The ACA -- Who's Affected? -- I

Over the past couple of years, I've come to the conclusion that the major figures in the ACA, especially the bishops, are reckless and dangerous incompetents. This has two implications. The first is that they are likely to hire priests and engage volunteers who have not had adequate background checks -- we've simply seen this over and over. The other implication is that the denomination is one major blunder away from bankruptcy and dissolution. One example is the ticking clock on the St Mary of the Angels lawsuits: the odds are better than even that the case will return to the trial court, the parish will be awarded to the elected vestry, and the clawback of plundered resources will begin.

The Armchair Detective at the Freedom for St Mary site keeps coming back to the question of criminal conspiracy. But civil penalties alone in the St Mary's legal proceedings would probably spell personal ruin for most of the ACA bishops -- and that leaves aside the potential for further personal indiscretions that would embroil the denomination in scandal.

So how many children are now at risk from priests who've been eased out of the Roman Catholic, Episcopal, ACNA, or other denominations and hired by the ACA without background checks? How many faithful parishioners will either need to find new spiritual homes when their parishes dissolve within the next few years, or how many parishes will remain viable enough to move to another pitiable "continuing Anglican" denomination? (My advice to all, frankly, would be not to wait, go into the ACNA now, and by the way, get that background check on Fr ____ when you do.)

The last time I looked at the ACA's numbers was in November 2012. I think my estimate of the time, a total membership of about 2300, was too generous -- it's probably more like half that.

Here's my count of parish building size, based on a recent tour of diocesan web sites and visits to all parish web sites. Not all have photos of their buildings; where they don't, I've tried to use Google Street View to get better information. But here's a rough tally by building type, based on personal appraisal of what I can see on the web, supplemented by specific information on parish web sites where it's available:

Inactive parishes, no building address, meets irregularly or not at all: 6

Home missions: 5

Worship in rented space (storefronts or other denomination churches during off hours): 14

Converted residences, larger than home missions: 7

Ugly prefab steel buildings: 18

Real stone or wood traditional church buildings: 13

So there's another indicator of what the denomination really is -- not much there, when you really start looking. We're back to asking where the money is, because a year or so from now, Marsh, Strawn, Williams, Rivers, and so forth are going to need to find some serious money, both to pay judgments and pay their own (if the Armchair Detective is to be believed) criminal attorneys.