Finance

A visitor has given me a heads-up on a new Vicar of Finance in Houston. He's clearly a member of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth-Nashotah House inner circle, which isn't necessarily an automatic point against him, but I still have a hard time getting around the idea that this is a complacent bunch who regard their new Catholic responsibilities as less a challenge than a reward. I would have preferred a signal from Bp-Elect Lopes that things may change.

It doesn't make me any more comfortable to read in the Ordinariate's press release,

Now Stockstill can add another title to his CV: Deacon in the Catholic Church.

It seems to me that the problem in Houston all along has been CV-ism: Jeffrey Steenson has always struck me as a careerist who wanted to collect the whole set.

It also makes me uncomfortable that the same visitor forwarded to me Fr Bergman's Christmas Letter to the St Thomas More Parish. The main purpose of the letter is to raise emergency funds.

Due to no fault of our own our parish was not billed for our property and liability insurance coverage in fiscal year 2014-2015. The problems with the firm handling our policy were systemic and affected the entire Ordinariate, and for this reason the insurance for our jurisdiction is now handled out of Houston, and our costs have been cut in half. However, to ensure that we are covered for any claims that might arise from the unbilled period, we must remit a lump sum payment of over $10,000. This invoice that we had not anticipated receiving so suddenly, if ever, is thus the focus of our Christmas appeal this year. . . . This year, though, we shall require much more than we have ever received at Christmas, if we are to meet all our cold-weather expenses – and pay this insurance bill for which we have nothing in the bank. . . . . You may wonder why we did not put anything aside to meet unexpected expenses like the one we now face. The truth is, in nearly eleven years now, we have never put anything aside. We have lived by faith as the Lord has provided for us according to our needs, giving us everything from the employee salaries to the buildings we now inhabit and use to the Glory of God.

I'm a little puzzled here -- someone knowledgeable about St Thomas More's affairs might be able to set me straight. During the brief time I was St Mary of the Angels's treasurer, one of my main responsibilities was to prepare an annual budget. A big line item was always insurance. Whether or not I got the bill, I would have set aside the budgeted amount. It sounds as though prior to FY 2014-15, the amount for St Thomas More would have been something like $10,000.

As treasurer, I would sure have been looking for this bill and wondering why it hadn't come. Not only that, I would have been talking to knowledgeable vestry members and, if possible, treasurers at other parishes in the diocese to figure out what was up. But notwithstanding, there would have been $10,000 in the bank to pay the check when the time came, because that was in the budget. So it's very hard for me to interpret Fr Bergman's statement that "in nearly eleven years now, we have never put anything aside." Does that mean they operate without a budget? It's hard to avoid that conclusion.

It sounds to me, from what I can gather from Fr Bergman's letter, that people both in Scranton and Houston were clueless, and there was an emergency that shouldn't have been one. (More than once, though, I've learned from hard experience that you can get in trouble by asking too many questions about where the insurance bill is. This may be a sign of real organizational dysfunction.)

So Dcn Stockstill has been de facto business manager in Houston, from all I can gather, since 2013, and a member of the inner clique. Somehow, on his watch, the insurance bill went south. If I were Bp-Elect Lopes, I'd want to hear more. Heck, I'd like to hear more. Fr Bergman? Dcn Stockstill?

What Problem Are We Trying To Solve?

I once had a co-worker who now and then would pipe up in some long and inconclusive staff meeting and ask, "But -- but -- what problem are we really trying to solve here?" This was the kind of good question that can sometimes get a guy escorted out the door. Luckily for him, this guy had additional habits like laughing uncontollably at the joke birthday cards you find in the downstairs snack-and-lottery shop, so nobody took him seriously.

But it's a question I'm starting to ask about Anglicanorum coetibus. I'm drawn to the example of the diocesan parish my wife and I are in the process of leaving, in favor of one a few miles down the road. The old parish has a building that dates from about 1960, just before Vatican II. It's fearsomely bauhaus in its architecture and interior -- the odd thing is that the materials were quite expensive, and the marble marquetry is elaborate, but the whole effect is nevertheless coldly austere. The stained glass is extensive but neo-cubist, Guernica meets the Bible. (For what it's worth, this is the Our Mother of Good Counsel parish.)

It brings to mind Tom Wolfe's critiques of modernism in art and architecture -- it's at the same time overintellectualized and anti-intellectual. It almost says you're self-indulgent to prefer a traditional church interior. And this matches the theology of the clergy there -- from the start, my wife and I characterized them as "Vatican II-1/2". I think they were frankly disappointed that Pope Francis telegraphed all sorts of liberalizations that might come from the Synod on the Family but never quite came to pass. A couple of years ago, they featured the strange Bishop Remi DeRoo in their Lenten program.

Meanwhile, over the past year, they've reduced their mass schedule due to reduced attendance and a shortage of priests. According to the pastor, the school enrollment is 140 when the break-even number is 180, which is why he laid off the caretaker. I assume things will continue to play themselves out with the school. Other times, the pastor complains that only 10% of nominal Catholics in the parish's territory are even registered there. I notice that many of our neighbors are Catholic, and have even sent their children to the school, but I've never seen them at mass.

The organ is prominent in the transept, but I've only heard it played twice -- and it sort of wheezes, so maybe that's just as well. The new mass schedule meant there would be no choir at the 10 AM Sunday mass, just a cantor who mumbles, thinks she's a soprano, and screeches the high notes. What struck me about the Christmas mass the other day was that the music program actually seemed to work hard and try to do better -- but why do this just one day a year? I'm starting to think that one feature of what Bp Barron calls "beige Catholicism" is that in fact it makes few demands, and nobody works that hard at anything.

A few miles down the road in Glendale is a successful parish -- I realized why they have to keep Sunday morning masses to an hour, because there are so many of them that they have to clear out the nave for the next one. By all appearances, it's much more traditional. It appears to generate vocations. Based on remarks by clergy at Our Mother of Good Counsel, the budget at the new place is some multiple of theirs.

I'm all for bringing Anglican features into the Catholic Church if it means a renewed emphasis on excellence, appreciation of liturgy and music, and a reverential mass. But what problem is the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith really trying to solve?

So I Found A Catholic Parish With An Organ And Choir

that doesn't use that comic-book Breaking Bread missalette. Not only that, but although the diocesan parish we're in the process of leaving is five minutes away, this new one is all of fifteen.

Now, I'm not all that particular. I'm plenty happy to have the organ prelude (which contributes greatly to a reverent atmosphere) and hymns that are somewhat more likely to have Charles Wesley or Isaac Watts involved with them, but frankly, I don't miss the Comfortable Words, the Cranmerian prayers, or threefold Lord-I-Am-Not-Worthies. In fact, leaving mass yesterday, I had a reaction a little like Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas morning: he suddenly realized the spirits had done it all in one night; I looked at my watch and realized this parish had done it all in one hour.

Having been raised Presbyterian, I don't have a sentimental cradle attachment to Anglicanism. I'm happy simply to have something that seems like church. And this seems to be a large and prosperous parish, on which the Archdiocese smiles by providing it with nearly half a dozen priests and several deacons. Do you think there might be a correspondence between this and a place that actually seems like a church?

So I e-mailed a visitor here with the remark that I wasn't sure what "Anglican Patrimony" brought to the party if a mass that simply seemed like church could do just as well (or, if it took one hour instead of two, possibly a little better). He replied,

Mr Bruce: Perhaps there is no real Ordinariate "brand." I look around and see that Incarnation, Orlando has Knights of Columbus and Monday night bingo, hardly elements of Anglican patrimony. St Timothy's Catonsville has both male and female altar servers, a guitar-playing cantor who leads the singing up front with a mic, a versus populam celebration, and the general feel of a typical OF Catholic mass, except that they use [The Book of Divine Worship]. Every mass is taped and posted on their Facebook page, so you can judge for yourself Other places, like Bl John Henry Newman, Irvine are of course of the lace cotta and fiddleback chasuble school. My personal take has always been that the essential element of the Anglican Patrimony is being an Anglican, and once you take that away it evaporates. Conversely, you can put Idi Amin in a kilt but that doesn't make him a Scot.

The idea that the Ordinariates are a template for the evangelisation of Protestants or similar intellectual posturing is an attempt to gloss over their failure to attract any significant numbers, in my opinion.

There seems to be a lot of dancing around, but not quite getting, the idea that maybe you can evangelize lots of people simply by acting like a church.

The Big Event Of The Year

By far the biggest event of the year, for St Mary of the Angels, the US-Canadian Ordinariate, and in fact the whole idea of Ordinariates, was the sudden retirement of Jeffrey Steenson at age 63. I'm certainly not the only person to think something wasn't right in Houston, but the idea that something might be done about it has given me a hopeful attitude I simply didn't have earlier, despite the progress on the parish's legal issues.

