Who Do You Say I Am?

Here is an article in America Magazine entitled “The Lost Generation” about he loss of young women in our church.  It highlights a couple of finding that are not so shocking if you are engaged with people anyway.  But one question it asks is how do we draw young women back into the church?  I would have to suggest restructuring would be a good start.  Why would young women be drawn to a church that has told them time and again that they are not as useful or as important as men.  The vast majority of young women are educated but are not exposed to the richness of thought that is part of our faith.  Why?  Because our faith is ultimately bequeathed from someone somewhere in our lives.In my own case, it was given to me by my parents and grandparents not only at baptism but in daily life.  We were Catholic, this was a point of understanding.  What did that mean to me as a child?  It meant I belonged to a particular community.  It meant that there were other people like me.  It meant going to mass on Sunday and observing Lent, Easter, Christmas, and praying in a particular way.  When my parents separated I continued to go to this other place that I belonged.  It was a second home to me.  It made sense.  But that is because, even though my mother didn’t go to church anymore (following the rules of the church for the divorced) she and my father had given me the foundation I needed to continue believing that was where I belonged.  It was my inheritance, it was my identity.As a generation, many of us have not given the same gift to our children.  For whatever reasons, (and let’s be honest, many are simply excuses that we fall back on to stay in our own comfort zone) we have decided that church no longer has to play a role in our lives.  That coming together as a community really doesn’t matter as much as it once did.  And what have we gotten for it?  Not a “lost generation” but an unclaimed generation. A disinherited generation.  It is the doing of my own generation, and the one that preceded me.  It is the greatest disservice that we could do to our children.  There are indeed many problems with our church.  The institution is downright embarrassing at times and there have been many who have hurt our own and who continue to.  But the difference is that the Faith has not changed.  Christ is still at the center of the church.  Dogmatic language pushed well aside, no matter what we try to do to ourselves, Christ prevails.  This the the central gift that we could give to the generation of seekers who are looking now.  If they are looking at us, what do they see?  Are you invested?  For better or for worse?  Did you think it was going to be easy??My children may one day leave the church but the foundation they will always have is the one that their father and I gave them.  It is based in the Trinity, in the Eucharist and in social justice, (among other things).  And I hope that they don’t have good reason to leave their family.http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=13254Comments welcome