Orthodox Christian dating in Missouri
Orthodox dating in Missouri: the old parishes of St Louis, Kansas City, Columbia and the Ozarks, and how to find a spouse. Free, no subscription.
Create your profileAn illustration, not a data map.
- Greek
- Serbian
- OCA
- Antiochian
- ROCOR
- Monastery
Short answer
Missouri is two cities four hours apart on I-70 and the hills between them. St Louis has the old parishes: the Russian St Michael the Archangel, opened in October 1909 in what its own history calls the age of the horse and buggy; the Serbian Holy Trinity, founded on 1 August 1909 and consecrated on Serbian Drive in 1928; the Romanian St Thomas of 1935; the Greek St Nicholas on Forest Park Avenue and the Assumption, on its Des Peres Road land since 1978 and in its basilica since 1989. Kansas City has had the Annunciation since 1910 and keeps a Serbian parish with a school and a convent. Columbia's St Luke was chartered in 2002, Springfield's St Thomas began with a few families in 1978, and the Ozarks hold a parish grown from a family cemetery, two missions and a women's monastery revived in 2020.
What this page hands you on to: cana.love, a site for people who want marriage rather than a match, free, with a form that asks what a Missouri parish would ask you at coffee hour: which church, how many Sundays, what you do about fasting, which of twelve Orthodox jurisdictions you belong to. The Serb from Serbian Drive and the convert from Schuetz Road start from what they keep, not from a label.
Not an Orthodox-only site: the section below is the honest version.
Orthodox Christians in Missouri
St Louis got its Orthodox parishes in one year. On 1 August 1909 the Serbs of the city, who had been arriving from the Banat since 1902, from Lika and Kordun since 1904 and from Bosnia, Montenegro and Slavonia since 1906, and who had founded a singing society called Gusle the year before, formally established Holy Trinity; they bought a building at Eighth and Barry in 1911 and consecrated the church on Serbian Drive in McKinley Heights on 2 June 1928. Two months later, in October 1909, the Russians opened St Michael the Archangel a block away on Ann Avenue; its first priest was a hieromonk, and the parish still lists every rector since. The Romanians followed with St Thomas the Apostle in 1935, and the Greeks built St Nicholas on Forest Park Avenue and, in 1978, bought land on Des Peres Road in Town and Country for the Assumption, whose basilica was finished in 1989.
Kansas City's Annunciation was founded downtown in 1910 by a small group of Greek immigrants, built a new church in 1941 and began its move to Wornall Road in 1973. Its neighbour across the state line, the Antiochian St Basil, stands in Kansas City, Kansas, across the state line. The Serbian St Mary of Egypt on Chestnut Avenue keeps two things few parishes keep: a day school of its own, Mount Tabor, from first grade to twelfth, and a convent, Our Lady of the Lost.
Orthodox Studies Institute, 2024; national figures, not Missouri's
Then the converts. St Thomas the Apostle in Springfield was founded by a few families in 1978 and served by visiting clergy for years before it settled. Fr Moses came home to Ash Grove in 1998 to look after a historic cemetery on his family's land, now on the National Register of Historic Places, and the parish that grew there, the Theotokos "Unexpected Joy", was received into the OCA in 2000 and draws members from Carthage to Branson. St Luke the Evangelist in Columbia was chartered in 2002 under Metropolitan Iakovos of Chicago; All Saints of North America in Maryland Heights started in 2003 and describes itself as about half cradle Orthodox and half converts; the Annunciation mission outside Rolla was founded on 9 February 2013; and on 1 November 2020, in the middle of the lockdowns, the Diocese of the Midwest reopened an abandoned monastery at Niangua as Holy Resurrection, a women's community that supports itself on candles.
Who are the people in those newer pews? The Orthodox Studies Institute went and asked, in twenty parishes across six jurisdictions and fifteen states, and its portrait of converts received since 2013 is this: two thirds under forty at their reception, the thirties the commonest decade, 44 percent single when they arrived.
