Orthodox Christian dating in Ontario

Orthodox Christians in Ontario

Toronto first, because Toronto has the cathedrals. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Canada sits in the city: Archbishop Apostolos, the Patriarchal Toronto Orthodox Theological Academy, St Nicholas Cathedral on Finch Avenue East in Scarborough, and St George's on Bond Street, a block from Yonge, the downtown parish; its list of communities in Toronto alone runs to All Saints on Bayview Avenue, Sts Constantine and Helen, St Demetrios in Thorncliffe Park, the Annunciation on Sorauren Avenue, Holy Trinity–Panagia Grigoroussa on Clinton Street, St Irene on Gough Avenue, St John the Baptist on Warden Avenue and the Metamorphosis on Donlands. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia's Holy Trinity Cathedral on Henry Street, beside the University of Toronto, is the seat of its Diocese of Montreal and Canada; the Orthodox Church in America's Christ the Saviour Cathedral is on Manning Avenue in the west end; and St Sava on River Street, consecrated on 22 May 1955, is the parish of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Canada in the city.

Then the Greater Toronto Area and the Golden Horseshoe. The Greek archdiocese's Prophet Elias in Mississauga is on Matheson Boulevard East by the airport, Sts Panteleimon, Anna and Paraskevi in Markham on Warden Avenue north of the city, and the Evangelismos–St Gerasimos–St Nektarios in Oshawa to the east; around the lake, Hamilton has two Greek parishes, St Demetrios on Head Street and the Koimisis on East 15th Street, St Catharines has St Katharine on Niagara Street, and Smithville a chapel of St Charalambos.

Then the southwest. Sts Peter and Paul in Kitchener on Bridgeport Road East, St George in Guelph, Holy Trinity in London on Southdale Road West, St Demetrios in Sarnia, Holy Cross in Windsor on Walker Road, St Nektarios in Chatham, the Prophet Elias in Brantford; one Greek parish in each city of the peninsula, an hour or two apart along the 401.

Then Ottawa and the east. The Orthodox Church in America's Archdiocese of Canada has its cathedral of the Annunciation and St Nicholas on Eccles Street in the capital, the seat of its archbishop; the Greek archdiocese has the Kimisis on Prince of Wales Drive; the Rideau lakes have the archdiocese's hermitage at Westport; and Kingston, Belleville, Brockville, Cornwall, Pembroke and Peterborough each have a Greek community, most in their own church. The north is Sudbury, North Bay and Thunder Bay, a Greek parish each, and a long drive between.

The people filling these parishes have been counted, though south of the border. The Orthodox Studies Institute surveyed twenty American parishes across six jurisdictions and reported, of the converts received since 2013, that two thirds were under forty at their reception, that people in their thirties outnumbered every other decade, and that 44 percent were single when they came in.

Ontario was not among the twenty, and here the survey describes the cathedrals better than the parishes: Christ the Saviour, Holy Trinity and the two Ottawa churches are where the province's converts gather, and the Greek parishes of the suburbs and the peninsula are the grandchildren of the families who built them. The unmarried Orthodox thirty-year-old in Ontario is as likely to be at St Sava as at St Nicholas Cathedral, and both are on the same subway line.

Four jurisdictions are on this page. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Canada with its Toronto cathedral and parishes in every city of the province; the Orthodox Church in America with cathedrals in Ottawa and Toronto and the hermitage at Westport; the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia with Holy Trinity Cathedral; the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Canada with St Sava. The Antiochian, Romanian and Bulgarian parishes of Toronto were not searched for this page.

Where the community gathers

Ontario's Orthodox gather in Toronto, in the GTA and Hamilton, in the southwest along the 401, and in Ottawa.

Distances that decide everything

The Orthodox year in Ontario

Dating across jurisdictions, and with converts

Two kilometres separate three jurisdictions in downtown Toronto, twenty kilometres the downtown from the cathedral, four hundred and fifty the province's two capitals of the Church. The cana.love form was written for exactly those distances, and it can be checked by counting.

Meeting safely

• Money asked for by someone you have not met in person is, on cana.love, grounds for a report, and the person who asked is removed for good.
• The first meeting is in a public place, someone you trust knows where you are, and the conversation stays on the site until you decide otherwise, not the other person.

The guidelines page explains reviews, reports and appeals.

Common questions