disasters, of one type or another

Two weeks ago the highest-ranking church and lay administrators of the Catholic Church in Zürich released an open letter to the Pope that begins, "Dear Pope Francis, the Catholic Church is in flames..."

I appreciate their letter, but the trouble is, the church isn't exactly in flames. It's much more....dying out. At least here. In my church it is impossible not to notice that the average age of church attendees is over 70. The number of Mass attendees under 40 can usually be counted on one hand - maybe two hands on a good day. Because the Church here is funded through the public tax system, there's the additional metric of "people Catholic enough to pay their church taxes," which in our parish is a good order of magnitude larger than the number of people who actively participate in church activities. But even this number is falling, with hundreds opting out every year and parents ever more wary of registering their newborns as Catholic. No matter how you slice it, the 20-year outlook for church-as-it-now-exists is bleak.

Today my friend Markus Heil posted an extended analogy comparing the church to a sinking ship. This seems like much more apt comparison. Because you can't look away from a burning church, but a leak in the hull might or might not raise alarm bells before it's too late....

Markus makes two points: first, that escaping a sinking ship necessarily involves getting into a lifeboat and cutting the rope before you get pulled under. However much we value the old structures, we'll have to let them go before we can build something new. And second, that even on a hopelessly-sinking ship the personnel have a great deal of work to do: sounding the alarm at the right time, communicating instructions clearly, getting the passengers into lifeboats, helping everyone adjust to the new reality of floating on the wide sea in a small boat (which definitely does not involve on-board pools or dinner buffets), eventually finding land...

It struck me that this metaphor also gives me a way to explain what I'm up to these days. I'm trying to find my life boat. I think I have something to contribute here. But I won't last long in the cold water by myself: I need support - a team or even just a partner to bounce ideas off, ask for help, and work with towards a common goal. People in the same boat, if you will. Or (if you'll allow me a shameless mix of disaster analogies): I need to put on my own mask before helping others.