Missouri was not a separate line in the study, but its person is the one who will refill your coffee at Schuetz Road, Audubon Drive or Woodbine Road: someone raised Baptist, Lutheran or nothing, received as an adult, not yet married. Four of the parishes on this page were founded by that person.
Five jurisdictions cover the state. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese has St Nicholas and the Assumption in St Louis and St Luke in Columbia under the Metropolis of Chicago, and the Annunciation in Kansas City under the Metropolis of Denver. The Orthodox Church in America's Diocese of the Midwest keeps St Michael in St Louis, St Thomas in Springfield, the Unexpected Joy in Ash Grove, the Annunciation in St James, a mission in Joplin, a chapel in Kansas City and the monastery at Niangua; its Romanian Episcopate has St Thomas in St Louis. The Antiochian Archdiocese has All Saints of North America in Maryland Heights. The Serbian Diocese of New Gracanica and Midwestern America has Holy Trinity in St Louis and St Mary of Egypt in Kansas City. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia has St Basil the Great in Kirkwood, St John Chrysostom with the Holy Archangels Monastery in House Springs, and a mission in Columbia. The directory of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops has the rest.
Where the community gathers
Missouri's Church is a line across the state, St Louis to Columbia to Kansas City on I-70, with the Ozarks hanging below it on I-44.
St Louis and its ring
St Louis holds eight of the thirteen parishes on this page. Holy Trinity on Serbian Drive and St Michael on Ann Avenue are a block apart in McKinley Heights; St Nicholas is on Forest Park Avenue by the park; St Thomas, the Romanian parish, is on Nottingham Avenue in St Louis Hills; the Assumption is out west on Des Peres Road in Town and Country, All Saints of North America north-west on Schuetz Road in Maryland Heights, St Basil in Kirkwood; St John Chrysostom and its monastery are forty minutes south-west on Gravois Road in House Springs. Everything inside the I-270 loop is half an hour from everything else.
Kansas City
Kansas City has two parishes on this page and a third across the river. The Annunciation is on Wornall Road at 120th Street, at the southern edge of the city; St Mary of Egypt, the Serbian parish with its school and convent, is on Chestnut Avenue on the east side; the OCA keeps a chapel of St Maria of Paris on the east side too. The Antiochian St Basil is on Riverview Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas, ten minutes across the state line, and its members pray in Missouri without noticing the border.
Columbia and the middle
Columbia and the middle: St Luke on Audubon Drive is the parish of the university town, two hours from either city; the Russian Church Abroad keeps a mission of St Mary of Egypt there too. St James, ninety minutes from St Louis on I-44, has the Annunciation mission on its own hill outside Rolla.
The Ozarks
The Ozarks are Springfield and the country around it. St Thomas is on South Holiday Avenue in Springfield; the Unexpected Joy on Woodbine Road in Ash Grove, twenty minutes west; the Joy of All Who Sorrow mission on 32nd Street in Joplin, an hour further; Holy Resurrection Monastery on Hospitality Road in Niangua, an hour east on I-44. Branson and the lakes have no parish on this page.
Cathedrals and parishes worth knowing
The Greek parish by Forest Park, with its family life centre out west on South 40 Drive and a Greek festival on the calendar.
4967 Forest Park AvenueSt Louis
On its Town and Country land since 1978; the basilica and community centre were finished in 1989.
1755 Des Peres RoadTown and Country
Formally established on 1 August 1909 by immigrants who had founded the Gusle singing society a year earlier; the church in McKinley Heights was consecrated on 2 June 1928.
1910 Serbian DriveSt Louis
Opened in October 1909 as a Russian parish, a block from Holy Trinity; the list of its rectors runs unbroken from a hieromonk of 1909.
1901 Ann AvenueSt Louis
The Romanian parish of St Louis Hills, founded in 1935.
