Is the church relevant in city life?

This is a portion of reflections by Henri Nouwen in his book, The Road to Daybreak. While on a weekend trip to Paris, he visited St. Gervais and read a flyer about the brothers and sisters of Jerusalem* serving that church community. It said:

"Life in the city today is a wilderness for the masses of men and women who live alone, some worrying about the future, some unconcerned, each unknown to the other. The brothers and sisters of Jerusalem want to live in solidarity with them, just as they are now, and wherever they are. They wish to provide them with some kind of oasis, freely open to all, a silent place alive with prayer, in a spirit of welcome and sharing, where real life means more than mere talking or acting. A peaceful place where all people, whatever their social background, their age, or their outlook on life, are invited to come and share in a common search for God.

Church in Charleston, SC

They have chosen to live in Paris, that large city made up of ten million people. Through their own experience of the hardships of city life, with its alienations, its struggles, its work, its restraints, they know the stress, the noise of pollution, the joys and the sorrows, the sinfulness, and the holiness of Paris. Together with the people of Paris, they would like to help point out 'the signs announcing the kingdom' in a very humble way, but wholeheartedly, at once breaking off with the world and living in communion with it, both keeping apart and sharing with others..."

In response, Nouwen says, "I realized that this church has become a home for many people, a place to be together in quiet prayer, a center to form a community, and most of all a foyer that makes it possible to live in Babylon while remaining in Jerusalem."

*The Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem - "communities of men and women who have chosen the city as their place of prayer, in contrast to the great contemplative orders of the past, which built their monasteries and abbeys in the peaceful countryside."