There is always the other side.

I am just back in Bangkok after ten days in Sydney where I had gone for Provincial Chapter which is a meeting of my province held every four years to reflect, assess and plan our life and mission together.  I found it a positive and affirming experience.  Funny as after such an event, I usually go away feeling a bit unsure but not this time.  Rather I went away feeling that I had given and received some life.

That is one side of my time away.  The other is that I did go away feeling unsure about the wider Australian Church.  You see, at the Chapter, we had input on the state of the Church in Australia and what was shared hit me in the face.  What was it that had such an impact on me?  Here goes.  
5.4 million Australians name themselves as Catholic.
Only 662,000 attend mass on any given Sunday.
A third of this 662,000 are over 70.
Of all Catholics between 20 and 34, only 5-6% attend mass.
These statistics were an introduction to a presentation that told us that the Australian Church is facing a serious crisis.  This presentation along with the present story that I heard of the Australian Commission into child sexual abuse and the affect it is having told me that the Australian Church is in a state of collapse.   I was somewhat shell shocked as it had not really hit me before like this and in such a startling way.  

Then later in my stay I was going through the local Catholic paper and saw a picture that struck me as a period piece.  I thought it was a picture of characters in a play on the Church in the 1890s but it wasn't.  It showed three real, live, Catholic priests dressed in full cassock and collar with black sash, dressed for a public function.  It struck me that they were presenting such an out of place and out of touch picture to an Australia that needs to know a Church that speaks to today.  What I saw had a real connection to what I had learnt about the state of the Australian Church.  This one picture left such a negative imprint on me as it spoke to me of dangerous revisionism, something which today's mainstream Australia does not need from our Church.

I have come away questioning today's Church in Australia and where it is at.  What is it all saying to me?  It is not just about change but about something more basic.  It is about being Church and for Church to be Church in Australia it is challenged to grapple with the issues facing it and give witness in today's world in ways that speak to it.   This will not happen by being overcome by statistics and the present story nor by harking back to a past that was.  It will happen by seeing what I name as collapse as the present opportunity to take up the call to be Church in new, nourishing and refreshing ways.  Here in the midst of death and dying, there is a chance for growth.

There is always another side.

Sorry there is no picture this week but I can't capture an appropriate picture for what I share here.

It is beyond reason

The World Cup finished at the weekend and by now our German friends may have recovered.  In Thailand, it was avidly followed by many.  What happened here over the last weekend of this great sporting event under military government intrigued me. 

Friday and Saturday were major Buddhist days of  observance.  This meant that there was to be no alcohol sold in the country on these days.  This was strictly enforced under our now military rule.  Then Sunday night came and the grand final of the World Cup was to begin at 3am Monday morning, local time.  The same military rule made the big decree that all bars could stay open until the end of the big game.  That meant staying open all night.

What intrigued me was that one approach was so strict while the other was much more accommodating.  It struck me as bewildering.  Popularist maybe but it may also reflect the general approach here to life and its tasks and challenges.  You present in one way but practice is somewhat different. 

Tourists come here for the bars and the girls.  In Thai society, there is a strong conservatism that looks down on this activity but it is still strongly supported, maybe by even some of the same people who look down upon it, as it makes a lot of money.

Per capita of population, Bangkok has a huge number of Mercedes and BMWs.  This is not because everyone here is so wealthy.  Ones go into big debt to have their luxury cars.  What it is really about is image and status.  Presentation and image are all important in a culture like the one here.  It is how you look that matters more than what you do or achieve. 

What often happens here in the workplace, the market or the street is beyond reason.   Even if the lanaguage speaks this way, rational thought and long term planning are not determining factors.  It is rather more because something has to happen now and short term gains are at stake and I just have to get my way.  Image and status, not reason and consistency, remain at the centre of focus. 

Then I stand back and think about what I am trying to share here and I realise.  It is not just a Thai thing that matters on hand may seem beyond reason.  I see it so often and clearly amongst the farang population here as well.  They just do and often lack any reason.  They can even just be plain dumb.  What is it about? 

In a country where most never play football, it is all important because it is the game everyone can bet on and so many love to gamble, while gambling is illegal.  Everyday reality is not necessarily explained by reason but it is not reason that rules the day.  It is what we don't see or name; it is what is behind what we see that is real  Maybe it is just something in the air. 

The Shepherd is out of town?

This week, Bishop P asked me to mediate in what was seemingly a dispute between him and a western Sister in his diocese.  I heard his story and how he was not willing to engage in further discussion with her as he did not want to cause any upset.  His request was that I ring Sister and listen to her, then passing on the message from him that he only seeks cooperation and teamwork. 

So I ring Sister.  I discover that she has the same message, seeking only cooperation and teamwork.  She wants to tell the Bishop that there are no hard feelings and that she is grateful for his trying to make things better.  So all ended well and all parties seemed happy to pursue their pastoral relationships in the diocese. 

So it makes me wonder.  What happened here?  A misunderstanding? Communication breakdown?  Cultural mischief? 

Interestingly, Bishop P was fearful of any anger arising.  Thais are so fearful of anger. They run away from it all the time.  Yet conflict is real, issues do arise and anger does happen.  It is part of life.  In avoiding it, when it does happen, anger is quite something.  I explained to him that when we from the west speak stronger than usual that does not mean that we are necessarily angry. 

Bishop P went on to comment that westerners are arrogant and that western arrogance was part of this.  I smiled to myself as doesn't he realise that I am a westerner?  Whom does he think I am?  Then I thought how we westerners living here can identify arrogance in Thais.  Maybe this highlights a point for reflection.  We can see arrogance in each other but we don't recognise and own the arrogance within us. 

Tomorrow is a Buddhist holiday.  It is Asalha Puja day.  It is the day that remembers Buddha's first teaching to his disciples.  This may be a very poignant time for reflecting on what really does go on here.  I may never quite get it as it always has a mystery element.  Peace. 

There is a disconnect

I'm on the 77 bus on a busy road and I see ahead two pedestrians moving in the midst of all the traffic to cross the road at the crossing.  That is what I see but what does the driver of my bus see?  Something different. 

Yes, he stops at the crossing but across it as he doesn't see the pedestrians but past them to his friend who is driving another 77 bus ahead of us which is coming from the opposite direction.  This other bus had already stopped at the crossing for the two pedestrians.  Our driver doesn't stop for them but to be able to talk to his friend, the other driver.  The two pedestrians now have to walk around our bus for our driver is totally oblivious to these two vulnerable citizens. 

There is a disconnect or we see what we see and nothing else.