As someone who took the diocesan RCIA path into the Catholic Church, I probably also have a different perspective on what Bp-Elect Lopes's possible path might be. I agree with two viewpoints I've heard from visitors now and then:

1. The existing Anglican groups and parishes that could potentially move into an Ordinariate have already made their moves, with only a few exceptions.
2. No matter how dissatisfied Episcopal rank and file may be with the actions of their national Church, they're largely satisfied with their local parishes and unwilling to open the Pandora's box involved in leaving the denomination -- the fate of the parishes that left the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles in 2004 is a perfect example of the hazards implicit in that route.

I also agree with the visitors who think Bp Lopes, when he takes full control, won't be willing to preside over a steadily shrinking enterprise. I think Fr Catania suggested new avenues for growth when he said in his e-mail to the Rochester, NY Fellowship of St Alban, "In the time since I have been making monthly visits to St. Alban’s, I have come to believe that the community has considerable potential for growth."

But I don't think the growth will come from disaffected Anglicans. Frankly, as I sat in Christmas mass yesterday, I suddenly realized the priest was giving a homily to a nave filled almost entirely with adults, but he was talking down to us as though we were eight years old. (He started out by singing, "Happy Birthday, dear Jesus.")

I think there are enormous numbers of Catholics -- and if you insist, Catholics who haven't completed the sacraments of initiation -- who'd like to have a reverent mass without the guitar and tambourine and where they're addressed as adults. I think Ordinariates offer this opportunity. We'll have to see where Bp Lopes takes things.

Meantime, I need to find a new diocesan parish for the new year. I hope something can be done to keep St Mary of the Angels going so I can eventually get to mass there.

What's The Squatters' Strategy?

Last evening, I asked my retired attorney wife what legal strategy she would recommend to the squatters at this point. (This was a simple conversation, and she was not speaking as a practicing attorney or intending to provide anyone with legal advice.)

Her answer was that, prior to filing an appeal on the trial verdict, they should pursue a settlement. However, by filing a notice of appeal, they may already have missed the bus on this option.

A settlement would involve two things. The squatters have very little chance of prevailing in further actions. They may be able to delay eviction with incremental strategies, but eviction on some timetable is pretty much inevitable. They can appeal the trial verdict, but it appears that the appeals court can decline to reverse the trial court's verdict. In any case, the appeals court has already heard the case and given an opinion, and Judge Strobel clearly followed the opinion. The appeals judges, from what I've seen, are not patient with clear-loser cases that come before them.

As a result, the squatters have only the possibility of delay and expense on their side. They can trade delay and expense for something. That would likely be an agreement not to pursue damages with specified individuals or the ACA. So the deal would be the squatters agree not to appeal the case and to grant the vestry immediate access. Both sides get curtailment of additional expense. The vestry gets the elimination of legal uncertainty. The squatters get some limitation of damage collection, at least by the vestry.

On the other hand, collection of damages is a separate issue. In some cases, like the squatter capo who can't even pay his lodge dues, there's nothing to collect. (He sometimes claims he has a horse, but other times, he says it's his neighbor's horse, which he's sometimes allowed to ride.) In other cases, it may be possible to collect from wealthier individuals like Mrs Bush, but she would fight the effort, probably depleting her assets in the legal disputes.

However, any agreement between the vestry and individuals not to pursue damages would not cover an insurer's separate pursuit of subrogation in a claim against a policy, which would be independent of any of the cases here.

In cases like Presiding Bishop Marsh or Bishop Strawn, it's in their interest at this point to have the St Mary of the Angels case and their actions in it off the agenda. The case is almost certainly a factor in the stalled merger with the APA. Bishop Grundorf needs to have only ordinary intelligence to recognize that Strawn and Marsh could come into a merged denomination and try to seize APA parishes, in violation of the most solemn promises. Laity and clergy in the ACA could eventually decide it was time to clean house of the bishops who've brought the denomination into disrepute.

As far as I can see, the squatters have depleted all their resources and in fact have borrowed more to finance a losing legal effort. I'm curious at this stage where the money is coming from to continue any sort of operation, much less more appeals. "Bishop" Owen Williams, for instance, appears to continue his residence on Rodney Road in Los Feliz. Rents at that location run from $1600 to $2400 a month, and the squatters are presumably paying his housing allowance. Where is this money coming from?

So the squatters and the ACA do not appear to be acting in accordance with what appears to be their best interests. Either they are delusional, or there are factors which they want to conceal should the vestry gain access to the property and the bank accounts. We'll see soon enough, I think.

Updating The Question Of Motive

Yesterday, my wife and I had a great time relaxing with several members of the St Mary's vestry at a holiday party. Naturally, current events were part of the discussion, and this year, there was at least some reason to be upbeat.

My wife has always compared the St Mary's situation to an onion; there's always another layer of conspiracy to unpeel. However, I'm beginning to see a consensus among the vestry that the core agenda for the squatters was, at least from the formation of the Patrimony of the Primate in late 2010 and the parish's vote to enter it in February 2011, to seize the parish on behalf of the ACA, demolish the existing church and commercial buildings, and sell the entire property for a luxury condo project. It's worth pointing out that this is exactly what the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles intends to do to monetize the property of St James the Great Newport Beach, with the important difference that the Episcopal diocese holds title to that property and is entitled to do this.

Once the parish on the whole began to recognize that something disturbing was going on in late 2011, there was no possibility that the dissident group around Mrs Bush was going to elect anything like a vestry majority to do this. In fact, all of Mrs Bush's key allies had termed off the vestry by the February 2012 parish general meeting and were ineligible to succeed themselves. The parish majority caucused informally for the February meeting by identifying vestry candidates they felt would be most likely to support progress into the Ordinariate. Mrs Bush herself, newly eligible to serve on the vestry, was the only one of the dissidents to get enough votes to be elected to the new vestry, largely because she had carefully concealed her role among the plotters. However, her election wasn't enough to change the parish's course.

Every subsequent action by the Bush group, Anthony Morello, and the ACA bishops is consistent with an ultimate goal of seizing the parish, shutting it down, and selling the property, against the wishes of a parish supermajority and the duly elected wardens and vestry, as well as the rector, who hold actual title to the property. The main benefit from such a sale, which would probably gross something in the $10 million order of magnitude, would be to the ACA, which would then have something to offer for a merger with the APA. (It's worth noting that this merger, seriously mooted in 2012, is according to Presiding Bishop Marsh now "elusive".) However, the sale would be subject to a commercial realtor's commission, higher than a residential commission. Not by coincidence, a realtor was added to the squatter central committee following the 2012 seizure; he had not been active in the parish before it.

The sale would probably be accompanied by not just a commission, but assorted lagniappes, tips, "consulting fees", and whatever else to key members of the squatter group. A vestry member tells me that his contacts among the Freemasons tell him a key lieutenant among the squatters has not paid his lodge dues for half a dozen years, suggesting that whatever scraps from the deal that might fall his way could be put to good use.

The key problem is that the squatters do not have title to the property and are now on the verge of being evicted. My wife thinks that their strategy has been to gain title to the property through adverse possession, occupying the property as if they were the owner for a specified period of time. They expected to drive the vestry from the property, appoint an illegal vestry of their own, hold services, and function as though they were a real parish, but only long enough to establish adverse possession. They brought a lawsuit for civil theft against Fr Kelley with the intent of frightening him away; this lawsuit is expected to be dismissed with other related Rector, Wardens, and Vestry cases at a hearing on January 8, 2016.

Fundraising Issues -- II

Regarding the funds needed for the St John's Calgary plant, a visitor clarifies the assumptions I made in yesterday's post. The Anglican Diocese of Calgary allowed the new Ordinariate parish to rent the St John's property for five years at a below-market rate. However, the expectation was that the Ordinariate parish would purchase the property at market price from the Anglican diocese after five years. As a result, in order to purchase the property, the Ordinariate parish will need to come up with a down payment in 2017 of 10% of the market value at the time, which is the minimum allowed for a down payment under Canadian law.

My visitor says that the agreement reached with the Anglican diocese was that the property was worth $1.65 million. Due to the economic constriction in Calgary, the property could be worth less, although this would need to be renegotiated. However, the mortgage payments that would then be due should a mortgage be obtained could well be considerably more than the current rent payments.

It seems to me that this is just one indication of the serious budgetary problems that face even the largest and most successful Ordinariate parishes.

In what may be a positive development that I anticipated yesterday, I'm told that Msgr Laurence Gipson, the OCSP's former Vicar of Finance and head of "Mission Advancement", has just retired. Bp-Elect Lopes is going to need a serious adult, not a part-timer, to handle these problems.

Fundraising Issues

A visitor notes:

St John the Evangelist, Calgary is attempting to raise $165,000 as a down payment [possibly a balloon payment?] on its property and as I monitor the situation things are not going well. Calgary is an oil town and low prices have led to job losses and a real estate bust.

