Sharing Faith in Central and Southern Europe

There are many books aiming to help people preparing for Easter. The new meditation booklet of The United Methodist Church in the Central Conference of Central and Southern Europe also belongs to them – but is nevertheless a unique publication.

With today’s Ash Wednesday the Lenten season once again begins – a season that will end with the feast of Easter, which this year will be celebrated on the same day in view of the fact that the calendars of the Western and Eastern churches converge. In order to not only celebrate Easter together but to also share the same journey throughout the next weeks, 35 men and women of The United Methodist Church in twelve European and two North African countries wrote devotions to Bible texts they had chosen themselves.

The meditation booklet does not cover the whole Lenten season but «only» the five weeks between March 12, 2017 (which is the closing Sunday of the quadrennial Central Conference meeting) and April 16, 2017 (Easter Sunday). What the devotions have in common is the fact that all of them refer to the theme «Jesus is…», but that all authors share in a different but personal way who Jesus is for them, how they experience to follow Jesus, how God reveals himself in Jesus.

The meditations are an expression of an amazing diversity, and since they will not only be published in German and English but in several languages of Central and Southern Europe (Serbian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, etc.), they are also a good opportunity to experience the connexion of The United Methodist Church beyond boundaries of nations, cultures and languages.

The English brochure can be downloaded here. It is our hope that many people using it will be inspired and encouraged for their personal journey of discipleship.

Source: Urs Schweizer, Assistant to Bishop Patrick Streiff, Zurich
Date: March 1, 2017