The clegy conference has wrapped up and I think it is clear that while Ms Faber may not be doing much as Director of Communications---promised July issue of the Ordinariate Observer never appeared and the "Parish Spotlight" on the home page celebrated its one year anniversary last month---she has been devoting a lot of time to her other role as Director of Strategic Planning. A sophisticated timeline and planning process for second collections has been rolled out, including an annual appeal for a retirement fund for OCSP clergy. This last, along with financial support for seminarians, is of course crucial if the OCSP is to attract younger clergy prepared to dedicate themselves full-time to ministry in the Ordinariate, which is in turn the key to growth, IMHO.While second collections are ubiquitous in Catholic parishes, as a sometime usher who's passed the basket for them, I'm not at all sure how productive they are. I've exchanged looks with the head usher as we total up maybe $20 in small bills from such a one. On the other hand, our current diocesan pastor has apparently been the cause of complaints to the bishop on how frequently he stresses the need for financial support, citing on his behalf the number of times Our Lord speaks of money in the Gospels. The parish is in fact successful.On the one hand, I am not sure that the majority of OCSP laypeople, retirees on fixed incomes used to the once a year pledge system of TEC, are going to be happy with being hit up with a special collection for extra-parochial purposes every three months. On the other hand, it tells us that getting the financial house in order has been identified as Job One in Houston, or perhaps Job Two if we regard the complete turnover of the previous leadership team as the first order of business. In any event, your observation that the potential financial contribution of St Mary's would have been extremely helpful to the Ordinariate had the ball not been so decisively fumbled by that same previous leadership is clearly accurate.
In older days, wealthy Episcopalians were generous with endowments, but I believe those times have passed. I became an Episcopalian about the time I got serious about a career, and I at least tried to approach a tithe (but never got there) on a fairly modest income. Nevertheless, I was regarded as a major donor in the parish. I don't know what mindset former Episcopalians bring to the OCSP in the matter of donations, but I've always been suspicious that Episcopalianism was popular, to the extent it ever was, because it made few actual demands on its adherents, financially or morally.
