Those who love are never wrong

From May 23 to 25, 2025, the 104th Ordinary Session of the Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church (UMC) in Poland took place in Katowice.
 
"...that you love one another!" was this year's motto from John 13:34, which is also the theme for 2025. In his sermon during the worship service at the end of the conference, which was recorded by Polish television, the Leading Superintendent Andrzej Malicki said: "He who judges and condemns a fellow human being can be wrong, but he who loves him is never wrong." He invited those participating in the worship service to do good to others out of God's love - not least those who make life difficult - and to work for their well-being. Even if this was not explicitly formulated in most of the reports from the commissions and committees, it became clear that the UMC in Poland, with its various branches of work, sees its mission precisely in this: to work in word and deed for the good and life-enhancing in the respective environment - with the financial and human resources that are available. For example, the UMC in Poland is still active in caring for refugees from Ukraine and organizing help in Ukraine itself. Last but not least, state media such as radio and television are important channels that the UMC is able to use regularly thanks to its membership of the Polish Ecumenical Council in order to make visible to a wide audience the many ways in which the UMC passes on God's love.
 
A joyous occasion for the almost 60 conference members and guests was the admission of Szymon Bober as a probationary deacon. There was a change in the cabinet. Adrian Myśliński, pastor in Tarnów, was appointed superintendent in place of Sławomir Rodaszyński. In Poland, superintendents, with the exception of the Leading Superintendent, also lead a local church in addition to this office.
 
Although the UMC in Poland has its own Theological Seminary, there are currently no young people studying there with a view to entering full-time ordained ministry. One conference member suggested that this should be taken as an opportunity to review the focus of training. On the one hand, the changing society leads to new demands on pastors and, on the other hand, to changing expectations and ideas among young people with regard to the ministry as a pastor - a topic that challenges the UMC not only in Poland, but in all annual conferences of the Central Conference of Central and Southern Europe.
 
The reason why the local church in Katowice - around 80 km west of Krakow - was hosting the conference again after 2023 was its 100th anniversary, which was of course also celebrated in the opening worship service. Ecumenical guests from five different Churches were invited. The UMC in Katowice is one of the oldest Methodist churches in Poland and the largest in the Southern District. It owes its origins to the activities of the mission of the Southern Methodist Episcopal Church in the early 1920s. In November 1922, it acquired a building in Katowice with three floors, 70 rooms, a large courtyard, a garden and an outbuilding. There was a church, a workshop and a dining room. The number of people catered for there, rose from 150 to 400 in a short space of time. At that time, the mission employed 45 people. The first members were officially admitted into the Church in June 1925. Andrzej Malicki, who himself was a pastor in Katowice for 17 years, wrote in retrospect: "The work has developed magnificently, experiencing ups and downs over the last hundred years. Today, both this congregation and our Church as a whole look different. We live in different times, the reality is different, but one thing has not changed - the message of the Gospel and our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever."
 
Source: Bishop Stefan Zürcher, Zurich (Switzerland)
Photo: The new district superintendent Adrian Myśliński