Götschendorf, Brandenburg, Germany, November 21, 2024
Photo: otrok.org
Germans are showing an increasing interest in Orthodoxy and monasticism, says the abbot of the St. George Monastery of the Moscow Patriarchate in Götschendorf near Berlin.
Speaking with RIA-Novosti, Abbot Daniel (Irbits) noted that there are Orthodox communities founded by Germans and that native Germans are becoming clerics.
“We have 3-4 German communities across Germany where the priests are native German-speaking Germans themselves, and they serve for Germans, bring them to Orthodoxy and catechize them,” the abbot said.
“Regarding our region and our federal state of Brandenburg, there is interest from native Germans in Orthodox Christianity. I can speak about this from the example of our monastery in Götschendorf: Local native Germans attend our services, and we even baptized several people this summer. Just the other day, we baptized a young man, a German who lives in Prenzlau,” Fr. Daniel continued.
“A year ago, he approached me asking about Orthodox Christianity, I gave him literature in German and told him to prepare. He prepared thoroughly, and in September of this year, he asked me to baptize him, he chose the name Seraphim himself, with which he was baptized,” said the abbot.
He also noted that buses full of Germans come to visit the monastery. “Moreover, we have now started painting the altar part of the church and are engaged in its construction. Germans are very interested in this Byzantine painting, and therefore more people have started coming now,” Fr. Daniel explained.
At the same time, he noted that there have always been people wanting to join the monastery, but due to its small size, they now have to refuse admissions.
“It’s small. At the moment, there are five of us in the monastery, and this is already the upper limit because we don’t have any free cells anymore. But in summer, pilgrims come, women and men, who simply work in the monastery. They set up tents or come for a day,” the abbot explained.
Meanwhile, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia’s St. Job of Pochaev Monastery recently began celebrating services at its new property in Günzburg, Bavaria, Germany.
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In 2006, the Berlin Diocese of the Moscow Patriarchate acquired an estate on the shore of Lake Kolpin in Götschendorf, consisting of a villa and a two-story house with 12 one-room apartments, in the Uckermark district, 55 miles from Berlin.
The Brandenburg authorities, considering the importance and usefulness of the project, supported the idea of establishing a monastery and spiritual center of the Russian Church at the Götschendorf estate, which in the future could become a meeting place for Christians in Germany and all those interested in Russian Orthodox spirituality and culture with the Russian Church.
On August 21, 2007, the monastery was established by a Synodal decision.
Due to the financial crisis, construction work at the monastery was suspended for several years. Only in early December 2011 did the construction of the monastery church begin.
Currently, the monastery’s brotherhood building is fully constructed.
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