John of Shanghai Orthodox Church is an English-language Orthodox mission of the Orthodox Church in America – the only wholly English-language Orthodox Church in the city of Vancouver, in fact. Our mission began in 2005 as a daughter parish and church-plant of St. Herman of Alaska Orthodox Church in Langley, which was, for many years, the only canonical English-language Orthodox Church in the whole of the Lower Mainland. We merged, in the summer of 2006, with St. Nina of Georgia Orthodox Mission – another English-language Orthodox mission in Vancouver whose priest had to move to Ontario – so our mission’s full name is actually St. Nina of Georgia Orthodox Church, a rather large name for what is still a rather small (though growing) mission! John’s is currently meeting in the chapel of what used to be a Franciscan convent, an historic building located in East Vancouver on the corner of Napier and Semlin, right across the street from St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church. Many of us are converts to Orthodox Christianity, which makes St. John’s a particularly great place to encounter the riches of the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition for the first time. As the Apostle Philip said to Nathaniel, “Come and see!”
All are welcome to come and worship with us – in keeping with the ancient Orthodox Christian tradition, communion is limited to baptized, confessing Orthodox Christians, but all other aspects of our prayer and worship are open to all. Come and pray.