6501 Nottingham AvenueSt Louis
Started in 2003 in north-west St Louis; about half its members were born Orthodox and half came in as adults.
2550 Schuetz RoadMaryland Heights
The Russian Church Abroad's parish on the west side of St Louis.
205 Highland AvenueKirkwood
A parish with the Holy Archangels Monastery beside it, forty minutes south-west of the city in Jefferson County.
3774 Gravois RoadHouse Springs
Founded downtown in 1910, in a new church from 1941, on Wornall Road since the move that began in 1973.
12001 Wornall RoadKansas City
A parish with Mount Tabor, its own day school from first to twelfth grade, and the convent of Our Lady of the Lost.
3745 Chestnut AvenueKansas City
Chartered in 2002 under Metropolitan Iakovos of Chicago; the parish of the university town.
1510 Audubon DriveColumbia
Founded by a few families in 1978 and served by visiting clergy for years before it grew into the parish of the Ozarks.
4200 South Holiday AvenueSpringfield
Begun in 1998 around a historic family cemetery and received into the OCA in 2000; members from Carthage to Branson.
810 West Woodbine RoadAsh Grove
Distances that decide everything
A schematic, not a map. Driving times as given in the text.
The state is a line with a bulge. St Louis to Columbia is two hours on I-70 and Columbia to Kansas City two more; St Louis to Kansas City is four. St Louis to St James is ninety minutes on I-44 and to Springfield three hours; Springfield to Joplin is an hour west and to Niangua an hour east; Kansas City to Springfield is two and a half hours down I-49 and across on US-60. Inside St Louis, Forest Park to Town and Country is twenty-five minutes and the city to House Springs forty.
Which radius? The one you would drive on a Sunday and still be home for the afternoon. In Missouri that is one of four: St Louis with its ring out to House Springs; Kansas City with its Kansas half; Columbia, which can reach either city for a feast but not for a weeknight; the Ozarks, Springfield with Ash Grove, Joplin and Niangua. A statewide search puts I-70 under every first meeting, four hours of it end to end; some will drive it and some will not, and the profile is where you say which.
The Orthodox year in Missouri
Greek festivals
St Nicholas in St Louis keeps a festival of Greek food and culture, and the Assumption and Kansas City's Annunciation keep theirs; dates are on the parish sites. A festival is the weekend a parish opens its gates to the town and does not ask who you are.
Serbian slavas
Holy Trinity in St Louis keeps its patronal feast on the Monday of the Holy Spirit, the day after Pentecost, and St Mary of Egypt in Kansas City keeps hers on the fifth Sunday of Great Lent; a slava is a family feast kept by a whole parish, and a guest at the table is the point of it.
Monastery weekends
Holy Resurrection at Niangua receives visitors; the St Mary of Egypt weekend in Lent is one the bishop has kept there. House Springs has the Holy Archangels beside its parish, Kansas City the convent of Our Lady of the Lost. A monastery is where people from different parishes meet without a festival tent.
The convert parishes
Springfield, Ash Grove, Columbia, Maryland Heights, St James: founded by people who came in as adults, and the coffee hours where inquirers and catechumens are thickest.
Sunday of Orthodoxy
On the first Sunday of Great Lent St Louis's parishes serve one Vespers together, Kansas City's another; the host changes from year to year, and the parish sites say which.
Diocesan gatherings
The Metropolises of Chicago and Denver, the OCA Diocese of the Midwest and its Kansas City Deanery, the Antiochian Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America and the Serbian diocese each keep assemblies, young-adult retreats and clergy-laity meetings, dated on their sites; those are the days St Louis and Kansas City are in one room.
Dating across jurisdictions, and with converts
A block of McKinley Heights separates the Serbian Holy Trinity from the Russian St Michael, and both parishes have been there since 1909; a convert from Schuetz Road is twenty-five minutes from either. What does the cana.love form do with that? Four things, and here they are as the questions people actually ask.
