I would say that there is no doubt that Fr Ousley is not being paid the designated OCSP stipend, because this does not exist. I assume it is one of the financial details that the OCSP administration is trying to work out. However, Fr Ousley was the full-time parochial administrator of St Michael and All Angels, Philadelphia when it had twenty-five members. Clearly they could not have been providing him significant financial support. Likewise, St Gregory, Stoneham could exist as an independent congregation while Fr Liias, the retired TEC clergyman, was their leader but since he retired it has had to merge with the local diocesan PP parish, St Athanasius.Well, little old ladies may be a renewable resource, but disaffected Episcopalians and "continuers", their numbers always exaggerated, are not. TEC membership is steadily declining, and not because they're moving to the OCSP. The hard core TEC Anglo-Catholics, significantly in Philadelphia but elsewhere too, are in "affirming" parishes who disagree with the Church's teaching on marriage and sexuality. The "continuers" are disappearing even faster. If they were thought to be a market in 1993 or even 2010, this is no longer the case.The purchase of an old building, especially one whose maintenance was probably skimped on in the past as closure loomed, is a risk. The November newsletter hints at some potential structural problems. Caretaking duties are being undertaken by volunteers which may be a false economy. So I agree that things are not rock solid at St John the Baptist.
Perhaps you are right that this step reflects a desire to suggest that there is momentum in the OCSP despite appearances to the contrary. Regarding the demographics, there are children in some of the pictures of the post-service reception at St John Baptist. Furthermore, I recall a line of the art critic Robert Hughes', apropos of the fact that we were told for decades during the Cold War that the Orthodox Church was being stamped out in Russia and no one attended but little old ladies, "Little old ladies are a renewable resource."
If the current pastor in Bridgeport isn't being paid an amount consistent with normal standards for diocesan secular priests (I occasionally see numbers in the range of $30,000 per year, though this includes paid housing at minimum), this isn't being factored into "stability" as a criterion. Should Fr Ousley retire at age 70 and the parish be unable to pay his successor, this would probably result in the parish's closure, since the diocese had presumably already determined that it wouldn't be sustainable with a diocesan priest, even part time.
The same would apply to parish volunteers serving as housekeepers and gardeners. At some point, this is going to get old. And when the pastor of our previous diocesan parish had to lay off the school custodian, yes, a volunteer took up the slack, but this was one more sign for us that the parish was failing, and it was time to move on.
My regular correspondent followed up,
Starting a new venture is challenging. Some people have special skills in this regard, naturally or as the result of practice. Someone at the beginning of a managerial career who is launching a new initiative will be motivated to acquire expertise on this subject in a hurry and thus demonstrate readiness for greater responsibility.It's significant that my correspondent is using a corporate-managerial metaphor here. The problem is that there are ways to advance in corporations that don't involve competence, and being a member-in-good-standing of the club is only one of them. Another is to make cosmetic changes in one assignment and, as a rising star, quickly move on, leaving the less visible problems for someone else to clean up. "Pump and dump" could be another way of putting things.Msgr Steenson fell into none of these categories. In addition he had one paid employee, his personal assistant, about whose skills I will say nothing except to note that she is no longer with the organisation, and was carrying a significant teaching load at St Mary's Seminary.
He clearly had no ability to identify talent, surrounding himself with incompetent volunteers whose bad decisions, like acquiring the ParishSoft system, are still causing problems for the Ordinariate. I see that his "Letters to the Faithful" have been deleted from the OCSP website, although the heading still remains, which is too bad, because these randomly appearing missives, personally revealing but generally lacking a sense of message, audience, and purpose, offered a lot of insight into the start-up problems of the OCSP.
Now a fresh start has been made. Financial and HR functions are in professional hands. Consistent adherence to canonical requirements is being expected. Common goals are being articulated. Addressing the Ordinariate's fundamental branding problem is a more fundamental problem, of course, and that is the key to its survival.
It's getting harder for me to avoid thinking that it's in Bp Lopes's interest to create an appearance of success by glossing over more fundamental issues in places like Scranton and Bridgeport, leaving the inevitable need to address those to a successor.
