The UK and the North American Ordinariates have about an equal lay membership (1500-1600). The OOLW has more priests than the OCSP, although many of those (perhaps a third) are doing diocesan work, (while many Ordinariate groups are leaderless). The Australian Ordinariate is tiny, with perhaps 200 lay members. The UK and the Australian Ordinariates do seem to present far more impressive façades than the OCSP, however. I am at a loss as to why the latter appears content to have no meaningful internet presence, no mechanism by which potential members can connect with a local group in formation, no nothing really in the way of communication and publicity.Visits to Ordinariate Expats reveal remarkable efforts in individual US and Canadian Ordinariate groups and parishes. Most recently, there's a report of a new organ at St Barnabas, Omaha, which contains a remarkable story of a local Presbyterian parish, closing but preferring to make its organ available for use in the city, and St Barnabas's energetic response.
My hat is off to this effort, as well as the efforts of others like those at the Fellowship of St Alban in Rochester, NY. The difficulty is that we hear about these things mainly from individual parish newsletters and Facebook pages, sometimes carried over to Ordinariate Expats, but the publicity efforts in Houston are minimal. This is damaging the case for the Ordinariates overall. I've been looking mainly at the actual numbers vs those initially projected, which presents a dismal picture especially in North America, but it's not the only picture.
A couple of weeks ago, I heard at second hand a report from an individual apparently familiar with opinions in the Vatican regarding the Ordinariates, primarily disappointed that the impression created by the less than stellar performance in North America is detracting from the somewhat better news in the UK. Based only on what I see in Ordinariate Expats, this appears to be a legitimate concern.
My visitor continues,
Msgr Newton in the UK has been on a tour of UK Catholic cathedrals speaking about the OOLW. The UK Ordinariate is gearing up for several national events which will presumably rally the faithful while getting publicity in the Catholic press. A diary of Msgr Newton's official activities appears in the monthly magazine. What is Msgr Steenson doing? Occasionally we learn from a parish newsletter that he has paid a visit, but officially he is all but invisible. . . . I note that Fr Sellers, the former Episcopal Dean of Fargo, ND who was recruited by Msgr Steenson to come to Houston, where he has been the (unpaid, I hope) Director of Communications for OCSP since the Ordinariate was erected, now has a job as the chaplain of a local Catholic school. He is also trying to get a parish started. Perhaps if he succeeds he will find that he can no longer handle the onerous burden of Communications Director and someone new can be found who can at least update a website.It does seem to me that a fairly minimal effort at publicizing the actual achievements of North American Ordinariate groups and parishes could make a start at correcting impressions that may be mistaken.
