Orthodox Christian dating in Louisiana
Orthodox Christian dating in Louisiana: Holy Trinity in New Orleans since 1864, Metairie, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Houma and Shreveport, with addresses.
Create your profileAn illustration, not a data map.
- Greek
- Antiochian
- OCA
Short answer
In Louisiana the Orthodox have usually started out as guests. Greek sailors were in New Orleans in the eighteenth century. The mission that became the Antiochian parish in Lafayette served the Liturgy in restaurants, hotels, a gym, parishioners' homes, an art gallery and a Roman Catholic monastery before it had a building of its own in 2004.
What that leaves behind is a small number of parishes a long way apart. Seven are listed on this page with an address and an official link, from Metairie to Shreveport. Between most of them lies an hour or more of interstate.
This page sits on cana.love, which is free and is meant for people who want to marry. It is not an Orthodox-only site, and a section further down is plain about what that means.
Orthodox Christians in Louisiana
New Orleans came first. The cathedral of the Holy Trinity describes itself as the first Greek Orthodox church in North and South America, established in 1864, and its own history traces Greeks in the city back to the middle of the 1700s, beginning with a seaman named Miguel Dragon.
Everything else is much younger. Holy Trinity in Baton Rouge was founded in 1976 and dedicated its church in April 1987, and for years it saw a priest from New Orleans one Saturday a month; for Holy Week its people drove to New Orleans. St Basil in Metairie grew from mission work at the end of the 1970s. The Orthodox Church in America's parishes and missions in Baton Rouge, Houma and Shreveport belong to its Diocese of the South.
Orthodox Studies Institute, 2024; national figures, not Louisiana's
Who is joining now? The Orthodox Studies Institute counted converts across twenty parishes, six jurisdictions and fifteen states. Of those received since 2013, two thirds were under forty at reception, more were in their thirties than in any other decade, and 44 percent were single when they came.
Those are national figures, not Louisiana's. No count for the state has been published, and this page does not invent one. It lists seven places instead, each checked against its own website on the day it was written.
Where the community gathers
The seven sit in four parts of the state: New Orleans, Baton Rouge, the south-west and the bayou, and the far north.
New Orleans
New Orleans holds two, on either side of the city line. Holy Trinity is on Allen Toussaint Boulevard near the lake, and St Basil, the Antiochian parish, is on Hudson Street in Metairie; its own welcome says its members come from across the world.
Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge holds two as well. Holy Trinity, the Greek parish, is on North Stevendale Road in the east of the city, and St Matthew the Apostle, an Orthodox Church in America mission, is on Colonial Drive. The same directory lists a Romanian mission, Three Hierarchs, in the city; it gives no church address, so it has no card here.
The south-west and the bayou
The south-west and the bayou hold the Lafayette parish and a mission in Houma. Archangel Gabriel on Eraste Landry Road runs an Orthodox Christian Fellowship chapter at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. St Barnabas on Coteau Road calls itself Orthodoxy in the bayou region and meets each week for Vespers and a shared meal.
The north
The north holds one: Holy Nativity on Southern Loop in Shreveport, more than four hours' drive from Baton Rouge.
Cathedrals and parishes worth knowing
Established in 1864; Great Vespers on Saturday at five, Matins at a quarter past eight and the Divine Liturgy at a quarter to ten on Sunday.
1200 Allen Toussaint BoulevardNew Orleans
LA 70122
An Antiochian parish that began as a mission in the late 1970s; Vespers on Saturday at five, Orthros at half past eight and Liturgy at half past nine on Sunday.
3916 Hudson StreetMetairie
LA 70006
Founded in 1976, with a priest of its own since 2007; the icons of its iconostasis were painted in Greece.
2510 North Stevendale RoadBaton Rouge
LA 70819
An Orthodox Church in America mission in the Diocese of the South, with the Hours at twenty to ten and the Liturgy at ten on Sunday.
411 Colonial DriveBaton Rouge
LA 70806
The parish that served its early Liturgies in borrowed rooms across Lafayette, settled here in 2004; Sunday Liturgy at ten.
1237 Eraste Landry RoadLafayette
LA 70506
A mission of the Orthodox Church in America's Diocese of the South that meets weekly for Reader's Vespers and a meal.
2349 Coteau RoadHouma
LA 70364
The Orthodox Church in America's parish in the north-west corner of the state.
2155 Southern LoopShreveport
LA 71106
Two more names appear in the Orthodox Church in America's directory without a church address or a website of their own: the Romanian mission of the Three Hierarchs in Baton Rouge and the mission of St Andrew of Crete in New Orleans. We could not check where either meets, so neither has a card.
Distances that decide everything
A diagram, not a map. Shreveport is about four and a half hours from Baton Rouge.
New Orleans to Baton Rouge is about eighty miles on I-10, an hour and a half. Baton Rouge to Lafayette is about an hour and ten minutes further west; New Orleans to Houma is about an hour and a quarter south-west. Baton Rouge to Shreveport is close to two hundred and fifty miles, about four and a half hours.
