Orthodox Christian dating in Illinois
Orthodox dating in Illinois: the cathedrals of Chicago, the suburbs, Bloomington and the coal country, and how to find a spouse. Free, no subscription.
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- OCA
- Greek
- Serbian
- ROCOR
- Monastery
Short answer
If you are Orthodox and single in Illinois, almost everything is within an hour of Chicago, and it is a great deal: two cathedrals of the Orthodox Church in America stand a few blocks apart on the Near West Side and the Greek cathedral of the Metropolis of Chicago on the Near North Side, the Russian Church Abroad has its cathedral in Des Plaines, the Serbian diocese has its cathedral in Norwood Park and its monastery, a replica of Gračanica, among the lakes north of the city. Beyond the metropolitan area the Church is thin: a parish for the twin cities of Bloomington and Normal, a campus fellowship at Urbana, and a coal-country parish of 1914 in the far south.
This page leads to cana.love, a free dating site for people who want marriage. Its questionnaire 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 Serb from Norwood Park and a convert from Palatine can find each other by what they do, not by a checkbox.
Not an Orthodox-only site; who else is here is said plainly below.
Orthodox Christians in Illinois
Orthodoxy in Chicago began as one congregation of Russians, Greeks, Serbs and other Eastern Europeans, served now and then by St Alexis Toth from Minneapolis, until in 1892 both the Russians and the Greeks founded parishes of their own. St Vladimir's, consecrated in June 1892, became Holy Trinity when Fr John Kochurov, with the blessing of Bishop Tikhon, commissioned Louis Sullivan to build it a church on Leavitt Street; Tikhon, the future Patriarch of Moscow, was there for the first service in March 1903 and consecrated the building that August, and both he and Kochurov were later canonized. The Greeks from Laconia and the islands celebrated their first liturgy the same spring of 1892 and by 1910 had built the Annunciation on LaSalle Street, modelled on the cathedral of Athens and described by the parish as the oldest surviving building in Chicago constructed as a Byzantine church. The mill town of Joliet had a parish of Russians, Greeks and Serbians together from 1907, and the coal fields of the south had one at Royalton from 1914.
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 of six jurisdictions in fifteen states, the Orthodox Studies Institute found that two thirds of the people received since 2013 were under forty, that the largest single group was aged thirty to thirty-nine, and that 44 percent were unmarried when they arrived.
Orthodox Studies Institute, 2024; national figures, not Illinois's
Illinois was not measured by itself, but the person in those figures is the one at coffee hour downtown or in the northwest suburbs: an adult who chose the faith, often out of a Protestant home, and still single. Christ the Savior, the parish that opened in the heart of downtown Chicago in 1997, describes its family as people from a wide variety of backgrounds; Holy Apostles in Bloomington-Normal was founded in 2001 by cradle Orthodox and recent converts together, in two cities that until then had no Orthodox church of any jurisdiction; the parish in Palatine has classes for catechumens on its schedule. The immigrant parishes are still there, in Slavonic, Greek and Serbian, and the door beside them is open.
Four jurisdictions hold most of the parishes here, and others are present too. The Orthodox Church in America's Diocese of the Midwest is governed from Chicago, with Holy Trinity Cathedral on Leavitt Street, St George Cathedral on Wood Street, and parishes from Palatine and Joliet to Bloomington and Royalton. The Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago has its seat at the Annunciation Cathedral on LaSalle Street. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia governs its Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America from the Holy Virgin Protection Cathedral in Des Plaines, with parishes in Peoria and Benld. The Serbian Orthodox Diocese of New Gracanica and Midwestern America has its cathedral of the Holy Resurrection in Norwood Park, its monastery at Third Lake, and parishes in Joliet, Lyons and the South Side. Romanian, Bulgarian and Antiochian parishes exist as well, and the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops keeps the directory that lists them all.
Where the community gathers
Illinois is one Orthodox world and three thin ones: Chicago itself, its suburbs from Des Plaines to Joliet, the college towns of the centre, and the coal country of the south.
Chicago
Chicago proper has the cathedrals. Holy Trinity, the Louis Sullivan church of 1903 on Leavitt Street, and St George on Wood Street, founded in 1915, are a few blocks apart on the Near West Side; the Annunciation, the Greek cathedral of 1910, and Christ the Savior, the OCA parish of 1997, are neighbours on LaSalle Street on the Near North Side; the Serbian cathedral of the Holy Resurrection is in Norwood Park by the expressway. Within the city the question is never whether there is a parish but which one, and the L decides more than the map.
