The church need not look far to see its neighbours.

Dear editor,

Your latest issue gloomily considers the decline in church membership. When I read the Letters section, I can understand why most Canadians find our church and its concerns irrelevant to their lives. It also makes me consider my own life and work, and question whether the church is either aware of or concerned with the world in which it has largely ceased to be a part of.

I have worked on the west side of Saskatoon, the wrong side of the tracks, for 50 years. I still work part-time as a forensic pathologist, doing autopsies. I see the end results of every form of human sin and misery. I saw a 14-year-old girl who died alone in a sleazy room from a drug overdose, because she did not know anyone she could turn to for help. These are my neighbours.

In your letters I read of a church which seems determined to focus on the sexual orientation of its priests, which seems to me to matter as little as the . colour of their hair, eyes or skin. If the church wants to know why it is losing members, it has only to look in the mirror. If it wants to withdraw and focus obsessively upon contemplating its own umbilicus, it should say so.

Dr. H.E. Emson

Saskatoon