Dash of Thought February 2026

"If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it." (1 Corinthians 12:26)
Paul uses the image of the body to describe a very important characteristic of the church, namely its togetherness and interdependence in all its diversity. Our church also expresses this through its connexional structure. It is closely connected across countries and continents and has relationships with people and congregations in different parts of the world.
"If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it." Our church suffers in many regions of the world – because of the situations there and with the people who live there. In the Ukraine. In the DR Congo. In the USA. And in many other places. Sometimes, storms cause suffering. Or famines do. Or unjust structures. Or state arbitrariness and abuse of power, violence, war.
We belong together, and it hurts when brothers and sisters from Kiev report on their experiences. It is moving when fellow bishops from eastern Congo tell their stories. It is staggering to read in news reports what Methodists in Minnesota are observing and experiencing. In such moments, I ask myself how we can express our togetherness and how I can live my being-with-them. 
How can we shape our connectedness? A few possibilities:
·     Praying - alone and with fellow believers; complaining to God about our need and our pain, praying for those who are suffering, admitting our powerlessness and speechlessness before God.
·     Seeking our hope, Jesus Christ, connecting it with our reality, carrying it forward.
·     Grieving - informing ourselves and confronting events, allowing emotions, but also distancing ourselves from them in order to remain healthy and able to act.
·     Looking for ways to let people in need know that they are not alone, but that we are connected to them - with a message on social media, with a letter, a phone call, perhaps even with a statement.
·     Making conscious and responsible use of the democratic means available to us.
·     Standing up for justice and peace - where we live and with our limited possibilities; looking, reflecting with others on what it means to carry God's peace into a concrete situation and to act justly - and then practicing it together.
·     ...
The list is unfinished and can be extended. I wish you the creativity to expand it with your possibilities. And I wish you the joy and longing to live our connectedness across borders. And to have, when doing so, the blessed experience: The connectedness is mutual. You too are carried by the love of others.
 
Bishop Stefan Zürcher
 
 
Photo: Pixabay