Orthodox Christian dating in Washington, DC
Orthodox Christian dating in Washington, DC: the OCA's primatial cathedral, Saint Sophia, St John the Baptist and St George, with addresses and service times.
Create your profileAn illustration, not a data map.
- OCA
- Greek
- ROCOR
- Antiochian
Short answer
Inside the District of Columbia there are four Orthodox churches of four different jurisdictions, and they stand in two pairs. On Massachusetts Avenue the primatial cathedral of the Orthodox Church in America and the Greek cathedral of Saint Sophia are a few minutes' walk apart. A couple of miles to the north-east, the Russian cathedral of St John the Baptist on 17th Street and the Antiochian church of St George on 16th Street are just as close to each other.
So in Washington a person's jurisdiction is not settled by where they live. Someone in Cleveland Park could walk to any of the four. Which one they have chosen, and how often they are there, is something you learn by asking.
This page sits on cana.love, a free site for people who want to marry. It is not an Orthodox-only site, and a section near the end explains what that means in practice.
Orthodox Christians in Washington, DC
The four parishes have four different starting points. St George's has served the Washington area since 1908. The Greek community of Saint Sophia built its first church of its own at 8th and L Streets in 1924, bought the present site in 1943, laid the foundation stone in September 1951 and held its first service in the new cathedral in February 1955. The Russian cathedral of St John the Baptist was founded in 1949 by St John Maximovitch, remembered as Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco. And St Nicholas on Massachusetts Avenue is the primatial cathedral of the Orthodox Church in America, the church of its Metropolitan.
Who are the people coming in now? The Orthodox Studies Institute counted converts in twenty parishes across six jurisdictions and fifteen states. Of those received since 2013, two thirds were under forty when they were received, the thirties were the largest single decade, and 44 percent were unmarried when they came.
Orthodox Studies Institute, 2024; national figures, not the District's
Those are national numbers, not the District's, and nobody has published a count for the city alone. What this page can give instead are four addresses and a campus, each checked against the parish's own website on the day this was written.
Where the community gathers
Everything on this page sits in two parts of the north-west of the city, with the Maryland and Virginia suburbs beyond them.
Massachusetts Avenue
Massachusetts Avenue holds two cathedrals and a campus. St Nicholas Cathedral is at number 3500, Saint Sophia is round the corner on 36th Street, and American University, where the Orthodox campus ministry meets, is about a mile further out along the same avenue.
Sixteenth Street
Sixteenth Street holds the other two. St John the Baptist is on 17th Street at the corner of the Crestwood neighbourhood, and St George is on 16th Street a few blocks north; the cathedral's own directions point visitors to the Columbia Heights and Cleveland Park metro stations and the bus that runs up 16th Street.
Cathedrals and parishes worth knowing
The primatial cathedral of the Orthodox Church in America and a national war memorial shrine; Sunday Liturgy is at nine in English and at a quarter to eleven in Slavonic.
3500 Massachusetts Avenue NWWashington
DC 20007
The Greek cathedral of the capital, first used in 1955, with a Young Adult League and a Greek festival every May.
2815 36th Street NWWashington
DC 20007
A cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, founded in 1949 by St John Maximovitch; Saturday vigil at five, Sunday Liturgy at half past nine.
4001 17th Street NWWashington
DC 20011
An Antiochian parish serving the Washington area since 1908, with Matins at half past nine and the Divine Liturgy at half past ten on Sundays.
4335 16th Street NWWashington
DC 20011
There is also a Bulgarian parish of St George in the Orthodox Church in America's Bulgarian diocese, founded in 1980. The directory gives it a mailing address but no church address, so it has no card here. The Serbian and Romanian parishes that serve the capital are over the line in the suburbs, which is where our Maryland and Virginia pages pick them up.
Distances that decide everything
A diagram, not a map. Distances as given in the text.
The two pairs are about two miles apart, a short bus or car ride through the north-west of the city. American University is about a mile beyond Saint Sophia along Massachusetts Avenue.
That makes the District compact for Orthodox life: every place on this page is within a few miles of every other. The distance that matters is the one from the suburbs. A parish in Potomac and one in Alexandria are on opposite sides of the river, and two people living near each of them will have to decide early which side a shared life would be on.