My visitor has suggested that Fr Kenyon's participation in the "Signs and Wonders" project may be related to the need to raise funds to finance purchasing their plant. If this is so, unfortunately, Fr Kenyon and others need someone to bring them down to earth. Hollywood is a crapshoot at best and no place for beginners. I keep thinking of a piece of copy-machine wisdom I used to see posted in a data center where I worked: LIFE IS TOUGH. IT'S TOUGHER IF YOU'RE STUPID.

As I noted the other day, I've been told that the US-Canadian Ordinariate has put out the word that it needs funds to finance the consecration of Bp-Elect Lopes, and it wants to start a capital campaign. Earlier this year, an appeal went out for funds to finance the travel of OCSP clergy to their clergy retreat. The merged Philadelphia groups intend to purchase an aging parish property from the diocese, but any estimate of potential pledge income from a merged group of 60 or so is not going to match maintenance, insurance, repair, and heating costs in the hundreds of thousands for such a facility, even leaving out payments to the diocese for the purchase.

I note that several successful Episcopal parishes in Los Angeles have clergy on staff who specialize in non-profit "development", which is a fancy term for fundraising. I can't imagine that any would seriously consider a half-baked amateur film proposal as a serious way to raise the kind of money you need to run a real church.

I have a sense that Bp-Elect Lopes will wish to put adults in responsible positions in the Ordinariate when he takes over fully. I hope he does, and I hope someone can discourage the kind of irresponsible thinking that may be occurring in the Ordinariate now. That Mr Murphy would enable this kind of naive and irresponsible thinking by endorsing it is one more reason I take him less and less seriously.

More Signs And Wonders

Now and then I've had the temerity, when I see crowdfunding proposals (which are in fact investment proposals), to take the SEC's advice and investigate them thoroughly. About a year ago, I looked into one such proposal, checking employment and work history of the individual promoting the investment, and made that individual very unhappy. Apparently it's out of bounds to Google someone who's asking you for money! Anyhow, I sent the following e-mail to the contact provided on Trevino's website:

I’ve raised some questions about your project at http://stmarycoldcase.blogspot.com/2015/12/signs-and-wonders-indeed.html Since this is an investment proposal, I am following the SEC’s advice to investigate it thoroughly. Can you provide copies of the approval of your project from the bishops involved?

So far, I've had no response. Perhaps he's been busy.

There's a brief promotional video on the clickthrough provided at the Ordinariate News post I referenced yesterday. It features Fr Phillips discussing the reaction of his Episcopal bishop when the bishop learned Fr Phillips would be moving to Rome. It appears that Fr Phillips was in some type of vicar or priest-in-charge position in The Episcopal Church, since the bishop basically terminated his employment directly.

I simply assume the bishop's action was covered by the canons of The Episcopal Church and his diocese under abandonment of communion. As far as I can see, this would be an open-and-shut case: I don't want to be an Episcopal priest any more, so I can expect to be fired. If I work for Sasquatch Bank and go in to tell my boss I now work for Wampus Bank, a competitor, my boss will call security, quickly ensure I have no further access to sensitive files, and have me escorted out. This will no doubt be unpleasant, but it's only what anyone can expect.

How is this suffering? Fr Phillips then struggled, as far as I understand the public story, to establish an Anglican Use parish in San Antonio, but following this effort, he was very successful. A visitor says of Fr Kenyon, also featured in the proposed project,

[He] does not seem to meet the criterion of "suffering greatly." He had been in Canada only a few years and did not have close ties with the local Anglican clergy or community. The consensus in Calgary is that he came to Canada with the purpose of leading St John's into the Catholic church. He parted company on good terms with the Anglican Diocese of Calgary, who agreed to rent the church and rectory to the departing congregation for five years at a rent far below market rate. Most of Fr Kenyon's congregation were received into the Catholic church and he said in a comment on Foolishness to the World that his stipend remained the same as it had been when he was in the ACC. The congregation tripled in size very quickly. I am not taking away anything from Fr Kenyon's dedication as a pastor; I just don't see where the "suffering" comes in.

This past April, a visitor pointed me to a published version of Fr Bartus's story by Fr Bartus himself, which I covered in a post here. A summary of Fr Bartus's own account is that he grew up a middle-class white boy in the prosperous Austin, TX area. He wanted to become an Episcopal priest, but he disagreed with all but the far fringes of Episcopal culture as it is in the 21st century. Nevertheless, he persisted and succeeded in his quest to enter the elite Episcopal Nashotah House seminary, from which he received a prestigious diploma. Faced with a glut of newly minted seminarians in a bad national economy, he struggled to find work in his field, but his job search was rendered the more difficult by the fact that he insisted on telling prospective Anglican employers that he wasn't really Anglican, he was actually Catholic. (I'm not making this up.)

In spite of that, he was nevertheless almost immediately hired and ordained a deacon in a wealthy "continuing Anglican" parish, St Mary's Hollywood. His published account ends here, in mid-2010. Nevertheless, soon after publishing his account, he managed to irritate the bishop of his diocese by making indiscreet remarks and was inhibited as a deacon. (It's worth noting that a transitional diaconate is basically a probationary period.) Bartus disregarded the inhibition and proudly posted the letter on his office wall. But his astonishing run of good luck continued unbroken; St Mary's moved to the Patrimony of the Primate, and the new bishop ordained him a priest after all in spite of the earlier bishop's inhibition.

Bartus then closely associated himself with a dissident faction in the parish, becoming, only a year out of seminary, the faction's preferred candidate to replace the incumbent rector. Thwarted in this goal, he nevertheless was able to move to an Ordinariate group-in-formation in a neighboring county where, favored in Ordinariate circles, he was quickly ordained a Catholic priest. He was also quickly able to replace his salary as a curate with a day job teaching in a Catholic school.

We can interpret some of the events in this story in lights more favorable to Fr Bartus. But even in his own account of his path to his quite brief Anglican priesthood, what comes out is a remarkable string of lucky breaks, one after another, year in and year out, some simply defying what would be normally expected outcomes. How on earth has Fr Bartus suffered?

We might say that God has blessed and rewarded the ministries of Frs Phillips, Kenyon, and Bartus. Fr Bartus in particular is remarkably fortunate even among Ordinariate priests in being young, having a Catholic day job to support him, and indeed in having a group or parish at all -- fewer than half of the 70-odd Ordinariate priests have groups or parishes, after all. But where is the suffering?

The two priests left at St Mary's following Bartus's departure, on the other hand, lost their jobs there and quite possibly lost any prospect of joining the Ordinariate. One has suffered the worst sort of defamation, including "deposition" from the priesthood in a denomination to which, legally and canonically, he did not belong. He's had to keep his location concealed to avoid threats of physical violence, and he's had to shepherd the parish through years of work to maintain its legal existence.

So who's suffered?

Signs And Wonders Indeed

A visitor brought to my attention this post at Ordinariate News which, frankly, causes me to question Mr Murphy's judgment yet again. This concerns a crowdfunding project by a very young guy named Alex Trevino, who seems to be straight out of college with the idea of moving to Hollywood and becoming a producer. By the way, he wants you to give him money. Mr Murphy endorses this by providing a clickthrough that will enable you to, er, invest in it.

I simply don't know where to start. The first question I have is that this project is intended to portray the great sufferings (Trevino's words) of Father Christopher Phillips of San Antonio, TX, Father Andrew Bartus of Orange County, CA, and Father Lee Kenyon of Calgary, AB, Canada. Fr Phillips is an Anglican Use priest, whose bishop is Archbishop of San Antonio Gustavo Garcia-Siller. As an Anglican Use priest, though, he should at least have a courtesy dotted line to Bishop Kevin Vann, the Ecclesiastical Delegate for the Pastoral Provision. Frs Bartus and Kenyon are both priests of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter, whose bishop will be Steven Lopes once he is consecrated in February of next year. However, since Fr Bartus operates in Bp Vann's territory, there should at least be a courtesy right of approval to Bp Vann.

At least in the past, involvement by the Catholic Church in a Hollywood project (which is what this is, however amateurish and inchoate it seems) would involve detailed approval of the script. At least in Mr Murphy's announcement, there is no indication or implication that this has taken place. Naturally, we assume that the priests involved do this with good intentions, and Mr Trevino, despite his extreme youth, probably is starting out with good intentions as well. However, it's possible for this thing to become a botched job rather quickly. Mr Trevino and the priests are all naive to the ways of Hollywood, the priests are not professional entertainers, and all sorts of things can happen despite the best of intentions.

Are any of the bishops involved even aware of this project? In the real world, no employee of a corporation speaks as an employee to the media without the approval of the corporate public relations department. To violate this standard policy is one of the few things that will get you escorted out the door the day the company finds out about it. Have the priests involved received the permission of the bishops to appear on behalf of their dioceses?

Next, I'm told that the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter is in the middle of a fundraising effort, both to finance the consecration ceremony for Bp Lopes and to initiate a capital campaign. But here's Mr Murphy endorsing a rather more frivolous fundraising effort (which isn't even non-profit, as far as I can see, though no doubt it won't make any money) -- is he even aware of the other efforts by the OCSP? Might he also provide a clickthrough to those, or perhaps just mention them?

