Where I found Church this past week

Last Friday, I was at farewell drinks for a British couple who had been here in Bangkok for 15 months to work with refugees.  They are husband and wife, a great couple.  One is a lawyer and the other a social worker.  They give their lives to help the desperate populations in our world, choosing not to use their skills just to make big money.  Simply, they are two committed citizens who go out to help the little people of our world. 

There were some 20 people present enjoying Friday's farewell drinks.  They were all individuals like my two friends, young professionals dedicating their lives and skills at least for now to helping humanity.  Our friends were now to head off to Cairo to work with refugees there. 

One guy at the night heads an international coordinating NGO for NGOs and bodies working for refugees in Asia Pacific.  He is totally committed to human rights and works purely to benefit oppressed and low class people.  He does great work.  He shared that he did not believe in God.  I asked him how this fitted in with his commitment and work.  He simply replied:
"This is my life.  I don't need there to be anything after I die.  This is it." 

Then I was speaking with a young Australian lawyer who has been here for a time advocating for refugees.  She told me that she was now off to Ethiopia to do the same work there.  I thought "Wow!"

I could theorize about this experience.  Instead I will simply say that in people like this I have the privilege to meet Church today.  They are not necessarily Catholics nor do they even believe in God but they are committed to good and to humanity and live out their commitment at great cost.  Is that not what Church is about? 

Then in this same week, I meet a local bishop, lovley guy.  He talks of his diocese.  It has a total population of 5.2 million people, of whom 5,500 are Catholics.  He has 28 priests and two seminarians.  And his big issue?  Vocations!  How to get more men to be priests?

  It strikes me how his reality in Church is so different from the reality of my friends and colleagues at the farewell drinks.  While I can understand the bishop's position and lay no judgement on a good man (after all the bishop's agenda is set for him by his role in the Church), his reality and concerns are so narrow.  The reality and concerns of my friends and colleagues seem much more real, much more just purely committed to humanity. 

Where is Church to be found today?