Teamwork & Commitment

We Johanniter work together and in doing so enjoy fellowship and friendship; in the USA we work together in teams and in clusters, and meditate together in retreats and services. But this country is huge and we are less than three dozen Johanniter between the West Coast and the East, between the Gulf of Mexico and Canada. We organize ourselves in clusters around Atlanta, Dallas, New York and Washington DC, but geographically all these clusters each are larger than even the largest Johanniter Genossenschaften in Germany. To fight together for the good cause is part of our life and the routine of a Johanniter lifestyle; we are an Order, a fraternity, a brotherhood.

But like lone rangers, we Johanniter have our armor and weaponry ready to also fight alone and far away from our Confreres, if necessary and if called to do so, - to fight misery, to support the frail and the needy, and to be there for those, who need protection and help, whenever needed. A Johanniter couple at the West Coast was going to start and support a spiritual reading group among high-tech professionals in their area. Another Johanniter couple in the New England region is strongly supporting the local rescue group and succeeded in getting a new ambulance. A Johanniter in Michigan is President of his church congregation and has in the spirit and in the name of the Johanniter invited seniors for Kaffee-and-Kuchen; he now is working on a long term project in support of children with great personal problems. Another Johanniter in the New England region provides pro bono work for those who cannot pay his professional services, but he also travels to hands-on services in the NYC region, taking him each time half of the time it would cost him to fly to Europe.

Another Johanniter, living in our Washington DC cluster, has worked over a decade far away from home as a lone ranger in supporting and arranging support for sick and  handicapped children in Eastern Europe and has shown that knightly fight can be and will successful if called to battle in distant countries. Another Johanniter, living in New Jersey, travels the distances to NYC and Washington DC to hands-on service his confreres, but he also does great Johanniter works in Massachusetts in administering an international stipend exchange bridging two continents. One or two young Johanniters in Georgia lock themselves into church basements frequently together with homeless men and women serving and protecting them.

These are just a few examples of the quiet Johanniter work done by our lone rangers and good battlefield fighters; some of them we see from time to time at our Convocations or Retreat and also rarely at local events due to the sheer distances of this great country. - Yes, indeed, we have lone rangers among ourselves, - and they use their weaponry rightly and professionally and in a knightly manner of service. May the Lord bless their works in his Vineyard, as he has blessed our Subcommandery in allowing us to have these Confreres among us.