But finally, here's where I question Mr Murphy's judgment even more seriously. I've seen similar crowdfunding efforts to this one by Mr Trevino, and what I find troubling is how the efforts I've seen resemble a scam called affinity fraud. According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission,

Affinity fraud refers to investment scams that prey upon members of identifiable groups, such as religious or ethnic communities, the elderly, or professional groups. The fraudsters who promote affinity scams frequently are - or pretend to be - members of the group. They often enlist respected community or religious leaders from within the group to spread the word about the scheme by convincing those people that a fraudulent investment is legitimate and worthwhile. Many times, those leaders become unwitting victims of the fraudster's ruse.

The SEC's further advice:

Check out everything - no matter how trustworthy the person seems who brings the investment opportunity to your attention. Never make an investment based solely on the recommendation of a member of an organization or religious or ethnic group to which you belong. Investigate the investment thoroughly and check the truth of every statement you are told about the investment. Be aware that the person telling you about the investment may have been fooled into believing that the investment is legitimate when it is not.

The people who want to raise what strike me as comically low amounts to try to fund their first-time documentary projects may not be scammers, at least deliberate ones. However, whatever its intentions, it's hard for me to imagine money invested in a project like Mr Trevino's being well spent, and I have a serious problem with Mr Trevino's fundraising strategy here, which is to enlist community leaders like Mr Murphy to endorse his rather half-baked project idea and facilitate (via clickthrough no less) his fundraising effort.

Mr Murphy, I would urge you to contact the bishops involved here and assure your visitors that they have approved this project and publish their approval. If they haven't, I believe the only responsible course is to publicly withdraw your support and endorsement.

I suspect, though. that the bishops may wish to have a chat with the priests.

Notice Of Appeal?

As an interested amateur onlooker, I decided to do some research on what's involved in Lancaster & Anastasia filing a notice of appeal for the judge's writ of possession, which I'm told she did sign on December 16. Most writs of possession are issued in connection with rental evictions or mortgage foreclosures. The writ of possession gives the sheriff the authority to evict tenants within five days of service of the writ.

A writ of possession might normally be stayed if there is a case of hardship: it might be the middle of winter, the tenant has no other place to go, and might need more time to find a new place. However, even if there is hardship, the tenant would need to post a bond and pay rent to the court clerk to get a stay of the writ. Otherwise, it's out.

The situation at St Mary of the Angels is different, since no one is living on the property. In addition, there is ongoing damage to the property owner (the vestry), which can't hold services on the property or rent the commercial space. As a result, the squatters can't claim hardship or damage, while the owner can. The squatters would need to appeal the writ based on a legal error by the judge.

They will first need to ask the trial judge for a stay, which is pretty unlikely. They will then need to ask the appeals court for a stay. Whether the appeals court grants a stay will depend on whether it thinks no damage will occur to the owner if the writ is stayed pending appeal. However, there is ongoing damage to the owner and no direct hardship to the squatters if they are evicted, since they aren't living on the property.

In addition, the appeals court has already addressed the law involved in the Rector, Wardens, and Vestry cases. An appeal of the decision and judgment in the September trial is not likely to succeed with the appeals court that has already ruled on the same issues.

I suspect there will be piddling little delays, five days here, ten days there, but the writ is going to be executed. All that will happen is more delay and more expense.

I'm starting to get little signals that the squatters and their supporters are getting rattled. What's at stake? Good question; inevitably, we're going to find out.

Case Status

A party close to the St Mary's legal action calls the process "more Byzantine than Byzantium". The judgment, which is separate from the decision, was signed on December 15. The judge has awarded the vestry the full possession of the corporate property, both the church and the adjacent commercial building. The ACA is named as losing "all control or presence". A writ of possession for the full parish property is expected to be signed today. Lancaster & Anastasia have already filed a notice of appeal. (Checking the link, I see that you need to enter a case number to view the record, which simply notes that the notice has been filed. The case number is 12U07875.)

Exactly when the vestry will be able to enter the property is still up in the air. When this happens, God willing, I expect to accompany the vestry with a camera to record the condition of the property.

So, Have Anglicans Been Betrayed?

It looks like yesterday's post was in tune with the Zeitgeist or the Force or the vibes or whatever it was, because the Anglican Curmudgeon posted on the same subject yesterday, and David Virtue picked it up. The subtext of Mr Haley's post is basically that at some fairly recent turning point, Anglicanism proved untrue to Christian teaching.

Episcopalians have been facing similar turning points for years, now -- and many, like myself, have been forced to pull out of the denomination in order to avoid compromising "the faith once delivered", as we learned it at our forebears' knees, and grew up with it, so that we could pass it on in turn.

While Mr Haley isn't specific, I'm assuming that "similar turning points for years, now" refers to the various changes that occurred between TEC's ordination of women in the 1970s and the consecration as bishop of V Gene Robinson in 2004. I've got to say that I've got a problem with this view.

It reminds me of the various movements among elite-school alumni to rectify what they believe are similar missteps at their respective alma maters, usually regarded as watered-down or radicalized curricula, surrenders to political correctness, and the like. The usual refrain goes along the line of "things weren't that way when we were at [fill in the blank] in the 1950s, 60s, or 70s." In fact, I got involved in one of those movements until I recognized (fairly quickly) that the dissident groups were driven by the egos and transparent personal agendas of their leadership, and they had no credible set of solutions.

In fact, it's been recognized at least since F Scott Fitzgerald wrote about it in the 1920s, based on his experience at Princeton, that the Ivies and similar schools have long been intellectually shallow and have provided an education that, for better or worse, has never been much different from that available at most state universities.

I think Anglicanism is a similar case. Frederick Kinsman, an Anglo-Catholic, recognized by the 1920s, long before women's ordination, prayer book revisions, or gay bishops, that Anglicanism was a solidly Protestant denomination that allowed certain factions to deceive themselves that they were Catholic or evangelical. Thus we see the cry that TEC is "no longer orthodox" (but the rag-tag "continuing" groups somehow are?), or that it somehow ceased to be "catholic" in fairly recent decades, but Anglicanism was Erastian in its founding and has always followed political and cultural winds.

Anglicanism is a Protestant denomination. I've heard from wiser people than I that, in their opinion, Anglicanorum coetibus was a put-up or shut-up gesture, or at least its disappointing outcome can be interpreted in that light. For those who seriously feel that TEC somehow ceased to be catholic, or accommodating to the catholic-leaning, or something like that, in recent decades, there's an option.

:Mr Haley?

Related News

Researching another issue, I ran across the story of St James the Great Episcopal Church, Newport Beach, CA. In 2004, with several other parishes in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, St James left The Episcopal Church. In a series of lawsuits now called "the Episcopal Church cases", the California Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that the “neutral principles of law” approach requires courts to apply the same general neutral principles to church property disputes that apply to other property disputes. In doing this, it rejected the “principle of government approach,” which requires civil courts to accept as binding the decisions made by the highest church judicial authority.

This was directly applicable to the St Mary's Rector, Wardens, and Vestry cases, since in 2012, Judge Linfield accepted William Lancaster's argument that he should apply the “principle of government approach.” His ruling was reversed on appeal in 2014. In addition, Glenn Baaten, now a parishioner at the St Augustine of Canterbury Ordinariate group in Oceanside, CA, was briefly ordained in the ACNA at St James Newport Beach, although this was only for a period of months between January 2013 and May of that year, when the parish property was returned to the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. Despite the considerable differences in theology between Presbyterians and Anglicans, the ACNA seems happy to have said, "Poof, you're an Anglican priest!" It appears that the US-Canadian Ordinariate is on the verge of making Mr Baaten a priest there, too, although if it's to be done this year, as the prediction goes, they'd better hurry.

However, the story for St James doesn't end in 2013. After the breakaway groups took the several parish properties in 2004, the Episcopal diocese made the rump Episcopal parishes missions, which means their temporal affairs were directly under the control of the bishop, not their respective rectors, wardens, and vestries. This meant that the bishop could sell the properties if he chose once the diocese regained legal title to them. Recognizing how destructive such moves can be, this may have been the only realistic option for most of the parishes-now-missions. In fact, the idea of selling properties after reclaiming them from dissident factions may have been at the root of the ACA's and Mr Lancaster's overall strategy for St Mary of the Angels from the designation of the Patrimony of the Primate in 2011, since the California Supreme Court ruled on "the Episcopal Church cases" in 2009 (although its ruling went opposite Mr Lancaster's reading of the law).

In St James's case, Episcopal Bishop of Los Angeles J Jon Bruno originally promised the parish-now-mission that it would not be sold. However, since St James was now canonically a mission (and probably in its restored form still too small to pay a diocesan tithe), Bishop Bruno didn't need its permission to sell its property, and when he decided in early 2015 to sell the place rather than keep it as he'd promised, he didn't ask for it. He simply signed an agreement to sell it and told the group what he'd done.

