Divine Liturgy at Ramstein AFB

[ATX]

Hi folks,

For those who've following my posts, I found the parish I will attend here in Germany.  It's about an hour away at Ramstein AFB in Kaiserslautern.  I spent time this weekend contacting priests at local parishes in an around Heidelberg, but only one spoke any English and we had difficulty communicating.  As a catechumen, I really feel I need a priest I can communicate with, so I've decided to join the community at Ramstein.  Fortunately, there don't seem to be any plans for the joint chiefs to shut the air base down, so the parish will be there for a long time.  The Orthodox chaplain here already PCS'd stateside and the one in Stuttgart will leave in the summer, both moves part of the Army's decision to reduce and consolidate forces in Germany.  By summer, only Ramstein will have Orthodox services in English.  I'm told that the priest there will be the only one in all of Western Europe (except the UK) who conducts services in English.  I feel very fortunate that I only have to drive an hour to attend (or less, if I drive really fast on the autobahn  ). 

Now if only I could convince my wife to attend with me.  It was extremely hard to do, but I attended the local Mormon congregation yesterday to let them know my family is moving here soon.  I want my wife and sons to feel very comfortable moving to Germany and she asked me to let the LDS folks here know so she and our boys have a social network in place when they arrive in April.  I went and it's done.   Now I have to decide whether to reveal to the local Mormon bishop that I'm Orthodox.  It really upsets my wife badly whenever I spill the news to her fellow Mormons that I don't share their beliefs and actually left the church.  It's been quite a problem for us over the years and I have no desire to recreate the same stresses we've lived with for years, especially as moving to Europe is a HUGE change for us.  I want things to go very smoothly for my family, well, as smooth as they can given that I'm Orthodox.  I pray every day for guidance to handle this the right way.

Lord have mercy!

Andrew

[88Devin12]

Hi folks,

For those who've following my posts, I found the parish I will attend here in Germany.  It's about an hour away at Ramstein AFB in Kaiserslautern.  I spent time this weekend contacting priests at local parishes in an around Heidelberg, but only one spoke any English and we had difficulty communicating.  As a catechumen, I really feel I need a priest I can communicate with, so I've decided to join the community at Ramstein.  Fortunately, there don't seem to be any plans for the joint chiefs to shut the air base down, so the parish will be there for a long time.  The Orthodox chaplain here already PCS'd stateside and the one in Stuttgart will leave in the summer, both moves part of the Army's decision to reduce and consolidate forces in Germany.  By summer, only Ramstein will have Orthodox services in English.  I'm told that the priest there will be the only one in all of Western Europe (except the UK) who conducts services in English.  I feel very fortunate that I only have to drive an hour to attend (or less, if I drive really fast on the autobahn  ). 

Now if only I could convince my wife to attend with me.  It was extremely hard to do, but I attended the local Mormon congregation yesterday to let them know my family is moving here soon.  I want my wife and sons to feel very comfortable moving to Germany and she asked me to let the LDS folks here know so she and our boys have a social network in place when they arrive in April.  I went and it's done.   Now I have to decide whether to reveal to the local Mormon bishop that I'm Orthodox.  It really upsets my wife badly whenever I spill the news to her fellow Mormons that I don't share their beliefs and actually left the church.  It's been quite a problem for us over the years and I have no desire to recreate the same stresses we've lived with for years, especially as moving to Europe is a HUGE change for us.  I want things to go very smoothly for my family, well, as smooth as they can given that I'm Orthodox.  I pray every day for guidance to handle this the right way.

Lord have mercy!

Andrew

http://ancientfaith.com/podcasts/frontlines

One of the guys in that podcast has served at that AFB.

[ATX]

Wow, thanks!   I never served in the military, but landed a civilian job with DoD as a civilian employee providing support to the troops.  I look forward to listening to the podcast and any insights I may glean from it.
Andrew

[Basil1951]

ATX,Welcome to Germany!  

I am working at Ramstein AB and have been Orthodox since 1998.  I returned to Germany as a contractor in 2004 and have been attending the Orthodox services here ever since.  We are actually in the Vogelweh chapel until the one on Kapaun is renovated, late fall this year, or so they say.  Ramstein, Vogelweh, and Kapaun are all in the Kaiserslautern Military Community and are more or less co-located.  I can give you directions if you wish, they are easily accessible from Autobahn A-6.

Please email me and I will send you details about our chapel and schedule for Great Lent and Pascha.  Hope to hear from you and see you soon.

Basil

Welcome to the forum!

It's not safe to post your personal email address on the Internet. You you want to contact each other use private messages to communicate or just to exchange your email addresses - Michał Kalina.

[ATX]

Wow, great!  I'm glad you stumbled across my post, Basil.  I'm attending Divine Liturgy at Ramstein for the first time this Sunday.  Maybe I'll see you there!

Andrew

[Tags:]

OrthodoxChristianity.net > Moderated Forums > Convert Issues (Moderator: Thomas) > Topic: Divine Liturgy at Ramstein AFB