New Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Ramstein-Miesenbach (Kat Nickola)
A new English-speaking church is ready to begin offering services at the end of this month in Ramstein-Miesenbach.
With four congregations of roughly 150 people, the Kaiserslautern stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has been running out of space at their current meetinghouse in Kaiserslautern city, which was built in 1965. Two years ago construction on an additional building in nearby Ramstein village, to solve what many see as a “blessing of a problem.” While the Kaiserslautern-based congregations will continue to offer services in both English and German, the new Ramstein meetinghouse is primarily focused on providing English- speaking services for the U.S. military population.
Recently, an open house welcomed the public into the brand-new church facility. Inside, the chapel is simply adorned and large enough to handle the growing congregations. The building also has plenty of other spaces for classes and clubs, plus a large multi-purpose room and kid’s area. The church will have groups, projects and activities for both families and single soldiers and airmen.
Chapel of new Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Ramstein-Miesenbach (Kat Nickola)
Chapel of new Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Ramstein-Miesenbach (Kat Nickola)
Multi-purpose room at new Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Ramstein-Miesenbach (Kat Nickola)
Children’s space at new Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Ramstein-Miesenbach (Kat Nickola)
In addition to religious services, the building houses a Family History Center, which will be open a couple times a week. This genealogical research area provides free access to archival records and ancestry resources. It is openly freely as a service to the public, not just church members, and the staff are able to help visitors in many different languages.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has an estimated 40,000 members in Germany. The church operates worldwide without paid ministers, instead local congregations, called wards, are run by teams of lay ministers.
During the tour of the new meetinghouse, visitors were invited to participate in an outreach program by putting together a small winter-necessities gift bag for local Ukrainian refugees.
The new building in Ramstein is located at Ludwig-Erhard-Straße 15. Services will begin at the end of October.
Church missionaries assist visitors in an outreach program for Ukrainian refugees. (Kat Nickola)
