My wife and I started attending the parish in January 2011, almost exactly two years ago. This was after the parish had identified itself as Ordinariate-bound and after it had moved into the Patrimony of the Primate for protection from adverse actions by the ACA diocesan bishop. My initial motivation in going there was a particular issue: the rector of the Episcopal parish I'd attended for the past dozen years was heading for his second stay in rehab, his condition was more and more obvious, and I needed a break. St Mary's was close by and a possible alternative. Since it was ACA, I was dubious, but I held my nose and tried it out.
I'd gone through Episcopal confirmation about 1980, during the first controversies over St Mary's leaving TEC, and the various lawsuits, demonstrations, prayer vigils, and so forth then were on the local news (much more, in fact, than now). I'd asked questions about what was happening then during confirmation class. That TEC parish, in the snobbiest and stuffiest of Los Angeles's affluent neighborhoods, looked down its nose at the unseemly events at St Mary's, as did its clergy. Attempting to leave The Episcopal Church was not the thing that was done. I absorbed that attitude and avoided the splinter groups for 30 years afterward.
However, the growing controversies in TEC had become too much for me to ignore by the mid-1990s. I've gotten some heat for saying that the 1970s controversies over the ordination of women and the new prayer book were no longer controversial by the 1990s, but I stand by that assertion. By 1995 or so, the issue had become Bishop of Newark, NJ John Spong, his ordination of openly gay clergy, and his non-credal statements of belief. New groups of priests and parishes were mooting breakaway moves then, too.
I remember particularly one web-based essay at that time by an Episcopal priest who said that, while he held no brief for Spong, on balance, heresy was less bad than schism. I thought he was right. Spong actually had a heresy trial but was essentially acquitted for lack of evidence. An Episcopal priest who was a close friend of my family certainly thought this was unfortunate, but not the sort of thing that should drive people out of the church. I agreed there, too.
What I've seen in 2012 has convinced me one more time that heresy is less bad than schism. I never would have continued to attend St Mary's if it had been just another ACA parish. That its clergy and the great majority of parishioners wanted to go into the Ordinariate, on the other hand, was a point in its favor. Now that the parish rump is firmly back in the ACA with no intent of going into the Ordinariate, it simply restores my earlier instinct to hold my nose at the place. That instinct, Ordinariate aside, was completely correct. The Episcopal clergy who've influenced my views over a 30-year period were also correct. The St Louis-derived "continuing Anglican" denominations are tiny splinter groups made up of easy marks, nut cases, and anti-Catholics led by scoundrels. In their constant re-divisions and re-combinations they deserve each other.
While my wife and I have many friends at our former Episcopal parish, and we intend to visit there now and then, the exposure to the Catholic catechism we received when St Mary's was attempting its transition was enough to convince us that we needed to take that step in our spiritual growth. We're now going through the RCIA process at a local Catholic parish, which I've discovered has its own history of bitter controversy. We hope to be received at Easter.
At this point, we're middle-of-the-road Catholics. Someone else can fight for the Latin mass. The Ordinariate at St Mary's would have been a nice-to-have; the biggest thing we miss about being Episcopalians is the hymnal and the organ. On the other hand, a low Ordinariate mass with a sorry group of 25 is no more appealing than the ACA.
We look forward to what 2013 has in store.
