FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kansas — The Fort Leavenworth Chapel Community gathered for the annual Greening of the Chapels Nov. 22, 2025, to decorate their places of worship, setting out manger scenes, adorning Christmas trees with ornaments, and hanging lights and greenery at Memorial, Pioneer and Frontier chapels.
Family tradition
The Harbridge family, members of the Crossroads congregation who attend the contemporary Protestant service at Frontier Chapel, have been helping green the chapel since they arrived at Fort Leavenworth in 2017.
“It is a tradition for the family,” retired Lt. Col. Jim Harbridge said about sharing the annual mission with his wife, Christina, and their children, 17-year-old Emily and 12-year-old James. “It needs to be done, and we're able… For parents, this is the start of Christmas season for us.”
“I think we do it because it just started as a thing to make the church pretty for Christmas,” Emily added, “and then we just started doing it every year and it became a tradition.”
Even though Advent, the four-week period leading up to Christmas, doesn’t start until after Thanksgiving, and the Christmas lights in the chapels won’t be turned on until then, the greening of the chapels is done the weekend before Thanksgiving to accommodate when volunteers are available to help.
“Every year, we do it so that on the first day of Advent, we can start the Advent readings and lighting of the candles and everything is decorated,” Harbridge said, noting that every year the volunteer turnout varies. “Last year we had a family for every tree and we were in and out, and some years it's not (as quick), but if we waited later, we would miss the atmosphere in the chapel, but we would also miss the chance for volunteers.”
Reason for the season
Twelve-year-old Liam Quinlan and 11-year-old Sadie Thomas were among those volunteers helping hang garlands and lights at Frontier Chapel.
“Greening of the chapel is when families who come to this chapel, we decorate it for Christmastime. Over the past few years, I've helped decorate Christmas trees and put up ornaments. My family's come for the past two years, this is our third, so we've just helped putting up the wreaths and Christmas trees,” Liam said, then pointing out why the decorating is done. “It’s basically showing that the Lord is coming and Christmastime isn't just about Santa or presents, it's about the Lord and when he was born and how he is our Messiah,”
Sadie also emphasized the reason for the decorating tradition and why she liked being part of the process.
“I think it's fun because you're just helping out; it feels good to help other people out, especially to make something that will last a few weeks over the course of the season of Advent. I would say it just adds a little bit of extra holiday cheer… signifying that our Savior is coming,” Sadie said. “Although presents are fun, a lot of people forget that Jesus is the reason for the season. A lot of people just think, ‘Oh it's all about the gifts.’ Well, no — you have to turn your eyes to the Lord and understand that Jesus is the reason we celebrate Christmas.”
Preserving history
Retired Lt. Col. Lowell Solien first helped with the greening of Memorial Chapel in 2000 when he was a permanent party instructor in the Department of Logistics and Resource Operations at the Command and General Staff College. He said the Lutheran and Episcopal congregations, now known as the Protestant Liturgical service, would come together for the greening — and cleaning — of the historic chapel. The annual tradition at Memorial Chapel entails more than decorating for the season. It also includes tasks such as oiling the century-old altar piece and vacuuming the pews.
“The paneling needs to be oiled periodically or it'll deteriorate, so we do this at least once a year as a part of this,” Solien said about helping preserve the 1878 chapel. “I just love coming here. I love that historic feel to this chapel. I mean, it's the only historic chapel left on the post, so it's our way of preserving that for future generations.”
Solien described the chapel as a history museum, housing artifacts from its religious history such as the communion set on display in the foyer, as well as the memorial plaques on its walls.
“This whole place is a museum, a history museum. Everything in here, practically, was donated by some unit that probably no longer exists in the Army — the brass podium sitting there, the brass rail up at the altar — everything has an inscription on it from some unit that's probably gone now.”
Returning volunteers
Retired Lt. Col. Tom Ward has been involved in the greening of Pioneer Chapel for many of the past 20-some years.
“I certainly enjoy the ambiance of the Advent season and the preparation for the birth of the Christ child. So, if I enjoy it that much, I ought to help put it together.”
Ward got his decorating start as a youth working for his father, who was a florist in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
“Growing up, I helped decorate the banks and the shopping centers and the retail stores and the headquarters for Phillips Petroleum. I kind of developed an eye for how some of these things should be,” Ward said, recalling a time when he noticed that someone had hung the wreaths upside down in Pioneer Chapel and made sure that was remedied. “Chaplain (Maj.) Chris Weinrich really has been the focus and the organizer (of this year’s greening). I've just been able to pitch in and do things every once in a while. I’m not in charge, I'm just cheap labor with some experience.”
Hope, peace, joy and love
During services in the post chapels, special candles will be lit each Sunday during Advent, symbolizing hope, peace, joy and love leading up to Christmas Eve, when the Christ candle will be lit.
“Each week we light one of the four (candles) until they're all four burning after the four Sundays of Advent. And on Christmas Eve when we have a service, we light the Christ candle in the center — Christ has come,” Ward explained.
He remembers participating in the tradition growing up, having an Advent wreath in his home.
“I really appreciate that tradition,” he said. “Here in this chapel, we usually get families to light the candles each week, especially if they have younger children, because they read a scripture that talks about the prophecy and the coming and the waiting and that sort of thing… It’s really neat; I love it.”
He still recalls fondly how several years ago, four generations of his own family, including his now-97-year-old mother, his daughter and his grandson, participated in the lighting of the Advent candles during church.
“It's such a neat family ceremony and tradition. It's very memorable,” he said. “We only did that once, but that was because that was a unique moment in time for all of us.”
Bring in, build up, send out
Chapel Community members often use the saying “Bring in, build up, send out,” referring to the annual process of welcoming new community members, building them up in the faith, and sending them out when they PCS to continue the cycle.
“Well, I don't know its origins, but it's certainly an apt description for the way the place works,” said Chapel Community member retired Lt. Col. Dave Bodde, “because you bring in classes of people who are smart up-and-comers in the Army. We try to build them in the faith. Many are of the faith already; some are not. Those we try to introduce to it at least during the time that they're here.”
Ward said that “bring in, build up, send out” philosophy is part of what makes this post unique. He described Fort Leavenworth as a wonderful community, unlike any other post he’s been to.
“I think part of (what makes Fort Leavenworth special) is that you have a retiree population that provides the continuity, so there's a base that's here through the three-year cycle of PCSs, that they're here to receive the folks coming in, and they're also here to say goodbye to the folks going out, and most posts don’t have that,” Ward said. “I'm not saying that the guys who are coming and going are not pulling their load, but there is kind of a foundation underneath that is very helpful for making a lot of that happen.”
In tandem with that continuity observation, Ward said the book describing how the decorations are to be displayed in the sanctuary could not be found this year. He felt assured that the SOP book is somewhere and not lost forever, but it couldn’t be located in time for the greening. His many years of helping with the annual tradition came in handy, with pictures of greenings past in his mind to help sort out where things should go as volunteers hung ribbons and ornaments on trees, draped lights and garlands over railings and positioned the nativity scene at the front of the sanctuary.
For information about upcoming special and religious services, e-mail christopher.w.weinrich.mil@army.mil.
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