So the south of the state works as a chain of towns an hour or so apart, and the north is a separate trip. Two people in New Orleans and Baton Rouge can meet on a Saturday afternoon; two people in New Orleans and Shreveport are really talking about one of them moving.
It is better to know that early. Where you live, and whether you would move, are questions on the cana.love form, and they are there so that this conversation happens before anyone's hopes are up.
The Orthodox year in Louisiana
Vespers in New Orleans and Metairie
Both Holy Trinity and St Basil serve Vespers at five on Saturday evening.
The Divine Liturgy across the south
On Sunday morning it begins at a quarter to ten at Holy Trinity, half past nine at St Basil, and ten at St Matthew and at Archangel Gabriel.
Vespers and supper in Houma
St Barnabas meets once a week for Reader's Vespers and eats together afterwards.
Baton Rouge's own services
Holy Trinity's people once drove to New Orleans for Holy Week; since 2007 the parish has had a priest of its own.
The university year in Lafayette
Archangel Gabriel runs the Orthodox Christian Fellowship chapter at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Holy Trinity between Sundays
When a weekday feast is scheduled, Holy Trinity serves Great Vespers at five, and Matins and the Liturgy at a quarter past eight and a quarter to ten.
Dating across jurisdictions, and with converts
A Greek cathedral from 1864, two Antiochian parishes, and missions of the Orthodox Church in America in three cities: Louisiana's Orthodox map is short, mixed, and spread out. On cana.love, four things are asked of you or promised to you before anything else.
Twelve jurisdictions, and the catechumenate
The form asks which jurisdiction you belong to and names twelve of them: OCA, ROCOR, Greek, Antiochian, Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Georgian, Carpatho-Russian, Albanian, Catechumen and Other Canonical. Every parish on this page falls under one of them, and so does someone who has not yet been received.
What a directory does not show
It asks what the name on a parish directory does not show: how often you are at the Liturgy, whether you keep the fasts, whether marriage is the point. The site runs in five languages, English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Russian, which matters in parishes like Baton Rouge's, whose members bring other first languages with them.
Checked before it is seen
Every profile and photograph is checked before anyone can see it, by an automatic check first and by a person for anything it cannot settle. Asking another member for money is against the published rules, and fraud ends in permanent removal without a warning.
Free, and no password
Nothing is charged: joining is free and there is no subscription. Nor is there a password; you sign in with a one-time link or code sent to your email.
What cana.love is and is not
cana.love is not an Orthodox-only platform.
Catholics use it, and so do Protestants and people who have not decided where they belong but want the same kind of marriage. Who can see you is set by you. For a community whose Lafayette parish once served the Liturgy in a Catholic monastery, a sealed room would be the wrong model. What the site commits to can be checked: jurisdiction, practice and intention are questions on the form, and the answers are there to read before you reply. It is run by Cana SpA, a company in Chile; the About page has the rest.
Meeting safely
- The first meeting should be in daylight and in public, with a finishing time agreed beforehand: coffee hour after the Liturgy, a café in the Garden District or on Perkins Road, a walk along the levee. Tell someone you trust where you will be, and if it means an hour on I-10 each way, tell them when you expect to be back. Keep your home address to yourself for now.
- With money there is nothing to consider. Until you have met in person, send nothing, lend nothing and pay for no one's travel, whatever the story. One report is enough for it to be looked into.
The community guidelines set out how reports are handled and how a decision can be appealed.
Common questions
Is there an Orthodox church in Lafayette?
Yes, Archangel Gabriel, an Antiochian parish on Eraste Landry Road, with Sunday Liturgy at ten and an Orthodox Christian Fellowship chapter at the university.
Which is the oldest Orthodox parish in Louisiana?
Holy Trinity in New Orleans, established in 1864, which describes itself as the first Greek Orthodox church in North and South America.
I live in Shreveport. Is there anything nearer than Baton Rouge?
Yes. Holy Nativity is in Shreveport itself, on Southern Loop.
Is there anything for students?
Archangel Gabriel runs the Orthodox Christian Fellowship chapter at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. For other campuses, ask the nearest parish.
Why is the Romanian mission in Baton Rouge not on the list?
The directory that names it gives no church address, and we could not confirm where it meets. The same goes for a mission in New Orleans.
Can I use cana.love in Louisiana?
Yes, anywhere in the state, from eighteen. It is a website, so there is nothing to install.
Next steps
If you are in Baton Rouge, try both of the city's parishes on consecutive Sundays; if you are in New Orleans, the Saturday Vespers at Holy Trinity and the Sunday Liturgy at St Basil make one easy weekend. And if you would like to know where someone stands before the first coffee rather than after it, make a profile on cana.love: it is free, and it asks what a parish directory cannot.
Reviewed on September 23, 2026.