Modern Knights
For anyone who thought the Knights of Malta existed only
in the island's distant past, one of the exhibits at the Market
enlightened them. There are at least 11,000 members of the
modern Knights organizations, highly respected for their broad
spectrum of community services. The best known of these in
Germany:
Malteser Hilfsdienst www.malteser.de
Johanniter Hilfsgemeinschaft www.johanniterorden.de
The Malteser Hilfsdienst, a Catholic organization, set up
a stand at our Market, manned by Daniel Klein, a friendly
student absolving his "Zivildienst" (obligatory
community service) for the Malteser in Netphen. He handed
out brochures and gave visitors the useful promotion gift
of a packet of plasters! And he convinced us that the Malteser
are indeed a useful organization, providing services such
as rescue work, transport for the ill, emergency switchboard,
home care, first-aid training, meals on wheels. We want to
thank the Netphen organization very much for investing so
much time and effort into our Market!
The Protestant Johanniter kindly provided interesting info
flyers for our GLC class which outlined ist services, such
as hospitals, homes for the elderly, first-aid and emergency
services. There is an active branch of the Johanniter in Siegen,
specializing in caring for the elderly in the Fliedner-Heim,
community support of the disadvantaged and the blind, as well
as aid for Eastern Europe. Here are the many Johanniter groups
in North Rhine-Westphalia:
Most of us had not realized that both the Malteser and the
Johanniter not only trace their origins back directly to the
Order of St John of Jerusalem, which we had become familiar
with in connection with the Knights of Malta, but are still
associated today with the contemporary version of that ancient
Order, with its seat at the Malta Palace in Rome. We were
even more surprised to learn that the Order of St John is
a kind of nation, with its own Constitution as the world's
smallest electoral monarchy, a monarch (the Grand Master,
currently Andrew Bertie of London), flag, stamps, ambassadors
in over 80 countries, and permanent observer status at the
United Nations!
More information in English:
www.orderofstjohn.org
www.allianceofstjohn.org
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