In July of this year, former members of the now-disbanded St James mission filed charges against Bishop Bruno, alleging 140 canonical violations, including "conduct unbecoming", deceit, and bullying. Par for the course, I would say, for an Episcopal Bishop, although my wife and I thought he was OK during the 11 years or so he was bishop and we were Episcopalians -- we prayed for him during two serious health crises, and we thought the diocese managed the transition from Fr Barbour to Fr Davies at St Thomas Episcopal Hollywood very well.

Looking back, I wish my Episcopal confirmation class had covered the high church-broad church-low church issue. I would have understood many things better at the time, and perhaps some groups that wanted to break away after the consecration of V Gene Robinson would have understood them better, too, and possibly made different and less destructive choices.

Bp-Elect Lopes Is Only 40

A visitor notes something that had also occurred to me: "If Bp[-Elect] Lopes is planning to move on to bigger things he will . . . . work hard to mainstream [the US-Canadian Ordinariate]. He is not planning to spend the next thirty-five years in that jurisdiction." As a Catholo-Catholic, I was delighted to see Robert Barron become an auxiliary bishop earlier this year, but in comparison, he is 56. If Bp Barron seems to be up and coming, so much the stronger might be the same impression about Bp-Elect Lopes.

I suspect he plans to make some changes, and I suspect they'll be to the good. From Mr Murphy's post, it doesn't look like the Anglicanorum Coetibus Society is necessarily going to be on board with this, not that most people will care.

Does A Bishop Make The US-Canadian Ordinariate Too Catholic?

I note a post at Ordinariate Expats disagreeing with the idea of appointing a bishop to replace Msgr Steenson, who on the whole, given his public statements, seems happy to retire. I sense a subtext that I've heard here and there: a bishop -- especially one of Portuguese and Polish heritage -- means the Ordinariates are going to become really Catholic. Really, really Catholic. Too Catholic, it would appear.

My own background and return to the Church in my early 30s give me a different perspective. I was raised Presbyterian, and I remember the Rev Clarence LeCrone explaining to us in confirmation class about how the Church had developed all these accretions and corruptions and myths and inessential stuff that Hus, Wycliffe, and Calvin finally pulled away. The culture in which I grew up was thoroughly Protestant. I attended a Catholic wedding mass when my mother brought me along to fulfill some social obligation, but she whisked my sister and me out somewhere around the time the first bells started ringing.

Presbyterianism wasn't enough to keep me from leaving the Church entirely when I got to college, once I discovered the usual distractions. Around that time, my parents became Episcopalians, primarily for social advancement, but I'd go to church with them on Christmas Eve. At that point, I had the untutored reaction of many first-time observers: why don't these people simply become Catholic if they're doing all that kneeling and crossing themselves? The real answer, of course, was and is complicated, and we see echoes of it in Mr Murphy's post.

It took me a dozen years to rethink my life. Since my parents still lived in Los Angeles, I found the easiest way to return was to join them for Episcopal services. Taking a closer look in another confirmation class, I realized that the sacraments, the liturgy, the apostolic succession, tradition, and reason were all important. I still thought the idea of a via media was a good one, though, especially in light of my former Protestantism. The radical Protestants are nuts, but so are the Catholics.

For me, the process of moving to Catholicism became complete as I began to understand more clearly that Anglicanism was not so much a via media as a set of essentially spineless compromises. What was important was the sacraments, the liturgy, the apostolic succession, tradition, and reason. Anglicanism basically said you could take these things or leave them. Anglican music is better, but most of the time, you have to lean over two rows of pews to exchange the peace with your closest neighbor.

Anglicanorum coetibus was a prompt that encouraged me to look more closely at Catholicism, but I took that step without the need to go in with a congregation. I didn't need anything to sweeten the deal. Mr Murphy seems to think the Vatican has backed off on the terms, as far as I can see -- what's the point of a married Ordinary, especially if the married Ordinary is tired out and has no credible successor within his own organization? (Well, there's Andy Bartus. . .)

Sounds like Bishop-Elect Lopes is just too Catholic.

Fr Catania Going To Rochester

Fr Catania said his good-byes in Kitchener, ON this past weekend and in the process let it be known that he was headed to the St Alban Fellowship in Rochester, NY. The St Alban group has announced Fr Catania will be holding a vigil mass there Saturday.

My prayers and best wishes for the Rochester group.

Still Searching For A Motive

I'm at least 90% sure that the squatter group is not a jihadist terror cell. On the other hand, it's hard to argue with the idea that Mrs Bush and her associates are destroying a Christian institution -- the alienation of the community groups seems like just part of an end phase.

The question is why -- what's their motive? I'll say from having spent some time with members of the group in various adult forums and similar activities, none is especially knowledgeable on matters of religion. These, after all, are the folks who brought us "Angelicanism" (and have "temporally" locked out the community groups).

Did they seize the parish because eight or a dozen were adamantly opposed to becoming Catholic? A few did have obstacles, but others, like Mrs Bush, did not. Indeed, Mrs Bush is a respectable lady, Catholic or otherwise. Andy Bartus, who worked hand in glove with Mrs Bush and others, became a Catholic priest himself, though not, apparently, in the position he preferred, which would have been pastor of the then-wealthy St Mary's parish.

So what did they have in mind? The best theory I've heard from several sources, including the vestry and the thinking on the Freedom for St Mary's site, is that the squatters wanted to sell the property. This is certainly a persuasive explanation for the sudden appearance of Crosby Doe on the squatter central committee (misleadingly called its ":vestry" on earlier versions of its web site). Doe, who had not been involved in the parish prior to the seizure, is a realtor who specializes in historic properties.

But what we've seen since 2012 is that the squatters apparently have had no intention of running a viable parish, and indeed currently seem to be in the process of shutting the place down.

I assume we will learn more as events proceed. In the meantime, the squatters finally rescheduled Christmas Eve for December 24.

Community Groups Move To Catholic Parish

Yesterday our pastor at Our Mother of Good Counsel, only a few blocks from St Mary of the Angels, announced during his homily that it had made its meeting rooms available to local community groups, although he didn't say that these groups had formerly met in the St Mary of the Angels meeting room in the commercial building. When the Los Feliz Neighborhood Council was locked out of the St Mary's meeting room on November 17, I'm told that it had made prior arrangements to move to Our Mother of Good Counsel in case of contingency, and it was able to make its move and begin the meeting with only half an hour's delay.

I assume the other community groups will take advantage of this availability as well. This amounts to yet another disaster for the squatter group's tenure in the property, and it is a significant setback for Mrs Bush's prior reputation as a community advocate.

The Fr Catania Conundrum

A visitor points out that, although it had been announced that Fr Catania was returning to the US, as of this week, he's still in Kitchener, ON, saying Latin mass, but no longer saying Ordinariate masses in either Kitchener or Rochester, NY.

Fr Catania, who is celibate, would seem to have a somewhat greater range of pastoral options than married Ordinariate priests, who are more likely to be pigeonholed in chaplain or supply priest roles in diocesan environments. My informant has speculated in the past that Fr Catania's association with the Latin mass may have been a problem for now-Ordinary Emeritus Steenson.

My prayers and best wishes go out to Fr Catania.

Pattern Of Behavior

Over the past year, the information we have strongly suggests a pattern of deceptive and even potentially fraudulent behavior on the part of the squatter group.

• In November 2014, according to the best information available, the group appears to have obtained $575,000 in financing using the commercial building at the corner of Finley and Hillhurst as security. The group never had clear title to the building. It is not known to what extent the group may have concealed from the lender the status of litigation concerning the property.
• In May 2015, the squatter group told community groups that use the meeting room on the second floor of the commercial space that permission to use this space, which had apparently been made available as part of negotiations to allow construction of the building in 1984, would be withdrawn.
• In June and July 2015, the squatter group attempted to lease the commercial space to BevMo!, a chain liquor store. According to published accounts, the squatter group appears to have worked with BevMo! to bypass consideration of the liquor license application through normal community channels.
• Liquor licenses can normally be challenged if the licensee is close to a church or school. In this case, the liquor store would be on church property next to the church itself. In addition, a liquor store is inconsistent with the mission of a church.
• However, BevMo! abruptly withdrew its application for a liquor license when it learned of the litigation surrounding the property. This strongly implies that the squatter group concealed the litigation from BevMo! and possibly the realtor who handled the negotiations. It raises the question of whether the litigation was concealed from the lender in 2014.
• In November 2015, the squatter group scheduled and advertised a choral evensong and requiem mass with full orchestra that was canceled at the last minute with no notice. The circumstances are unclear, although financial issues appear to be central to the cancellation.
• Two days after the canceled evensong and requiem, the squatter group changed the locks on the commercial building, locking out the Los Feliz Neighborhood Council's monthly meeting with no notice and no explanation.
• Two weeks after that, CBS Studios conducted filming using the entire parish property, including the interior of the commercial building. This was after the Los Angeles Superior Court had issued a decision awarding control of the property to the parish vestry. Although the vestry was unaware that this would be done, the CBS representatives stated that they had received authorization to do this, presumably from the squatter group.

