How to Find a Parish, and Next Steps

What you'll notice

You type "Orthodox church near me" and the map fills up. Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. Holy Trinity, which says OCA. Saint George Antiochian. A Serbian church with a name you can't pronounce yet. A Coptic church. A Byzantine Catholic church with an iconostasis in the photos. Maybe something that calls itself Orthodox and lists no bishop you can find.

They can't all be what this guide is about, and some of them aren't. The good news is that the ones that are share one faith and one Liturgy, and you're welcome in any of them.

What it's called

A parish is a local congregation under a bishop; a young or small one is often called a mission. Each parish belongs to a jurisdiction, the branch of one of the self-governing Orthodox churches that cares for its people in a particular place. In the United States a dozen of them overlap, because the Orthodox arrived from a dozen countries; Who Are the Orthodox? tells that story, and How the Church Is Organized explains the structure.

Canonical is the word you'll see for the churches in good standing with the worldwide Orthodox family, as opposed to groups that use the name without that standing.

What's actually happening

In the United States, the simplest starting point is the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America, which keeps a parish directory at assemblyofbishops.org/directories/parishes.¹ It has also published a county-by-county map of its parishes.² If a church calls itself Orthodox and isn't there, it may be one of the Oriental Orthodox churches (Coptic, Armenian, Ethiopian, Syriac), an Eastern Catholic parish in communion with Rome, or a group outside the Orthodox communion. Outside the United States, start with the website of the Orthodox jurisdiction for your country.

Then look at three things.

Can you get there every week? Jurisdiction matters much less than whether you'll go back next Sunday. Pick the closest one, or the one a friend goes to, or the one whose website answers your questions.

What language? Most parishes in America now serve mostly in English, with some Greek, Slavonic, Arabic, or Romanian kept for the hymns people grew up with. A few serve mostly in the old language. The website usually tells you, and if it doesn't, call or email and ask.

What's the schedule? Sunday morning follows one of two patterns. Greek-practice parishes, including most Antiochian and Romanian ones in America, serve Orthros (Matins, the morning service) right before the Divine Liturgy. Slavic-practice parishes, Russian and Serbian and much of the OCA, often serve the All-Night Vigil on Saturday night and begin Sunday with the Hours or the Liturgy itself (Matins Is Already Happening). Some parishes keep the old Julian calendar for fixed feasts, so their Christmas falls on January 7; Why Is Orthodox Easter on a Different Date? explains the two calendars.

Why it matters

You can't be Orthodox in general. The Church is always a particular altar, a particular bishop, and a particular group of people who'll notice when you're gone. That's why the best parish for you is usually the one you'll actually attend, not the one with the best choir an hour away. The choir will improve. The drive won't.

And it's why the overlapping jurisdictions matter less than they look. Your first Liturgy at Saint Nicholas and your hundredth at Holy Trinity will follow the same order, with the same Creed and the same Lord's Prayer. The accents change; the Liturgy doesn't.

Where it came from

The Assembly first met in New York in May 2010, in response to decisions of the Fourth Pre-Conciliar Pan-Orthodox Conference held in Switzerland the year before. It describes itself as the successor of SCOBA, the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas.³ Its directory is the nearest thing American Orthodoxy has to a single phone book.

The overlap it maps is a product of American history, not of Orthodox theology. Missionaries and immigrants planted parishes under their own mother churches, and those parishes have never been merged into one American church. A Short History, Pentecost to America tells how it happened.

What you do

If you're Orthodox: when you move, look up the directory before you sign the lease. If you're the one at the door when a newcomer walks in, say hello and show them where to stand; Coffee Hour has more on welcoming.

If you're visiting: pick one and go. Before your first Sunday, read What to Wear and the one-page Your First Divine Liturgy; if you come in late, Arriving Late has you covered. At the end, the blessed bread is for you too (The Cross and the Bread). Then stay for coffee hour.

After that, go to Vespers (the evening service). It's shorter than the Liturgy, quieter, and less crowded, and it's where the Church's day begins, at sunset; Vespers, Vigil, and the Daily Round walks you through it. Keep reading, too: Further Reading by Level suggests where to start. And when you're ready to begin, The Path In tells you what happens next.

Field Note: one parish, then another. Visiting a second jurisdiction after you know the first is one of the best lessons in what's essential. The language and the music change, the pews come and go, and the Liturgy underneath stays put. Just don't make a hobby of it. Sooner or later you have to pick one and stay.

Go deeper

• Acts 2:42–47, the first parish.
• The Assembly's parish directory, assemblyofbishops.org/directories/parishes.
• A Saturday evening Vespers or Vigil at the parish you're considering.
• Who Are the Orthodox? and Further Reading by Level.

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