The suburbs
The suburbs have parishes of every jurisdiction. The Russian cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection is on Lee Street in Des Plaines, by O'Hare; Holy Resurrection in Palatine has served the northwest suburbs since 1970; St Nikola is in Lyons on the west side; Joliet, an hour south on I-55, has both St Nicholas, the parish of 1907, and the Serbian church of St George; and an hour north on I-94, at Third Lake, the monastery of New Gracanica, consecrated in 1984 as a replica of the old Gračanica of Kosovo, is the place where the Serbian world of the whole Midwest gathers.
Bloomington and the college towns
The centre is college country. Holy Apostles, founded in 2001, is the Orthodox parish of Bloomington and Normal; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has an OCF chapter with its own house, and the Greek Metropolis keeps it in view. Peoria and Springfield are two and a half and three hours from Chicago, and the Russian Church Abroad has a parish in Peoria. Two hours of I-55 or I-57 separate this world from the city.
The coal country
The south is the coal country. The Protection of the Holy Virgin Mary in Royalton, founded in 1914 by the immigrants who came to the mines, is the Orthodox parish of the far south, four hours from Bloomington and five from Chicago, and closer in every practical sense to St Louis than to the lake.
Cathedrals and parishes worth knowing
Founded in 1892; the Louis Sullivan church of 1903 was consecrated by St Tikhon, and its priest, St John Kochurov, was canonized in 1994. A cathedral since 1922.
1121 North Leavitt StreetChicago
Founded in 1892; the church of 1910, modelled on the cathedral of Athens, is the seat of the Metropolis of Chicago.
1017 North LaSalle DriveChicago
Opened in the heart of downtown in 1997, a parish of people from a wide variety of backgrounds.
927 North LaSalle DriveChicago
The cathedral of the Serbian Diocese of New Gracanica and Midwestern America, in Norwood Park.
5701 North Redwood DriveChicago
The cathedral of the Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America; services in Russian.
1800 Lee StreetDes Plaines
Founded in 1970 for the northwest suburbs; classes for catechumens.
1449 North Quentin RoadPalatine
Founded in 1907 by Russians, Greeks and Serbians together, with services in homes from 1905.
1000 Barber LaneJoliet
The Serbian parish of Joliet.
305 South Midland AvenueJoliet
The Serbian parish of the western suburbs.
4315 Joliet AvenueLyons
Founded in 2001, the Orthodox parish of Bloomington and Normal.
18884 US Highway 150Bloomington
Founded in 1914 in the coal fields of the south.
112 North Fairdale AvenueRoyalton
Twelve out of many: the directory of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops, kept by all the jurisdictions together, lists every parish in Illinois.
Distances that decide everything
A schematic, not a map. Driving times as given in the text.
In Chicago the unit of distance is the L ride and the expressway, and the numbers are small: the cathedrals on the Near West and Near North Sides are minutes apart, Des Plaines, Palatine and Lyons are half an hour to an hour from the Loop depending on the hour, Joliet is an hour down I-55 and Third Lake an hour up I-94. Downstate the unit is the interstate, and the numbers are honest: Bloomington is a little over two hours from Chicago on I-55, Urbana-Champaign two and a half on I-57, Springfield three, and Royalton five and more. Inside the metropolitan area the calculation is subtler than the miles: the Tri-State at rush hour decides whether a parish across the city is near or far.
Set your search by the trip you would actually make on a Sunday for a liturgy and lunch: an L ride or an expressway in Chicago, an interstate downstate. For most people in Illinois that is the metropolitan area; downstate it is one's own city and the two hours to the next. Searching the whole state finds more people and makes every first meeting a day on I-55 or I-57, which some are glad to do and some are not; say which on your profile.
The Orthodox year in Illinois
Parish festivals
The Greek Metropolis of Chicago keeps a calendar of its parish festivals, and the Serbian parishes keep their slavas, from spring to autumn. A festival is a food fair to the city and a reunion to the parish, and it is the one weekend when a stranger at the door is exactly who is supposed to come.
New Gracanica
The monastery at Third Lake keeps its feasts and its library, and the faithful of the Serbian diocese come to it from the whole Midwest. A monastery weekend is where people from different parishes meet without a festival tent.
Orthodox Christian Fellowship
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Illinois Chicago have OCF chapters. If you are a student or a recent graduate in Urbana or in the city, this is the network that already exists.
