06.01.2022

Reflections on the annual watchword 2022 by Volker Martin Dally

UEM General Secretary Volker Martin Dally; © Photo: Martina Pauly/UEM

They will have thought of something, the group that chooses the year's watchword. "Whoever comes to me, I will not turn away," says Christ. The 37th verse from the 6th chapter of the Gospel of John was chosen by the Ecumenical Working Group for Bible Reading in an intensive discussion process so that it could become a motto for the year 2022.
Probably each and every one of us immediately thinks of something when we hear the word "reject":
My own experiences of rejection, where I was not wanted. As a child, I was not let into the game, I did not gain admission to higher education, I did not get the job I had planned, I was turned down by the admissions office for university places. Shattered dreams, hopes that were dashed and life plans that could not be realised.
"Whoever comes to me, I will not turn away," says Christ.
Probably each and every one of us immediately thinks of something when we hear the word "reject":
There are also plenty of topical references to it. Refugees are excluded at the so-called external borders of the EU and many, many other countries. Presumably that is why they are called external borders, because they can be used to exclude people and humanity. They then become rejections that end fatally, by drowning in the Mediterranean, by forced return to the situation I wanted to escape, because war, civil war, persecution, torture, hunters make a life there impossible.
The pandemic has led to new kinds of rejections. When my mother was in hospital after a fall and later in short-term care, we were not allowed to visit her because of Corona restrictions. Please continue reading here.

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