Better to know that before the first coffee than to discover it after the fifth. Where you live and whether you would move are both on the cana.love form.
The Orthodox year in Washington, DC
Vigil at St Nicholas and St John
Both begin at five, St Nicholas in English and Slavonic.
The Divine Liturgy at all four
Nine and a quarter to eleven at St Nicholas, half past nine at St John, half past ten at St George, and Saint Sophia's own on Massachusetts Avenue, all inside two miles.
The young adult open house
Held by the St Nicholas group at the cathedral, which also helps run the coffee hour.
Campus ministry at American University
Run by Saint Sophia and open to Orthodox students and the curious; it meets once a month in term, at 4400 Massachusetts Avenue.
Saint Sophia's festival
An annual weekend of Greek food, drink and culture.
Bible study at St George
Held online, in the evening.
Dating across jurisdictions, and with converts
Two cathedrals on one avenue and a Russian and an Antiochian church a few blocks apart on another: in Washington, jurisdiction is something people pick. On cana.love that choice is asked about directly, alongside the things the choice does not tell you.
Twelve jurisdictions named one by one
The form names twelve jurisdictions one at a time: OCA, ROCOR, Greek, Antiochian, Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Georgian, Carpatho-Russian, Albanian, Catechumen and Other Canonical. All four of this city's parishes are on that list, and so is the person still in the catechumenate.
Practice asked for, and five languages
It then asks what a jurisdiction leaves out: how often you are actually at the Liturgy, whether you keep the fasts, whether marriage is what you are looking for. In a city where St Nicholas serves in English at nine and in Slavonic at a quarter to eleven, the site itself runs in five languages, English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Russian.
Checked before anyone sees it
Every profile and every photograph is checked before anyone else can see it: an automatic check first, and a person for anything it cannot decide. Asking another member for money is against the published rules, and fraud means permanent removal without a warning.
No subscription, no password
Joining costs nothing and there is no subscription. There is no password either; you sign in each time 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 are on it, Protestants are on it, and so are people who have not settled anywhere yet but want the same kind of marriage. Who can see you is your own setting. In a city with four jurisdictions in two short walks and a campus ministry that welcomes the curious as well as the baptised, a closed door would suit no one. What the site does promise can be checked: jurisdiction, practice and purpose are questions on the form, and the answers are there to read before you write back. The operator is Cana SpA, a Chilean company, and the About page has the rest.
Meeting safely
- Make the first meeting a daytime one in a public place, with a time to part agreed in advance: coffee hour after the Liturgy, a café on Connecticut Avenue, a walk on the Mall. Tell a friend where you will be. Your home address is not first-meeting information, and neither is where you work.
- About money there is nothing to decide. Before you have met in person, send nothing, lend nothing and buy nobody a ticket, however urgent the story. Report it once and it will be looked at.
How reports are handled, and how a decision can be appealed, is set out in the community guidelines.
Common questions
Is there an Orthodox church I can walk to from downtown?
Not from the centre itself; the four are in the north-west. From Dupont Circle, Massachusetts Avenue takes you out to St Nicholas and Saint Sophia, and 16th Street takes you to St John and St George.
Which of the four serves in English?
St Nicholas holds its nine o'clock Liturgy in English and its later one in Slavonic. For the others, the parish's own website is the place to check before you go.
I live in Maryland or Virginia. Is this page for me?
Partly. The four churches here are in the District; the suburban parishes, including the Serbian and Romanian ones, are on our Maryland and Virginia pages.
Is there anything for students?
Yes. The Orthodox campus ministry at American University meets monthly in term and is open to Orthodox students and to anyone interested.
Is there a young adult group?
St Nicholas has one, with a monthly open house, and Saint Sophia has a Young Adult League. Neither page gives an age range, so we do not give one either.
Can I use cana.love in Washington?
Yes, from eighteen and from anywhere. It is a website, so there is nothing to install.
Next steps
If you are new to the city, go to one Saturday vigil and one Sunday Liturgy in each pair before deciding anything; the two pairs are close enough to do it over a single month. And if you would like to know where someone stands on faith and marriage before you meet, make a profile on cana.love: it is free, and it asks the questions that a coffee hour leaves until later.
Reviewed on September 23, 2026.