In the wake of the news concerning St Athanasius Boston, a visitor noted that there was until 2014 a Pastoral Provision Parish of Good Shepherd in Columbia, SC. However, the bishop
finally suppressed this parish in 2016.
In 1984, the Personal Parish of Good Shepherd in Columbia, South Carolina, was established to serve the spiritual welfare of those identified by their common bond of Anglican heritage in Richland County, South Carolina. Since its erection, the Faithful have heard the Word of God, worshiped, and received the Sacraments of the Church within this personal parish. Over the past decade, a marked decline has been noted in the Anglican community of which the parish was initially established to serve. In an effort to ensure the vitality of parish life, with concern for the best stewardship of resources, and the right of the people of God to receive assistance from the Church, especially the Word of God, spiritual sustenance, and the sacraments, it is now deemed necessary to suppress the Personal Parish of Good Shepherd while creating new provisions for the spiritual care of its parishioners.
The visitor adds,
This is no surprise, since right from its inception, or very shortly thereafter, it abandoned any sort of "Anglican Use" Mass rite, and for many years has been mainline Roman Catholic in its worship life. The church's remote origins lay in a split over women's ordination in the local Anglo-Catholic Episcopal parish, Good Shepherd, in which, if I recall correctly, Fr. William Ladkau, then the Curate, led about half the congregation into forming a Continuing Anglican church there - and then, in 1984, led part of that congregation into the Catholic Church (I think that the Continuing Anglican congregation subsequently "folded"). Well over a decade ago I was told, I forget by whom, that while the Catholic Diocese of Charleston accepted Good Shepherd as a "Pastoral Provision" personal parish it was made clear "unofficially" that it was with the expectation that it would become "normal Roman Catholic" in its liturgical life, which it did. I cannot remember whether Fr. Ladkau is a married man.
Another visitor notes,
There is a Church of the Good Shepherd in Columbia, SC, but its web site states that it is “The Anglo-Catholic Parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina” which is still part of The Episcopal Church (TEC), not to be confused with the Diocese of South Carolina that withdrew from TEC a few years ago and subsequently joined the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), formed as an alternative province of the Anglican Communion in the United States and Canada.
Regarding St Athanasius Boston, this visitor notes,
St. Athanasius has had minimal growth since the reception of its founding members into full communion c. 1995. Its membership is still several dozen parishioners, so it has not yet attained canonical status as a parish. It worships in St. Lawrence Church — the former church of a suppressed parish that still hosts one Sunday mass of St. Mary of the Assumption Parish, the ultimate receiving parish, for the convenience of parishioners who live within walking distance, in addition to the St. Athanasius mass. The administrator, Fr. Richard Sterling Bradford, is also a parochial vicar of nearby St. Thresa of Avilla Parish in West Roxbury, which is about fifteen minutes away from St. Lawrence Church.
Other than the large and successful Texas Pastoral Provision parishes, the story of the rest seems to fall into two categories: small groups that never grow beyond their initial membership and eventually fade out, and more dodgy, medium-size parishes. Survivors of both types now look to be fully absorbed into the OCSP, but I question how much of a future any of those has.