People don't just start acting this way all of a sudden. Certainly the puzzling events of 2011 -- the non-payment of withholding tax and the disappearance of the IRS notices about this -- and the various attempted seizures of the parish during 2012 need to be seen in this context. There's a great deal more, I have a feeling, that we're going to find out.

Changes Under Bishop-Elect Lopes?

Fr Jason Catania left the Mt Calvary, Baltimore Ordinariate parish last year, as I understand it, for unspecified reasons, and went to Canada to become full time priest for the Sodality of St. Edmund, King and Martyr in Kitchener, ON. This group has a membership of 11. He had also been periodically celebrating Saturday vigil mass for the Fellowship of St Alban in Rochester, NY. I've now heard news that Fr Catania is returning to the US, and his schedule is up in the air. The Sodality of St Edmund site announces that masses are suspended until further notice, and a similar message has gone out to the St Alban Fellowship, pending Fr Catania's relocation.

A knowledgeable party speculates that Fr Catania's move to Canada had been prompted when he somehow crossed Msgr Steenson, and his return to the US may be related to the arrival of Bishop-Elect Lopes.

More On The December 2 Filming

I'm told that the filming was for part of an upcoming CBS serial, Angel From Hell. According to the CBS site, this is a sitcom about a guardian angel who steers a lady doctor in the right direction. Whether the right direction has anything to do with sex outside of marriage, same-sex attraction, "women's health issues", or any of that stuff, isn't said, although given the current state of cultural rot, I'm sure there are episodes that cover all these subjects from a properly tendentious perspective.

The policy of the parish vestry, as opposed to the squatter group, is that if anything is filmed on church grounds, the script must be approved as appropriate for consecrated space. However, until this shoot, the parish property had not been used for filming in many years. Fr Dodd, of course, had scruples about how his own film portrayals of clergy would be understood. The vestry, I'm told, had been informed in prior years that it could expect about $5,000 per day for such filming, but it did not seek this out.

I took photos only of the parish property along Finley Avenue. I didn't go south on Hillhurst, as the area was still in use for filming, so I didn't photograph the street side or entry door of the former bank building. However, I'm told that the interior of the former bank building was used for buffet food for the cast and crew, and this was visible from the street.

We may gather from this that Mrs Bush wishes to exclude community groups meeting in the building to further the public good, but where money is involved, all bets are off.

The policy of the vestry is to notify all parties who intend to make any payments to the parish of the ongoing legal processes and request that they withhold such payments until the property ownership is fully resolved. My wife suggests that given the fact that the use of the property had not been approved by the vestry, it could be in a position to demand that the footage taken not be used. Especially if the content of the series is inappropriate, this could be the best course.

CBS Studios Filming On St Mary's Premises December 2, 2015

Apparently with the authorization of the squatter group, a film crew from CBS Studios was working on the St Mary's premises on December 2, 2015. When my wife told me she'd noticed this while running errands, I went down with my camera. The photos show the extent of the activity -- the whole premises were in use. The security guards were VERY unhappy, but I asked them to explain why I wasn’t permitted to park in a lawful space and take photos, and they finally backed down.

The act of taking pictures mostly causes people to become reasonable fairly quickly. At first this gentleman refused to identify himself. He was pointed out to me as the location manager and finally said he was Tom Hogan from CBS Studios.

The undercroft was in use, according to several people on the premises, as a classroom for children featured in the production:

Here are people leaving the undercroft:

Although several people tried to say they were just filming on the sidewalk, the entire premises were clearly in use:

I've referred this matter to the vestry.

UPDATE: I'm told that a shoot of this size would net the squatters at most about $1000. That won't be enough to pay their bills.

The Shrinking ACA Diocese Of The Eastern US

As of 2013, I counted 15 parishes in the ACA Diocese of the Eastern Unitd States (cutely abbreviated DEUS). I note that DEUS has a new website, but the list of parishes is hard to find. When you do click on "parishes" at the top of the page, it drops down with a list of only nine.

The "Angelican" C Team is On The Case!

As I've observed for several days, Christmas has still been rescheduled to August 16. Do your shopping early.

I'm told that there is now a note on the bank building saying it is "temporally [sic] closed" for remodeling. I'm working to get further specifics on how this "remodeling" took place, and on what timeline.

As best I can determine from public records, the ages of the three individuals most closely associated with the squatter group are Mrs Bush, age 85 or 86; Patrick Meyers AKA Patrick Omeirs, age 75; and John Cothran, age 68. It's difficult to imagine that these people could participate in or condone behavior more appropriate to juvenile delinquents, but the circumstances as far as they are known lead to few other conclusions.

"Bishop in Residence" Owen Williams, "Rector" Frederick Rivers, and "Presiding Bishop" Marsh appear to have at least tacitly approved what's occurred, quite possibly instigated it, and at minimum neither insisted that it stop or, if they were unaware that it had taken place, demanded that the participants make amends once they heard of it.

UPDATE: A knowledgeable party reports that on entry to the building on November 17, there was a flood in the ladies' restroom and the space was dirty, but there was no apparent vandalism. However, this party did notify Mrs Bush that by changing the locks, she was denying a city agency access to its property. Mrs Bush's response has not been reported, but given the sign on the building, it is currently closed to all comers.

More Infomation On The November 17 Lockouts From The Bank Buliding

A knowledgeable party has supplemented my speculation on the possible reasons for the squatters changing the locks on the bank building on November 17. Before I heard it, I had almost concluded that the Bush group had acted rationally, recognizing that utility expenses would be too great if the community groups continued to meet there, and in addition perhaps recognizing that, with insurance quite possibly no longer in place, it would be reckless to allow entry by the public.

Silly me. To start with, the issues are more complex than I imagined. The Los Feliz Ledger reported that one of the groups locked out was the Los Feliz Neighborhood Council, which is an arm of the Los Angeles municipal government, and municipal property had been in the community room. The city functionaries are no longer able to access this city property. (This is simply a pattern the squatters have already followed in the church building next door.)

Second, my understanding is that the interior of the bank building had been trashed, something observed by the city functionaries when they first entered the building on the afternoon of November 17. The locks, as reported in the Ledger, were changed after this first entry, in which I'm now told the trashing was observed. The information I've been given is that the trashing must have taken place subsequent to the end of the bank's tenancy (and a major institution like Citibank has good reason to leave such property in good condition). It is not entirely clear whether city property was also damaged.

There's a lot apparently going on behind the scenes that is as yet confidential, and I know as little as you do. However, what I know here is enough to convince me that imputing rational, adult, or perhaps even lawful motives to the squatter group is a mistake.

As of this morning, their Christmas Midnight Mass is still scheduled for August 16.

The Squatters Have Updated Their Calendar

for the first time since September. If you look carefully, you can see that the Christmas Midnight Mass is scheduled for August 16.

It's definitely the C team that's running things there. I'm still wondering how long they can keep the lights on.

Regarding the November 17 lockout of community groups reported in the Los Feliz Ledger, I've heard two theories. One is that the creditor for the $575,000 financing may have foreclosed on the bank building, and thus changed the locks. My wife, on the other hand, has me convinced that the squatters, perhaps reading my November 16 post, suddenly realized that the community groups with access to the building would turn on the lights and air conditioning when they came in for meetings, something that now looms as a potentially big expense. So they called a locksmith and locked them out.

What puzzles me, though, is that Mrs Bush has been a member of all these community groups herself for many years. She must have all her colleagues' phone numbers and e-mails handy, yet she apparently didn't give any of them a heads-up. It's hard not to imagine that a few strategic calls might have eased any surprises, but they weren't made. I suspect Mrs Bush is unwilling to acknowledge that things are collapsing around her and the dozen or so other squatters.

Liturgy And The Market For Anglicanorum Coetibus

A regular visitor raised a challenging question about my remarks of this past Friday:

you wrote:

"Why not a reverent adaptation of 1979 Rite Two that doesn't take two hours?

A service with a sense of beauty and reverence that uses something like the 1940 PECUSA Hymnal and loses the guitar and tambourine, but without all the extra agony, ought to be a selling point."

I take your point with regard to the OCSP, or at least its United States section, but of what possible relevance or appeal would such a thing be to the Australians of the OSC, the English/British of the OLW, or even to Canadians? And since few Episcopalians are, as you yourself wrote, are likely to join the Ordinariate under any circumstances (and those Episcopalians fully at home with the 1979 BCP would seem to have no reasons not to join an Ordinary Form Catholic parish, when they can find one without liturgical abuses or without an "aesthetic" which they may find repugnant), it doesn't seem mistaken to me to pitch its appeal to those whose preferences are "traditionalist" or simply "old-fashioned."

