Orthodox Christian dating in Nebraska
Orthodox Christian dating in Nebraska: Antiochian, Greek, Serbian and OCA parishes in Omaha and Lincoln, and St George in Kearney, founded by St Raphael.
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- Antiochian
- Greek
- Serbian
- OCA
Short answer
One of Nebraska's Orthodox stories begins out on the prairie. St George in Kearney says it was founded by St Raphael of Brooklyn, who first visited in 1899, and that its first priest, Nicola Yanney, was a homesteader: his family lived on a claim in Valley Township from 1895, and on 3 April 1904 he was ordained by St Raphael, the first priest Raphael ordained after becoming a bishop. He served the parish and scattered Orthodox families across the plains for more than fourteen years.
Six parishes are listed below with an address and a link to their own website: three in Omaha, two in Lincoln and St George in Kearney. Between them they cover four jurisdictions.
This page is on cana.love, a free site for people who mean to marry. Not everyone on it is Orthodox, and a section below says what that means.
Orthodox Christians in Nebraska
Kearney's parish history is proud of its founders. St Raphael, who had come to New York in 1895 at the request of Syrian-Lebanese immigrants, visited Kearney twice, the second time a few months before his death in 1915, and the parish counts him among its founders. Father Nicola, it says, often visited small groups of families that later became parishes, and sometimes a single isolated Orthodox family.
Omaha's Antiochian parish grew out of a club. St Mary's history says that from the 1930s Syrian and Lebanese families, members of the Phoenician Club of Omaha, met in each other's homes for Vespers and then in the club house at 39th and Jones; in 1957 they incorporated the parish and bought a Lutheran church at 52nd and Seward.
Orthodox Studies Institute, 2024; national figures, not Nebraska's
Lincoln has two parishes a few minutes apart: the Annunciation, a Greek parish, and St John of Kronstadt, of the Orthodox Church in America, whose services are all in English.
What about converts nationally? The Orthodox Studies Institute studied twenty parishes in six jurisdictions and fifteen states. Of the people received since 2013, two thirds were under forty at the time, the thirties were the most common decade, and 44 percent were single.
That study does not count Nebraska on its own, and neither does anyone else we know of. The six addresses below were each checked against the parish's own website on 24 September 2026.
Where the community gathers
The six places fall into three parts of the state: Omaha, Lincoln and Kearney.
Omaha
Omaha holds three. St Mary, the Antiochian parish, is on Boyd Street in the north-west of the city; All Holy Spirit, a Greek parish, is on 193rd Street out in Elkhorn; and St Nicholas, the Serbian parish, is on Harrison Street in the south. Omaha also has a Greek parish of St John the Baptist on Park Avenue and a Western-rite parish on North 51st Street, but we could not find a working website for the first or a timetable for the second, so they have no cards.
Lincoln
Lincoln holds two: the Annunciation on North 63rd Street and St John of Kronstadt at 28th and Holdrege, about seven minutes apart.
Kearney
Kearney holds one: St George on Avenue G, two and a half hours west of Lincoln. Grand Island, an hour east of Kearney, has a Greek church on the map, but we found no website for it.
Cathedrals and parishes worth knowing
Founded by Syrian and Lebanese families in the 1950s; Vespers on Saturday at five, and Orthros at a quarter to nine and the Divine Liturgy at ten on Sunday.
10303 Boyd StreetOmaha
NE 68134
A Greek parish on Omaha's western edge, with Matins at nine and the Liturgy at half past nine on Sunday.
450 South 193rd StreetElkhorn
NE 68022
The Serbian parish of Omaha, with the Divine Liturgy every Sunday at ten.
5050 Harrison StreetOmaha
NE 68157
A parish of the Greek Metropolis of Denver, with Great Vespers on Saturday at five, and Orthros at nine and the Liturgy at ten on Sunday.
950 North 63rd StreetLincoln
NE 68505
A parish of the Orthodox Church in America with all its services in English: the Vigil on Saturday at five and the Liturgy on Sunday at ten.
2800 Holdrege StreetLincoln
NE 68503
An Antiochian parish founded by St Raphael of Brooklyn and Father Nicola Yanney, with evening classes on the faith; in the week we checked, Vespers on Saturday at five and the Liturgy on Sunday at ten.
1505 Avenue GKearney
NE 68847
Distances that decide everything
A diagram, not a map. Driving times, as in the text.
Omaha to Lincoln is about an hour. Lincoln to Kearney is two and a half hours, and Omaha to Kearney a little over three. Within Omaha the three parishes are twenty minutes or so apart, and in Lincoln the two are seven minutes apart.
