A check of directions on Google maps indicates that the two groups now meet at existing diocesan churches that are from 13 to 18 miles apart depending on the route chosen, or about 30 minutes driving time. I am assuming that this would be an indicator of maximum inconvenience for one set of members: at worst, if both groups merged and met in one existing venue, some would need to drive something like 20 miles or half an hour on a Sunday morning.
If they were to choose a site in between among several available, we might assume that the majority would need to drive less than that. Location really doesn't seem to be an issue -- I would guess that the vast majority of Ordinariate members drives farther than 20 miles to get to mass anywhere on the continent. It's probably an indication of how small the Ordinariate is that anyone would pay attention to the Philadelphia problem at all.
Not mentioned in the discussion on Ordinariate News is the question of numbers and money. The review of Ordinariate parishes published here earlier this year gives 31 members for the Newman group in Strafford and 25 for the St Michael the Archangel group. If we add the two together, we get 56 members in a single venue. Let's say that 56 members might be good for about $60,000 a year in plate and pledge, assuming an average of $20 per member per week. Naturally, I don't know what this actually comes to, and Strafford is thought to be an affluent area, but then, so's our part of Hollywood, and $20 seems about right, based on the numbers at St Mary of the Angels.
Is this group going to have to pay the diocese anything for the building? But even if the building is free, is it going to have to heat the place, clean the restrooms, keep the lights on and the water running, buy insurance, maintain the organ, kill the termites, and trim the shrubbery? And of course, pay an organist if not a priest. (Forget the new furnace, the paint, and the new roof for now.) None of this is going to happen on $60,000 a year. An itemization of expenses without paying a priest I did in a comment at Ordinariate News comes to over $72,000.
Are these groups filing into the different naves after mass and diligently asking "gee, do we want contemporary or traditional? I sort of like the other crucifix better, but this one has a side chapel. . ." anything more than lookie-loos?
Or in other words, is this just a feckless exercise, and is it a feckless exercise for Mr Murphy and his regular commenters to discuss this at all? Mr Murphy and other knowledgeable people may have good answers to my questions, but so far, I don't see anything like this addressed at his site.
