I hear your concerns regarding lightweight theology and poor formation -- and I'm delighted that you have found a parish where you have received some decent formation -- but there are many Catholic dioceses in which woefully inadequate spiritual formation is the norm, even for those who went to supposedly Catholic schools, and programs of ongoing formation for adults are non-existent. All of the congregations received into the ordinariates went through extensive programs of formation as part of the process of reception, so most members of the ordinariates probably have more extensive and more thorough formation than their diocesan counterparts. The real concern, going forward, is that children of smaller ordinariate communities who participate in spiritual formation alongside their diocesan counterparts may fall victim to the same deficiencies. In ordinariate congregations that are large enough to run their own formation programs, including "bible study" or other continuing formation for adults, this is less likely to be a problem.I agree that the latest report from Scranton is optimistic, although one subtext of the report appears to be that, as used to be the case with TEC, serious philanthropy is an ingredient of success.Finally, there's no need for the ordinariate to receive new communities in order to sustain itself and even to grow. Note the following wording of the apostolic constitution "Anglicanorum coetibus" (Article I, Section 4).
"The Ordinariate is composed of lay faithful, clerics and members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, originally belonging to the Anglican Communion and now in full communion with the Catholic Church, or those who receive the Sacraments of Initiation within the jurisdiction of the Ordinariate."
The last clause permits children of ordinariate members, raised and nurtured in an ordinariate congregation, to become members of the respective ordinariate, thus sustaining the ordinariates through future generations. The larger congregations, now canonically erected as parishes, all have plenty of children in their ranks, and this probably also is true of the medium-sized congregations designated as missions ("quasi-parishes" under canon law). The smaller congregations obviously are more likely to dissolve over time as their members die off or drift away, especially if their members are older, they have few children in their ranks, and they fail to draw new members into their ranks in one way or another. However, such communities probably represent a relatively small percentage of the ordinariate's membership. Here, the 80/20 rule comes to mind: statistically, the largest 20% of an ordinariate's congregations probably represent 80% of its membership. With respect to the ordinariate's numbers, the congregations that are most likely to dissolve really are not very significant.
However, even if families with children are sufficient to ensure survival in the largest parishes, it seems to me that there's a bigger actuarial problem with clergy. Most OCSP priests are retired from Anglican posts. As these reach 75 or are forced to retire earlier, I don't see enough seminarians in the pipeline to replace them. Bp Lopes has already had to look outside the OCSP to replace the pastor at St Mary the Virgin, for instance.
My regular correspondent also remarks,
I do agree that the full parishes in the OCSP can probably sustain themselves going forward without having to attract many new "converts." However, there are only seven of them, eight as of next month. Perhaps a few more will attain self-supporting status in the next few years. But what is the value of a diocese of twelve parishes? There were about that many "Anglican Use" PP parishes, at the high water mark, and this was apparently regarded as a failure.And of course, the successful Anglican Use parishes did in fact succumb to attrition in a fairly short space of time. My late father-in-law, who rose high in the insurance industry, was fond of saying, "An insurance company has to write new business." But this maxim applies much more generally. You can't stand still, or you'll fall behind.
