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No one to be a godparent

SamanthaAnastasia

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Hey everyone,
I’m at a loss of what to do. My daughter is almost a year old and I cannot find anyone to be her Godmother/father. Im beginning to feel awful about it. And worried. We’re military and I’m a convert so the very small amount of orthodox I do know are all scattered.

I’ve asked my Presbytera about any guidelines in this situation.

Are there guidelines to what to do? Have any of you been in a similar situation?

I don’t want to look for a different parish as that would take a while to find someone as well but I might have to? Our Mission is so small and there’s not a lot of people.

If I go to a monastery, do you think one of the nuns could do it?

This is starting to make me want to cry.
 

Yeshua HaDerekh

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Hey everyone,
I’m at a loss of what to do. My daughter is almost a year old and I cannot find anyone to be her Godmother/father. Im beginning to feel awful about it. And worried. We’re military and I’m a convert so the very small amount of orthodox I do know are all scattered.

I’ve asked my Presbytera about any guidelines in this situation.

Are there guidelines to what to do? Have any of you been in a similar situation?

I don’t want to look for a different parish as that would take a while to find someone as well but I might have to? Our Mission is so small and there’s not a lot of people.

If I go to a monastery, do you think one of the nuns could do it?

This is starting to make me want to cry.
Only one has to be Orthodox. Ask your Matushka to be Godmother :) It happens all the time.
 
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The Liturgist

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talk to your local priest

@SamanthaAnastasia did your Presbytera not know what to do?

Since they’re a military family, and she asked the Presbytera, she should presumably ask her husband the Presbyter, or have her husband ask, and if tney don’t know what to do, is there a senior chaplain more likely to know?

Forgive me for making this post, because I agree with your advice, I just wanted to make sure you had noticed she had talked to the Presbytera, since I don’t know what the protocol is in these scenarios and I also don’t know how things work in the military.

At any rate, God is glorified by your presence here as an OCA priest and military chaplain. The OCA, in addition to being my home jurisdiction, is also one which I think is the leader in English-language resources. Also the first Orthodox priest I ever met was an OCA priest who was selling icons from a cart at an open air street fair when I was 12, and that was around the same time I learned about Orthodoxy from my geography textbooks and became instantly transfixed. A pity I waited until ten years ago before converting, despite the fact my mother was fascinated by it and my father, memory eternal, became actively involved in advocating for the persecuted Serbian Orthodox Christians of Kosovo, and he and I even talked about going to visit the Serbian Orthodox church in San Gabriel. I don’t know why we didn’t do that, but I trust in God to bring us home.
 
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The Liturgist

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I did, no worries.

Just out of curiosity, could you explain to us at some point how the system of parishes et cetera translates over to military chaplaincies within the OCA and other jurisdictions?

I’d also be interested to know what is required of chaplains in terms of military training et cetera.

I was at a brunch at a hotel near a large US Army base where chaplains from four churches including the Roman Catholic Church and some others were meeting, in their officers’ uniforms, and there was a strong sense of collaboration between them to provide pastoral care for their respective members of the service. I had a conversation with them and I seem to recall it being mentioned the base in question, which is home to the National Training Center, poses special challenges due to the movement of troops in and out of the base for various training missions. There is also, right by the freeway, a USMC logistics base which I assume has its own chaplains and probably poses a very different set of challenges. While returning the other way later that month, there was a military parade which I guess they do every October for Halloween, with soldiers from both bases, including the commander of Fort irwin and his deputy in tanks, which was pretty cool to see. The USMC units included some personnel whose uniforms identified them as USN Hospital Corpsmen, but they were vastly outnumbered by Army soldiers from Fort Irwin.
 
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ArmyMatt

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Just out of curiosity, could you explain to us at some point how the system of parishes et cetera translates over to military chaplaincies within the OCA and other jurisdictions?
it’s the same for any priest.
I’d also be interested to know what is required of chaplains in terms of military training et cetera.
seminary degree, ecclesiastical endorsement, graduation from CHBOLC, and assessment by the Chaplain Corps. soon at least one unit of CPE will be required as well.
 
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E.C.

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Just out of curiosity, could you explain to us at some point how the system of parishes et cetera translates over to military chaplaincies within the OCA and other jurisdictions?

I’d also be interested to know what is required of chaplains in terms of military training et cetera.

I was at a brunch at a hotel near a large US Army base where chaplains from four churches including the Roman Catholic Church and some others were meeting, in their officers’ uniforms, and there was a strong sense of collaboration between them to provide pastoral care for their respective members of the service. I had a conversation with them and I seem to recall it being mentioned the base in question, which is home to the National Training Center, poses special challenges due to the movement of troops in and out of the base for various training missions. There is also, right by the freeway, a USMC logistics base which I assume has its own chaplains and probably poses a very different set of challenges. While returning the other way later that month, there was a military parade which I guess they do every October for Halloween, with soldiers from both bases, including the commander of Fort irwin and his deputy in tanks, which was pretty cool to see. The USMC units included some personnel whose uniforms identified them as USN Hospital Corpsmen, but they were vastly outnumbered by Army soldiers from Fort Irwin.
I knew an Orthodox chaplain when I was deployed to Okinawa. He was sponsored by the Greek Archdiocese. I asked him once what it is like being a chaplain compared to a parish priest and he said that his priest friends are sometimes jealous because he doesn't have to deal with a parish council. However, he reminds them that he has to deal with the Navy instead and that by being a chaplain, "you're basically trading one set of demons for another."
 
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The Liturgist

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it’s the same for any priest.

seminary degree, ecclesiastical endorsement, graduation from CHBOLC, and assessment by the Chaplain Corps. soon at least one unit of CPE will be required as well.

How are chaplaincies organized compared to conventional parishes? Is it like a hybrid of semi-permanent parishes at major military bases and when necessary, forward deployed chaplains? I recall reading the heroic exploits of one famed USN Roman Catholic chaplain who was forward-deployed to Guadalcanal during WWII.
 
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The Liturgist

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ArmyMatt

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How are chaplaincies organized compared to conventional parishes?
for the OCA, chaplains are given an antimens so that they can do the services wherever they are stationed.
 
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RileyG

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