Dear Myles,
Western Europe is in especial need of prayer due to secularization and the way the Church is receding there.
Ultimately, however, the Church was also its own worst enemy in Europe - wars in the name of religion, oppressive social structures using the Church for purposes of legitimation, resistance to change as a whole based on religious world-views et al.
The problems with the Church cannot ONLY be sourced with religious indifferentism.
There are also many signs of hope for the Church in Europe - especially with new monastic communities formed largely of young people that are springing up and are living the Gospel message of simplicity, caring and love.
The Church is falling in terms of numbers and buildings. But the heart of the Church is still there and is being rekindled, interestingly, through monasticism and communal ways of life for the laity - this also extends to Anglicans and Lutherans.
What I believe will come about will be a Church that is not part of the "establishment" as it once was - but as a real movement, often persecuted and ridiculed by the establishment and modern fads, just as the Church was initially.
When early Christians were sentenced to death by pagan Roman judges, pagan youths would study the demeanor of the Christians closely and as they were being led to martyrdom, groups of such pagans would jump before the judges and declare, "We are Christians too!" And they too were sentenced to die - and the Church regarded their deaths as a form of "Baptism by blood."
When modern pagans feel inspired to study our lives and then declare publicly, "We are Christians too!" that is when we will have won over the world.
Alex (who is now getting off his soap-box)
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