Dash of Thought October 2025

On July 27, 2025, our church building in Padina, Serbia, was largely destroyed by fire. A lot of work has been done since then. A few days ago, Superintendent Daniel Sjanta gave us a short online tour of the building site. I was impressed by how helpers from the congregation, from the village of Padina, from congregations of our Church in other parts of the country, and even from abroad, worked tirelessly to clean up and rebuild and are still doing so. It was with great gratitude that Daniel Sjanta showed us that the concrete slab finishing the first floor had already been completed and the building was thus ready for winter.
 
Church - a building site! Meeting on a building site and lending a hand. Witnessing how construction progresses or sometimes comes to a standstill. Rejoicing together about progress and enduring the unfinished. Practicing patience and keeping at it. - This is an image of the church that we also find in the Bible (in Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth). Church is never finished; church is and remains a building site - especially in a world that is constantly changing. What fulfills its task today must be adapted again tomorrow. This unfinished building with all its beauty, but also with all its flaws, is God's building. Being aware of this brings serenity, patience, and joy. The church rooms in Padina will also serve this purpose again: to remind people again and again that the church is God's building.
 
We need places - and they don't have to be entire chapels - that help us to keep the presence and "construction leadership" of Jesus Christ in mind. Spaces that help us to focus on him and orient our words and actions towards his "building plans". Places to equip us to help build the church. To be sent to live the Gospel in our surroundings and in this way to be salt and light. To be there for people and to remain close to them in their needs. To work for justice, peace, and the integrity of creation.
 
In doing so, our spaces should serve us in our diverse journey as a Church and be places for us and for the people around us, from which hope radiates and God's blessing emanates!
 
Bishop Stefan Zürcher