DIASPORA

RAINY SERBS FROM NORTH AMERICA: They raised a church from the ashes, and now Americans are converting to Orthodoxy with them! And they still make the best cevapi in the world! (VIDEO)

by Antonije Kovačević21. January 2026.21. January 2026.

The city of Portland in the American state of Oregon is a capital of high technologies, healthy living, and is located in the middle of a heavenly natural environment, so in one day you can enjoy swimming in the ocean, fishing on the river, skiing on the snowy slopes of volcanic mountains, or relaxing in spas with thermal waters located in an Indian reservation.

Portland is also the birthplace and home of one of the largest global brands, the Nike company, which has its headquarters in this city as the Americans say, but also a real-life Nike city, with business and residential buildings where its designers and managers live, and where every building is named after some model of sports equipment and the famous sneakers made famous by Michael Jordan.

It is also the city with perhaps the most rainy days of all large American cities, so it is somewhat logical that one of its symbols is a statue of the rain man, located on the main square, in the very center.

A small but well-organized Serbian community lives in this city, composed of people from all parts of the former Yugoslavia. There are old immigrants, but mostly refugees from Republika Srpska and Krajina, who sought a better life across the ocean after the civil war.

The epicenter of their gathering is the Church of Saint Stephen, which diligent parishioners raised literally from the ashes, on the foundations of a burned-down Korean temple in 2006, and which, in the words of its young parish priest, Father Jovan Katanić, gathers over 120 families scattered across Portland and surrounding small towns.

But this church does not only gather Serbs, but also a large group of Americans who converted to Orthodoxy from Catholicism and Protestantism.

See how our editor Antonije Kovačević celebrated the church Slava with the Serbs in Portland, played “small-goal” football, and ate the best cevapi in the world!

For more exclusive reports and updates about the lives of Serbian and Balkan diaspora communities in America and worldwide, follow our YouTube channel Serbian News USA by clicking THIS LINK!

Author: Antonije KOvačević Vidio Editor: Ivana Talijan