Dear friends, as we approach the season of Lent and look toward what our lectionary texts will offer us, you will find that on the Fifth Sunday of Lent, we’ll read the familiar story of the valley of dry bones from Ezekiel.

Undoubtedly, you will remember the children’s song:

The foot bone’s connected to the…ankle bone,
The ankle bone’s connected to the shin bone,
The shin bone’s connected to the knee bone,
The knee bone’s connected to the thigh bone.
O, hear the word of the Lord!

Eventually, of course, the spirit enters these dry bones, connecting them all together, enabling them to breathe and walk around as fully formed bodies.

In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he uses similar body imagery to describe the body of Christ—how we are all members of it and how we all perform different functions within it.

This Lent, I invite you to consider how we are connected within and across this synod, and particularly through our North Carolina Synod agencies and institutions. These organizations represent God’s work in varied ways, and our partnership with them offers us greater opportunities to witness and take part in that work. By no means are they “dry bones” by themselves; they are very much alive! The biblical imagery, though, invites us to imagine how much more alive we can be if we are connected with one another and working together! (Yes, I’m suggesting there is some nuance to being alive in place of a simple definition of “alive” as being “not dead.”)

In this issue of Synod e-News (February 3, 2026), and on the Connected for New Life webpage, you’ll be linked to the bulletin inserts from our synod’s agencies and institutions. These are available to you so that you, too, can become more aware of our connection with one another—and so that you may be a part of that breath that the spirit breathes into this church.

Thank you for all that you do to share the Gospel across this synod! I wish you many blessings during this Lenten season and a renewed sense of God’s spirit working within and among us.