Reichenberg Fellowship

The Reichenberg Fellowship is a German non-denominational evangelical community. In German it is called the Offensive Junger Christen (OJC) e.V. (Offensive of Young Christians). It belongs to the EKD and is situated in Reichelsheim in the Odenwald.

Organization

The community is led by Dominik Klenk, Maria Kaißling, and Christl R. Vonholdt.

The Reichelsheim Fellowship is member of the EKD Charityand of the ring of youth missions. The Reichelsheim European Youth Center is member of the German YMCA section. [ [http://www.ojc.de/rubrik62.html Offensive Junger Christen: Aktuelles ] ]

The German Institute for Youth and Society, (Deutsches Institut für Jugend und Gesellschaft (DIJG) in German) is the center for studies and research for the OJC. [http://www.ojc.de/dijg.de/index.php?art_id=6&categ=14&expand=14&file=view_article.tp] . Director is . It is one of the signatory members of PATH, a non-profit coalition of organizations which help people with ego-dystonic homosexuality either live a celibate or heterosexual lifestyle. [ [http://www.pathinfo.org/index2.htm PATH homepage] ] . One Member of the advisory council is Arthur A. Goldberg.

The Reichelsheim Fellowship operates mainly from donations.

Community

The community was founded in 1968 around the family of Irmela and Horst-Klaus Hofmann in Bensheim. These invited young people, mainly students to live with them. One of the first was Maria Kaißling. The impetus to a common commitment came from the contact to the nearby living Evangelical Maria-Sisterhood in Darmstadt. With the aging of the members and the changing of generations the additional OJCOS-Foundation was established.

Basic Activities

The Fellowship exists of
*Reichenberg Castle with
**concress work,
**Schlosscafe and
**der gothic St. Michaels Chapel,
*das Reichelsheim European Youth Center (REZ) with local and regional Youth Work and international youth concresses consisting of
**der program pub ″Jig″
**youth hostel
**trips and camps
*das Wellhouse (Quellhaus), with two families and four nonpartisans building a living group
*teh seminar for biblical counselling with
**counselling training,
**the journal "Brennpunkt Seelsorge"
**lectures
*das German Institute for Youth and Society with scientific studies and publications, the journal "Bulletin" and
*the OJC cell in Greifswald with the action commitee biblical counselling", conferences and community ministries
*a library

International Activities

The supporting non-profit association has outreach ministries in zur Zeit in den Ländern Argentinia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brasilia, Burkina Faso, Congo, Fidschi and Honduras, in der development cooperation as NGO. [ [http://www.paritaet.org/bengo/7/ctrindexah.htm Paritätischem Wohlfahrtsverband] ]

Since 1993 the Reichenberg Fellowship leads international building camps in Germany, Macedonia, Croatia and Russia. Ther Young People have the opportunity between 16 an 26 to work with others of different nations, confessions and languages.

Publishing Activities

The OJC publishes the journals "Salzkorn. Anstiftung zum gemeinsamen Christenleben" ("Saltcorn", for friends, 6 times a year), "Brennpunkt Seelsorge. Beiträge zur biblischen Lebensberatung" ("Counselling" 4-6x times a year).Members of the community like and and also publish books themselves.

Sources

Sometimes the links to OJC.de only work every second time. So try them at least twice!

External links

* [http://www.ojc.de Reichelsheim Fellowship] (German)
* [http://www.dijg.de German Institute for Youth and Society] with publications in English and German