Practice, not labels
Does it ask what I practise or only what I am? What you practise: your parish, how many Sundays a month you are in it, what you do about fasting, whether marriage is the aim. An Orthodox member also picks one of twelve jurisdictions named on the form, OCA, ROCOR, Greek, Antiochian, Serbian, Romanian and the rest, and Catechumen is one of the twelve, since the study above puts a good many of the people looking exactly there.
Five languages, Russian included
Which languages? English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Russian, every page of the site. In Missouri that covers the Serbian of Serbian Drive and Chestnut Avenue, the Russian of Kirkwood and House Springs, the Romanian of Nottingham Avenue and the Spanish of Kansas City's west side; two members who write in different languages can have an optional AI feature translate between them.
Checked before it is visible
Is anyone checking? Every profile and every photograph is reviewed before another member can see it, and what the automatic check cannot settle goes to a person. A member who asks another for money loses the account for good, with no first warning.
Free, with no paid tiers
What does it cost? Nothing: no subscription, no paid tier, and seeing who visited you or who liked you is free, though on most sites those are the paid part. The optional AI helpers use credits, 150 at registration, and there is currently no way to get more. You sign in with a one-time link or code to your email, so there is no password to keep.
What cana.love is and is not
cana.love is not an Orthodox-only platform.
Catholics, Protestants and people with no confession who want the same kind of marriage are members too, and each member's filters decide whom they see. In a state where a parish describes itself as half cradle and half convert, and four parishes were founded by people who came in from Protestant churches, saying otherwise would be dishonest. What the site does undertake is exact: jurisdiction, practice and intention are questions on the form, and everyone you meet answered the same ones that you did. The About page tells the rest.
Meeting safely
- Money goes to nobody you have not met in person; on cana.love a request for money is grounds for a report, and the member who asked is removed permanently.
- The first meeting is in a public place, someone you trust knows where you are, and the conversation stays on the site until moving it is your own decision.
Reviews, reports and appeals are laid out on the guidelines page.
Common questions
Is cana.love available in Missouri?
Yes. Any adult anywhere can join, Missouri included; the site runs in the browser of a phone or a computer, installs nothing, and works in English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Russian.
How far should I search in Missouri?
One of the four corners: St Louis and its ring, Kansas City, Columbia, or the Ozarks around Springfield. Statewide means I-70 before every meeting; widen only if you mean it.
Which Orthodox parishes in Missouri were founded by converts?
St Thomas in Springfield (1978), the Unexpected Joy in Ash Grove (1998, in the OCA from 2000), St Luke in Columbia (2002), All Saints of North America in Maryland Heights (2003) and the Annunciation mission at St James (2013); the older parishes of St Louis and Kansas City serve in English too.
Is there an Orthodox monastery in Missouri?
Three, of three jurisdictions: Holy Resurrection, a women's monastery of the OCA at Niangua in the Ozarks, revived on 1 November 2020; the Holy Archangels Monastery of the Russian Church Abroad beside St John Chrysostom in House Springs; and the Serbian convent of Our Lady of the Lost at St Mary of Egypt in Kansas City.
Where is the oldest Orthodox parish in Missouri?
St Louis, 1909, twice over: the Serbian Holy Trinity was established on 1 August and the Russian St Michael the Archangel opened in October, a block apart in McKinley Heights. Kansas City's Annunciation followed in 1910.
Where can I find every Orthodox parish in Missouri?
The directory of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops, then the diocesan lists: the Greek Metropolises of Chicago and Denver, the OCA Diocese of the Midwest with its Kansas City Deanery and the Romanian Episcopate, the Antiochian Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America, the Serbian Diocese of New Gracanica and Midwestern America, the ROCOR Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America.
Next steps
Create a profile on cana.love; read the community guidelines before your first message and the About page for who runs the site. Then your corner of Missouri, its slava or its festival, and the person.
Reviewed on September 20, 2026.