The feast of Holy Trinity
The Sullivan cathedral on Leavitt Street keeps its patronal feast at Pentecost, in a church with two saints in its story; it is the one day of the year to see it as it was meant to be seen.
Sunday of Orthodoxy
The first Sunday of Great Lent is the one evening when every jurisdiction in Chicago prays in one church, at the Pan-Orthodox Vespers of the Triumph of Orthodoxy; the host rotates, and the diocesan sites say where.
Diocesan gatherings
Each diocese has assemblies, retreats and clergy-laity meetings of its own, announced on the diocesan sites above, and they are where the city meets the suburbs and downstate.
Dating across jurisdictions, and with converts
A Serb from Holy Resurrection in Norwood Park and a convert from Holy Resurrection in Palatine share a name and a faith, and the first thing they need to know is what that faith means on a Friday. The cana.love questionnaire is written to begin that conversation.
Practice, not labels
It asks which church you attend, how often you are really there, what you do about fasting, and whether you want marriage or a correspondent. Orthodox members choose from twelve jurisdictions named separately, OCA, ROCOR, Greek, Antiochian, Serbian and the rest, and Catechumen is listed as a choice of its own.
Five languages, Russian included
The site speaks five languages in full: English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Russian. In Illinois that reaches the Russian of the Des Plaines cathedral and the Spanish that Chicago speaks at home; an optional AI feature translates a message between members writing in different languages.
Checked before it is visible
Every profile and every photo is reviewed before anyone else sees it, and anything doubtful is read by a person. Asking members for money ends an account permanently, without a warning.
Free, with no paid tiers
No subscription and no paid tiers: seeing who viewed you and who liked you is free, which elsewhere is the paid part. Optional AI extras run on credits, 150 of them 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.
Christians of other traditions and people who share the same values about marriage without a confession of their own are on it too, and each member filters whom they see by faith, practice and intention. Chicago has enough Orthodox cathedrals that the omission would be easy; we would rather say it here than have you find it after registering. What is promised is that your jurisdiction, practice and intention are questions on the form and that everyone you meet answered them. The About page tells the rest.
Meeting safely
- Never send money to someone you have not met; on cana.love the request itself ends the account for good.
- Meet in a public place, tell someone you trust where you are, and keep the conversation on the site until you choose to move it.
What is reviewed before a profile is shown, and how reports and appeals are handled, is on the guidelines page.
Common questions
Is cana.love available in Illinois?
Yes. It is a web application open to adults anywhere, Illinois included, in English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Russian; it runs in a browser on a phone or a computer, with nothing to install.
How far should I search in Illinois?
By the trip you would make on a Sunday for a liturgy and lunch: in Chicago and its suburbs the metropolitan area, downstate your own city and the interstate to the next. Widen to the whole state only if I-55 before a first meeting does not put you off.
Which jurisdictions have cathedrals in Chicago?
The Orthodox Church in America on the Near West Side, twice; the Greek Metropolis of Chicago on the Near North Side; the Serbian Church in Norwood Park; and the Russian Church Abroad in Des Plaines.
Is there an Orthodox monastery in Illinois?
Yes, New Gracanica at Third Lake, an hour north on I-94, consecrated in 1984 as a replica of the old Gračanica of Kosovo; the section on the Orthodox year describes its feast.
Where is the oldest Orthodox parish in Illinois?
Both Holy Trinity and the Annunciation in Chicago date from 1892; Holy Trinity's church of 1903 was designed by Louis Sullivan and consecrated by St Tikhon, and the Annunciation's church of 1910 is the oldest surviving building in Chicago built as a Greek church.
Where can I find every Orthodox parish in Illinois?
In the directory of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops, kept with every jurisdiction, and on the sites of the OCA Diocese of the Midwest, the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago, the ROCOR Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America and the Serbian Diocese of New Gracanica and Midwestern America.
Next steps
Create a profile at cana.love; read the community guidelines before you write to anyone, and the About page if you want to know who runs the site. Then find your side of the city or your downstate town, find its calendar, and find the person.
Reviewed on September 19, 2026.
Photographs, all Wikimedia Commons: Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral by Louis Sullivan on Leavitt Street, Chicago — w_lemay, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral on LaSalle Street, Chicago, photographed in 1938 — Percy H. Sloan, Public domain · Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral, Chicago — Farragutful, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Holy Virgin Protection Russian Orthodox Cathedral, Des Plaines — ruszarub, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral, Chicago, from the side — Farragutful, CC BY-SA 4.0