We do agree on the OCSP. Regarding the UK Ordinariate, its perceived preferences (a Viennese professor was involved) appear to have been the basis for selecting the 1905 English Missal for all three Ordinariates -- but this liturgy has in fact been disastrous for even the UK, since the dwindling faction of Anglican Papalists that used it before Vatican II abandoned it wholesale in favor of the Ordinary Form mass, where they can now find it whenever and wherever they choose. Indeed, the English Missal mass was never more than tolerated by UK laity.

But there's another assumption here: my visitor notes, "few Episcopalians are, as you yourself wrote, [likely] to join the Ordinariate under any circumstances". It's not much more of a step to say, just as accurately as far as I know, that the great majority of the potential Anglican market for Ordinariates has already made its move. Neither "continuers" nor ACNA members are any more likely than Episcopalians to come over now.

But this leaves another untapped market, and possibly not the only one, if some of Bishop-Elect Lopes's remarks are to be taken seriously. Pope Francis (presumably with input from the CDF, and this means potentially from Lopes) extended eligibility for full Ordinariate membership to cradle Catholics who haven't completed the sacraments of initiation. A priest at our diocesan parish remarked just the other week that only a third of registered members there had in fact completed the sacraments of initiation.

If Bp Barron is an indicator of mainstream Catholic opinion, Vatican II continues to be seen as a Very Good Thing. A major outcome of the Council was mass in a dignified but contemporary vernacular; revisions continue, and if Fr Z's opinion is any indicator, so do stylistic improvements. Vatican II was clearly also the inspiration for 1979 Rite Two. In that context, the English Missal version of the Ordinariate mass, with precious contrived archaisms, is beside the point and adventitious.

I think Catholics are beginning to understand that if you tell people the Catechism and the Sacraments aren't important, they'll believe you. A good part of the New Evangelization, as far as I can see, is to say that when we said those things weren't important, we didn't mean they actually weren't important -- the New Evangelization is talking to Catholics primarily, as far as I can see. In our diocesan parish, the suggestion is being made that perhaps people should reconsider coming to mass in flip flops and tank tops that show off tattoos. Who knows where that may lead?

A service with a sense of beauty and reverence could be a part of a larger movement aimed at Catholics. Bishop-Elect Lopes, by all indications, is not a stupid man and probably sees this and other potential.

New Los Feliz Ledger Article

The December Los Feliz Ledger is out, decorating our front lawns with the latest update on the saga from their viewpoint. (Ms Cohen promised to opt our neighborhood out of the litter distribution, but so far the promise is feckless.)

Before I make more general observations, two passages strike me. The first:

The Los Feliz Neighborhood Council (LFNC) found itself suddenly denied access [to the now-vacant bank building with its community room] for its regular monthly meeting November 17th when their keys—which they had used to gain entry a few hours earlier that day—no longer worked.

The Los Feliz Improvement Assoc. also found itself locked out of a meeting November 19th.

This can only be characterized as erratic and somewhat bizarre conduct on the squatters' part. What on earth changed to make it necessary to lock them out with no notice? I can only guess that, with their hold on the property slipping away, they feel the need to assert whatever arbitrary authority is left to them.

The second passage:

Bush, meanwhile, has indicated the church’s finances are in such dire straits, she, as the church’s most senior laity leader, can no longer countenance providing the 2nd floor community space for free and will lease it out, saying they have currently amassed about $2 million in legal fees defending their ousting of Kelley.

So does Mrs Bush now want money to let the neighborhood groups back in the building, or what? We don't know. But the $2 million figure is a puzzle. Earlier this month, I estimated that income to the parish from all sources during the time the Bush group had possession of the bank accounts could not have been more than $800,000. Beyond that, they had to meet ordinary expenses, making money available for legal fees from regular income considerably less. We have fairly reliable information that the Bush group obtained $575,000 financing in November 2014.

This leaves somewhere in the order of $1 million, at least based on Mrs Bush's statement, that had to have come from someplace else. One explanation, which I can't rule out, is that Mrs Bush is simply exaggerating the amount to inflate her own importance. But clearly there's going to need to be a forensic audit -- and this will take place no matter what, since even if the Bush group is somehow able to retain control, the corporation will soon enough wind up in bankruptcy court, where a judge will want his own set of answers.

Otherwise, I'm seeing some movement toward greater neutrality by Ms Cohen, although if the writing is any indication, the whole set of circumstances surrounding the parish is more than a little beyond her cognitive powers. She went as far as interviewing John Hepworth, although whatever explanation he gave of the Patrimony of the Primate didn't take -- she refers in her account to the Primate, not the Patrimony!

The overall foggy impression in the story, I have a feeling, comes in large part from her reliance on Mrs Bush for the bulk of the account. I'm increasingly convinced that Mrs Bush has been in well over her head. Yet once more, I urge her family to get involved, as this isn't going to end well for her.

A Couple More Reactions To The New Bishop

One visitor e-mails:

Msgr Lopes is evidently very familiar with the elements of the Anglican liturgy which were considered in the preparation of Divine Worship:The Missal. I doubt that he knows much about Anglican hymns, simnel cake, embroidered kneelers, vestry meetings, or all the other trappings of parish life in the Church of England or its former colonies. I think his appointment signals that the Vatican sees the Ordinariate Use of the Latin Rite as the focus of the Ordinariates' identity, a message which must be discouraging to the OOLW for obvious reasons. While the OCSP should be fine with the liturgical agenda as far as it goes, I am not sure that will be enough to offset the sense that the promise of "united, not absorbed" just got a little less realistic. I am sure the OCSP will be better, more professionally run under soon-to-be Bishop Lopes. Whether it will be more attractive to current Episcopalians/Anglicans is another matter.

Bishop-Elect Lopes has already appeared in this blog as Msgr Lopes, quoted in The Portal in 2013 remarks on Anglican patrimony.

. . . these expressions from the Anglican prayer books and how they are interpreted through the years - I’m thinking of the Comfortable Words, the Summary of the Law, the Collect for Purity, the Prayer of Humble Access - these are not museum pieces.

So I think the English Missal version of the mass will continue in the US-Canadian Ordinariate. Another visitor writes,

. . . I see no Anglican "chops." He's a young man of 40. And his mission simply mentions "nurturing beauty in liturgy." Maybe he will cast out the overbearing mass and get things moving.

My own view is that the idea of 250,000 Episcopalians chomping at the bit to cross the Tiber was always a complete misappraisal. The New Evangelization is going to take work -- Bp Barron, for instance, sees himself as an instrument of New Evangelization, and his is clearly a non-trivial effort. Something along that line is going to be needed to attract any significant numbers of new converts to the Ordinariates.

I still think the choice in liturgy between the 1905 English Missal mass and the Ordinary Form is unfortunate. It's either chapel veils, threefold Lord I Am Not Worthies, or the same product you get down the street. Why not a reverent adaptation of 1979 Rite Two that doesn't take two hours?

A service with a sense of beauty and reverence that uses something like the 1940 PECUSA Hymnal and loses the guitar and tambourine, but without all the extra agony, ought to be a selling point.

A Few Reflections A Day Later

The comments at Virtue Online are virulently anti-Catholic. The comments at Fr Z's blog tend toward "Ordinariate? Wha?", which is probably the most appropriate Catholic response (speaking for myself as a Catholic former Anglican). Of all the comments on both sites, I agree with the one on VOL that Steenson's retirement sure was early, and I agree with the one on Fr Z that His Holiness is full of surprises.

Actually, I tend to think that having a real Catholic Ordinary in Bishop-Elect Lopes is probably the best possible move the Vatican could make. At minimum, this should begin to dissipate the influence of the Houston-Nashotah House-Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth in-group that seemed to have settled into almost instantaneous complacency. Certainly I've heard the comment that the Ordinariate had attracted retired Episcopal clergy who mostly wished undemanding part-time work compatible with relocation to the Sun Belt.

By all appearances that was Jeffrey Steenson. I don't think, frankly, that his remark that he hadn't had enough time for his hobby was all that much of a joke.

I hope and pray that things will change for the better and that this may involve the St Mary of the Angels parish.

Welcome, Bishop-Elect Lopes!

Amid all the other news this morning, I got to my computer to find a new face on the US-Canadian Ordinariate web site. Interesting that the appointment should come in anticipation of Advent I.

Msgr Steenson has retired with immediate effect. For a Catholic ordinary to retire prior to age 75 is quite remarkable.

Frankly, as I've suggested here from time to time, I haven't been sure if the St Mary of the Angels parish would choose to enter the US-Canadian Ordinariate if its legal situation were resolved to allow it, and I'm not sure if the US-Canadian Ordinariate would have accepted the parish if it had renewed its application. Now, though, there might be some hope for change in that situation, although I speak only for myself and not for the vestry or Fr Kelley (and certainly not for anyone else).

Why is Brian Marsh Suddenly Answering Questions?

