Widen to the whole state only if I-95 or the Turnpike before a first date does not put you off.
Which jurisdictions have cathedrals in Florida?
On this page: the Greek Archdiocese in Tarpon Springs and Miami, the Antiochian Archdiocese in Coral Gables, the Orthodox Church in America in Miami Lakes, and the Russian Church Abroad in St Petersburg.
Are there Orthodox monasteries in Florida?
Two Greek monasteries near Ocala, off I-75: the Annunciation of the Theotokos at Reddick and Panagia Vlahernon at Williston, both founded at the end of the 1990s with the blessing of Elder Ephraim.
Where is the oldest Orthodox presence in Florida?
St Augustine, where the St Photios Shrine remembers the Greek colonists of 1768; the oldest working cathedral is St Nicholas in Tarpon Springs, whose first church went up in 1907.
Where can I find every Orthodox parish in Florida?
In the directory of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops, kept with every jurisdiction's help, and on the sites of the Greek Metropolis of Atlanta, the OCA Diocese of the South, the Antiochian Diocese of Miami and the Southeast, the ROCOR Eastern American Diocese and the Serbian Diocese of Eastern America.
Next steps
Create a profile at cana.love, read the community guidelines before your first message, and see the About page for who runs the site and how. Then find your world of the peninsula, find its calendar, and find the person.
Reviewed on September 19, 2026.
Photographs, all Wikimedia Commons: St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral, Tarpon Springs — Ebyabe, CC BY 2.5 · St Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral, Miami — Farragutful, CC BY-SA 4.0 · St George Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral, Coral Gables — Jorge Elías, CC BY 2.0 · Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church of Greater Orlando, Maitland — Dclemens1971, CC BY 4.0 · The iconostasis of St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral, Tarpon Springs — Nheyob, CC BY-SA 4.0