In The Past Few Days,

while looking for the actual current size of the Ordinariate, I found a puzzling discrepancy: the current Ordinariate Communities web page lists 25 entities (I'm not sure what else to call them) in the US and Canada. However, while poking around the web, I've found two others that claim to be in the Ordinariate, but aren't listed on the web page. St Mary the Virgin of Arlington, TX, formerly Anglican Use (and thus under the jurisdiction of the local Catholic bishop), now says on its website that it's part of the Ordinariate.

However, the Communities page at the Ordinariate site still doesn't list St Mary the Virgin, but lists St Peter the Rock Catholic Community in Arlington, which was meeting somewhere other than at St Mary the Virgin. As of today, St Peter the Rock's site is down (a cached copy is here); when I checked it a few days ago, it said that it was undergoing a transition into St Mary the Virgin. Apparently this is in process, but the Ordinariate web site hasn't been updated -- this is your public face, folks, not a good sign.

Another parish not listed on the Ordinariate Communities page is St Timothy's Church, Catonsville, MD. However, on the web site of Mount Calvary Church, also in Catonsville and part of the Ordinariate, there's a news release from February 2013, indicating St Timothy's vote to leave The Episcopal Church and enter the Ordinariate, though leaving their property behind. There's no equivalent announcement on the Ordinarite web site.

The news release about St Timothy's contains the following statement about the Ordinariate's size:

The Ordinariate (www.usordinariate.org) includes 36 communities, 30 priests and more than 1,600 people in the United States and Canada.

So why does the Communities page on the Ordinariate web site list only 25 communities? I sent the following inquiry to the e-mail address listed for the Ordinariate headquarters in Houston yesterday:

The news release covering St Timothy’s Episcopal Church Catonsville, MD’s entry to the US Ordinariate at http://www.mountcalvary.com/news.php says the Ordinariate has 36 communities. However, only 25 are listed on the website for the Ordinariate itself. Is the number 36 correct? If so, which 11 communities are not listed on the Ordinariate’s web site?

Thanks for any help you may be able to provide.

As yet, I've had no reply. We're back to the same amateur show we've seen in "continuing Anglicanism". I had an e-mail suggesting I may be mistaken in questioning Msgr Steenson's motives, when the problems lie farther down in the organization. A partial answer would be that he clearly tolerates slipshod work -- you wouldn't have this sort of conflict in public statements if he were paying the least attention. If there were problems lower down in the organization, if he had integrity himself, he wouldn't surround himself with people who allow what we're seeing here, though I don't think this is anything like the whole picture.