So Orthodox Nebraska is really one corridor, Omaha and Lincoln an hour apart, with Kearney far out along I-80. Two people in Omaha and Lincoln can meet after work; someone in Kearney is a Saturday's drive from both.
Say where you live and whether you would move; both are on the cana.love form, and both are easier to settle before the first coffee.
The Orthodox year in Nebraska
Vespers and the Vigil
At five on Saturday at St Mary in Omaha, the Annunciation and St John of Kronstadt in Lincoln, and St George in Kearney.
The Divine Liturgy
At half past nine in Elkhorn, and at ten at St Mary, St Nicholas, both Lincoln parishes and Kearney.
Evening classes in Kearney
St George lists evening classes and a short catechism series on its site.
St Raphael's day
The Antiochian Church keeps his memory on the Saturday before the feast of the Archangels in November, and the Kearney parish counts him among its founders.
Confession in Lincoln
St John of Kronstadt hears confessions after its midweek Vespers.
Holy days in Lincoln
St John of Kronstadt serves the Vigil at six on the evening before a great feast, and the Liturgy at nine on the day.
Dating across jurisdictions, and with converts
A parish founded by a saint and a homesteader, another by a club of Lebanese families, a Serbian parish, two Greek ones and an English-speaking parish of the Orthodox Church in America: Orthodox Nebraska is small and mixed. Here is what cana.love does with that.
Twelve jurisdictions on one list
The form asks for your jurisdiction and lists twelve: OCA, ROCOR, Greek, Antiochian, Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Georgian, Carpatho-Russian, Albanian, Catechumen and Other Canonical. Four of those cover the six parishes here; a newcomer in Kearney's evening classes would pick Catechumen.
Practice, asked outright
Then it turns to practice. How often are you at the Liturgy? Do you keep the fasts? Is marriage what you are looking for? English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Russian are all available on the site.
Checked before it appears
Profiles and photographs are not shown to anyone until they have been checked, first automatically and then by a person whenever that first check cannot decide. The site's rules forbid asking any member for money, and fraud means permanent removal with no warning.
Free, and no password
Membership is free, and no subscription waits further down the line. Signing in is done by a single-use link or code that the site emails you, so there is no password to lose.
What cana.love is and is not
cana.love is not an Orthodox-only platform.
Its members include Catholics and Protestants as well as people who have not yet found their church, provided they want a marriage of the same kind; what others can see of you is set by you. Six parishes along nearly two hundred miles of interstate is not a large pool, and a site open to one jurisdiction only would leave most Nebraskans with no one to write to. What the site does promise you can test for yourself: jurisdiction, practice and intentions are asked outright, and you can read them before answering anyone. The company behind it is Cana SpA, registered in Chile; the About page has the details.
Meeting safely
- A first meeting should be public and in daylight, with a time to part agreed beforehand: coffee hour after the Liturgy, or a café in Omaha's Old Market or Lincoln's Haymarket. Someone you trust should know where you are, and on a day with two or three hours of I-80, when you plan to be back. Your home address is for later.
- Where money is concerned, the answer does not change with the story: until you have been in the same room, you send none, you lend none and you buy nobody a ticket. Tell us if someone asks; a single report is enough for us to check.
Our community guidelines describe what happens to a report and how a decision can be challenged.
Common questions
Who was Father Nicola Yanney?
The founding priest of St George in Kearney, a homesteader ordained on 3 April 1904 by St Raphael of Brooklyn, the first priest Raphael ordained after becoming a bishop. He served for more than fourteen years and died in 1918.
Is there an English-language parish?
St John of Kronstadt in Lincoln, of the Orthodox Church in America, holds all its services in English.
Is there a Serbian parish?
St Nicholas on Harrison Street in Omaha, with the Liturgy every Sunday at ten.
I live in western Nebraska. Where is the nearest parish?
St George in Kearney is the furthest west on this page. Grand Island, an hour to the east, has a Greek church on the map, but we could not find a website for it.
Why does St John the Baptist in Omaha have no card?
The website listed for it leads to a parked page, so we could not check its details from its own site.
Can I use cana.love in Nebraska?
Yes, from Omaha to the Panhandle, once you are eighteen. It runs in a browser; there is no app.
Next steps
In Omaha, give St Mary one Sunday and St Nicholas the next. In Lincoln, go to the Saturday Vigil at St John of Kronstadt, where everything is in English. Near Kearney, ask at St George about its evening classes. And if you want to know how seriously someone takes the faith before a first coffee rather than months after it, set up a free profile on cana.love; the questions that matter are on it.
Reviewed on September 24, 2026.