Key points:
- Bishops Stefan Zürcher, Werner Philipp and Knut Refsdal traveled to western Ukraine to visit United Methodist congregations and meet people who have been living in war for years.
- While United Methodist churches across Europe have supported Ukraine since the beginning of the war in 2022 — through humanitarian aid, prayer and hosting refugees — this journey was about presence.
- Traveling with Ukraine and Moldova District Superintendent the Rev. Oleg Starodubets and his wife, the Rev. Yulia Starodubets, the bishops visited ministries in Uzhhorod and Lviv.
Air-raid sirens cut through the everyday sounds of life. A warning app lights up on mobile phones, urging people to seek shelter. For Ukrainians, this has become part of daily routine. For three European United Methodist bishops visiting western Ukraine in late March, it was a stark reminder that war is not an abstract headline but a lived reality.
Bishops Stefan Zürcher (Central and Southern Europe), Werner Philipp (Germany) and Knut Refsdal (Northern Europe, Baltic States and Ukraine) traveled March 26-30 to Transcarpathia and the city of Lviv. Their purpose was to stand alongside United Methodist congregations and those displaced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and to make one message unmistakably clear: You are not alone, you have not been forgotten.
The visit itself was a deliberate sign of solidarity. While United Methodist churches across Europe have supported Ukraine since the beginning of the war in 2022 — through humanitarian aid, prayer and hosting refugees — this journey was about presence.
At a meeting in the fall of 2025, Refsdal told the others about his plans to visit, and they realized the solidarity they could show if they all went together.
“Since the beginning of the war, United Methodists in these countries have both accompanied refugees and supported the work in Ukraine through humanitarian aid deliveries,” said Zürcher, whose episcopal area includes The United Methodist Church in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania.
Traveling with Ukraine and Moldova District Superintendent the Rev. Oleg Starodubets and his wife, the Rev. Yulia Starodubets, the bishops visited ministries in Uzhhorod and Lviv. Their stops included youth centers, refugee shelters, worship services, celebrations and discussions with refugees.
“There is a difference between reading the news every day and actually being here,” Philipp said.
Refsdal said it is always good to be in Ukraine and meet “all the fine people” in the country.
“But the more time I spend there,” he said, “the more tragic the thought becomes of this terrible and senseless war that destroys the lives and futures of so many people.”
The cities visited by the bishops have grown massively due to the influx of internally displaced people from eastern and southern regions of the country. Around 1 million people now live in Lviv, almost a third more than in 2022. In Uzhhorod, the number of residents has almost tripled, from 120,000 to 350,000. The growth has not only strained resources but also revealed cultural differences between the west and east of Ukraine.
In Lviv, the bishops met a lively young congregation. On a Friday evening, they were there for meetings and a simple worship service. Zürcher said there were 25 to 30 young people there. Some of them had grown up in Lviv and the surrounding area, others had fled from eastern Ukraine to the comparative safety of the west.
Life in Lviv seems almost normal at first glance. Nevertheless, traces of the war are omnipresent: destroyed houses, military cemeteries, memorial plaques.
“The cafés are full, the streets are lively,” Zürcher said. “We saw a house that had been hit by a drone just days before. The windows of the neighboring church were broken. But everything had already been cleaned up.”
For Refsdal, visiting the military cemetery was deeply moving. “It was touching to see the graves of so many men and women, and to know that these are only those who have fallen from this region,” he said.
For Philipp, this was also a moment when the brutality of the war could truly be felt.
“When it is no longer just numbers, but names and faces, the war becomes tangible,” he said. “Here, the war becomes personal. These are not statistics. These are people whose families are standing right there.”
In Uzhhorod, a city in Transcarpathia near the European Union border and about 270 kilometers southwest of Lviv, the effects of the war are visible everywhere. But with the population rise, new forms of community have emerged.
One such place is the United Methodist-run youth center known as Lighthouse. Here, young people from across Ukraine gather, many carrying trauma and uncertainty, but also resilience. The bishops saw how vital such spaces are — places where trust can grow, where young people can talk, laugh and rediscover a sense of normality.
In Uzhhorod and the surrounding area, the church runs two shelters for internally displaced people.
Meeting residents, the bishops felt the tension above all in the talks. Many of the refugees come from hotspots such as Bakhmut, Mariupol or Kharkiv.
“Yulia Starodubets told us that she didn’t ask the women about their stories. That could retraumatize them,” Zürcher said. “When you listen to them, you realize that they have very difficult stories.”
Very few of the refugees had previous contact with a church — certainly not with The United Methodist Church — but Zürcher said one of the residents told him that they experience that United Methodists walk alongside them.
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“One woman said, ‘The fact that the Methodists are here and giving us this opportunity to stay is, for me, proof that God exists,’” Zürcher added.
Again and again, church members and refugees emphasized how much the visit meant to them — not because the bishops brought solutions to the war, but because they came to listen. The visit did not erase fear or suffering. Sirens still sounded. The war did not pause. Yet something else became tangible: the deep connection of a global church and the strength that grows when people stand together.
What remains most vivid from the journey are not grand ceremonies, but small moments: a shared prayer, a smile exchanged in a youth center, a table where refugees carefully tell their stories. These gestures, the bishops agreed, carry lasting power. They showed that Christian solidarity does not end at borders and that help does not always have to be loud in order to have an impact.
As the bishops returned home, they carried with them a renewed responsibility to keep telling these stories, to continue support and to remind the wider church in Europe that Ukraine’s Methodist communities are still there — faithful, wounded and hopeful.
“The visit showed us how important a physical presence is,” Zürcher said. “The people there felt it: We are not forgotten. The fact that we came as bishops was a sign of solidarity for them.”
Löffler is theological director of the church office in the Germany Regional Conference and assistant to the bishop. Friedrich is communication officer of The United Methodist Church in Switzerland.
News media contact: Julie Dwyer at (615) 742-5470 or [email protected]. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digests.