After what he acknowledges is months of silence, "Bishop" Marsh of the ACA is suddenly answering questions. On one hand, as I've said before, the ACA doesn't have many options whether he answers questions or flips them the bird -- he has no credible successor. But he seems to be getting nervous nonetheless.

He first notes that he welcomes the chance to answer when "someone will ask me about something they have read on a blog" (clearly the blog he refers to is this one). But in September's Northeast Anglican, he also notes

"Often, your bishop is asked about the possibility of merger with other orthodox Anglican jurisdictions. We currently hold friendly relations with several such jurisdictions and an intercommunion relationship with the Anglican Province of America. If merger appears elusive at this time, it is important to remind ourselves that such occurrences happen in God's good time."

What? Merger with the APA "appears elusive at this time"? Er, didn't "Bishops" Marsh and Langberg (he now conveniently retired even as a rector) take a Mediterranean cruise with APA Bishops Loiselle and Grundorf as far back as 2012 for, as Marsh put it, "discussing and getting to know each other in preparation for our anticipated unity"? More than three years later, why are things now stalled, which Marsh acknowledges here?

The elephant in the room, the source of both questions, is St Mary of the Angels. The St Mary's vestry has estimated multimillion-dollar damages resulting from the ACA's incitement and supervision of a squatter group occupying the property. But now other issues are coming to light -- the squatter group operating under the ACA's direct authority, supervised by Frederick Rivers and Owen Rhys Williams representing themselves as "rector" and "episcopal visitor", appears to have obtained half a million dollars in financing, offering as security a property they do not own or control.

Brian Marsh is one of the first people the lenders will presumably approach, assuming these circumstances are borne out in further investigation. The liability for the ACA is potentially cataclysmic. The damage to its reputation will probably be terminal

If you were Walter Grundorf, how eager would you be to have the APA assume a share in this liability?

Hinky

I had a chance to chat about recent developments with members of the vestry yesterday afternoon. I asked them in particular what their theory was on the non-occurrence of the choral evensong and requiem with full orchestra that had been scheduled for Sunday of last week, which got as far as having tables set up in the courtyard the night before, but then simply went poof. Their reaction was animated to say the least.

I will summarize the consensus with the caveat that this is pure speculation based on incomplete information. However, it does seem to be a good fit with the information we have.

• We don't know when the event was initially planned and scheduled by the squatter group. It could well have been at a time when they either assumed the parish income would remain steady, or they assumed they would have some resumption of income to pay the musicians.
• However, by October and November, very little money was coming in. The vestry members actually feel my own estimate of the income to the squatters, for instance assuming $1000 monthly rental for the parking lot, may be too large. I will defer to their judgment.
• Nevertheless, in the vestry's speculative view, the squatter group continued planning for the event, taking out the ad in the Los Feliz Ledger and presumably holding rehearsals with the paid professional (and quite possibly unionized) musicians in the orchestra and choir.
• The vestry speculates that the orchestra and choir were promised payment for both rehearsals and performance after the choral evensong and requiem performance.
• However, despite promises and sweet-talk from the squatter group, the vestry speculates that the musicians began to feel something was hinky and demanded some concrete evidence that they would be paid. In my view and the view of the vestry, there wasn't money to pay the electric bill, much less the musicians.
• The musicians, in this speculative scenario, told the squatter group to forget it at the last minute, convinced they were about to be stiffed (and probably already had been stiffed for the rehearsal time).

I can't avoid thinking that in recent weeks, more than the musicians are being stiffed, in some cases for large amounts.

The ACA Now Has An Official Position On This Blog!

If you wanted any better confirmation that this blog has an impact, you should check this out. Thanks to an Ordinariate source for the heads-up. "Bishop" Marsh concludes,

St. Mary of the Angels in Hollywood, California has been captive of the blogosphere for some time. In this particular case, the blogosphere has made the art of distortion into a masterpiece. You cannot believe everything you read and I do pray that the truth will out in the end.

I think I do a pretty good job here, too, and I appreciate the implicit praise! However, I would say that for "Bishop" Marsh to address the issue of St Mary's now at all is a reflection of his concern that developments are not going the ACA's way, and the place where people will get an accurate and up-to-date account of them is here. Knowing that this is already the case (my readership is up 40%-50% in recent months), he seems to feel the need to minimize it.

Good luck with that.

So Where's The Rest Of The Money? -- III

It took me longer to figure this out than it took my wife. OK: the Bush group takes out a $575,000 mortgage on the parish property.We don't know where that money went, it's true -- but we do know that the Bush group now has a monthly mortgage payment, presumably well into four figures.

Given that earlier this year, Mrs Bush elected to rent the now-vacant bank building on the property to BevMo! rather than Walgreen's because Walgreen's wanted free rent while they modified the building, we must assume that the $575,000 mortgage proceeds are spent, and the squatters needed the rental income to keep coming in without interruption.

But now as far as we know, with no tenant in the bank building since October, the Bush group isn't even getting in enough to pay utilities. My wife thinks they're already missing mortgage payments. Except that the Bush squatters didn't have the property to mortgage.

I still haven't thought through all the implications. Mrs Bush's family, I say again, needs to hire an attorney and get Mrs Bush out of this situation. I'm sorry to say that I'm seeing more and more suggestions that an argument based on mental incapacity would be credible.

More Puzzles

The ad shown here appeared on page 9 of the November 2015 Los Feliz Ledger. There are several puzzles in connection with it. One is that, as I've already noted, there was no announcement of this on the parish web page, which contained no new entries after September of this year. I'm told that at least one group saw this ad, arrived at the specified date and time, but the gates were locked. Nothing ever happened. No cancellation note was to be seen. They all left, disappointed.

Observers saw tables set up in the courtyard late the night before, certainly in anticipation of something, but as my informant puts it, "then it all went away." The cost of a "full choir and orchestra", including rehearsal time, would be substantial; a knowledgeable party puts it somewhere in the four figures, as well as the cost of the ad. (The ad, of course, is one indication that Ms Cohen's favorable treatment of Mrs Bush does not go unrewarded.)

This for a group that had lost its tenant and had no income -- but wait, there's more! It appears that the squatter group took out a mortgage for $575,000, I gather in late 2014, after the appeals court had already ruled in favor of the rector, wardens, and vestry. And this when they still had an income over $20,000 a month. Where was this money going?

The aborted choral evensong must have cost money, too. If tables had been set up in anticipation of the event just the night before, it's hard to avoid thinking some money had been spent before the thing went poof. Where did this money come from?

It sounds as if the vestry's legal team is aware of these issues. As I've already said, Mrs Bush's family really needs to get involved, as this is not likely to end well for her.

New Schedule

There are two pending legal events in resolving the vestry's case. The first is Judge Strobel signing the final version of her decision, which will order the squatters evicted from the property. It was expected that she woud do this by November 17, since the hearing on the disposition of the "related cases" had been scheduled for November 18. However, with Lancaster & Anastasia claiming the USPS had taken five days to deliver their copy of Judge Strobel's decision, these dates have been rolled forward.

Judge Alan Goodman, who now has charge of Judge Strobel's former Department 32, has continued the November 18 hearing on the "related cases" to January 8, 2016. However, I'm told that the law requires that Judge Strobel wrap her decision up within 50 days -- which takes us no later than December 15. We don't know exactly what her order will be, including what dates she may specify for execution of the final judgment. My wife thinks she is proceeding with extreme caution to avoid continued appeals.

The most important of the "related cases" is the one by the squatter group against Fr Kelley accusing him of "conversion", which is civil theft. (The civil charge would require only a jury majority based on the "preponderance of evidence", rather than a unanimous finding "beyond a reasonable doubt".) This case, of course, has been stalled since the appeals court returned the cases for retrial in 2014. Judges who have looked at the Bush group's allegations have repeatedly said that there is no evidence for them. During the brief time I was parish treasurer in 2011, I found no evidence of financial impropriety, and the accountant who audited the parish prior to its seizure in 2012 also found no impropriety. Presumably this case will be dismissed "with prejudice" under Judge Goodman next year.

Fr Kelley, on the other hand, is concerned that the squatter group remains in possession of his personal property that had been in the rector's office at the time of the seizure. I suspect that other problems will come quickly to light once the vestry regains access to the property and bank accounts.

The Calendar Again

As I've noted here from time to time, the squatters have seldom been conscientious in keeping the calendar up to date -- but recent weeks have been especially behind. Here it is as of this morning:

The most recent entry is for September 8, the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. If they were making an ordinary effort, we'd assume that there would be entries for Sunday, November 22, the Feast of Christ the King, and Sunday, November 29, I Advent. I don't know if it's significant that the retrial took place in September, distracting whomever was maintaining the calendar.

Whatever else it may be, it's a continuing indication that the squatters have never been running the place as an actual parish. With nothing noted on the calendar, I'd love to know what they have or haven't announced about legal developments during Sunday "mass". There's always been something hinky here.