St Timothy's Ft Worth had over [60] people received when it entered the OCSP--- a large group by Ordinariate standards. The fact that their former rector was transferred to another community a year ago and has just been replaced this month, and even then only "pro tem," along with the move from a parish church to this small venue, suggests to me that the game plan is to unite St Timothy's under their former rector when his group---St John Vianney, Cleburne---builds their own church. The property has already been acquired, so this goal could be realised relatively soon.I replied that this plan seems speculative, and plans for St John Vianney seem off in the indefinite future. My correspondent replied,
Hard to say if the St Timothy's parishioners are in on the plan; there was a notice on their website for at least six months to the effect that they would be getting a new priest in January 2017. It remained there into March. They used to post the weekly bulletin on the website but have not done so since moving to the Diocesan Center. There has been nothing on the website about Fr Kennedy's appointment. I think that the group has shrunk because those who have eyes can see that Houston is phasing them out, and have moved to St John Vianney or to a diocesan parish.This is a further indication of the desultory and opportunistic nature of the OCSP. It isn't managing growth; instead, it's dodging indications of decline and looking for ways to merge shrinking communities without quite saying that's what it's doing.
Shifting the focus to St John Vianney, my correspondent points out
St John Vianney is one of two OCSP groups currently meeting in a school auditorium. Here is the "cafetorium" of Marti Elementary School set up for Sunday mass. An article in the Ordinariate Observer noted that 110 people attended a confirmation there in Fr Hough III's time so that gives you some idea of the capacity.
Attendance in the photo seems more like 50-60, heavily skewed to older age groups, and if one added the St Timothy group, you'd probably still have empty seats. It would be interesting to see details of the St John Vianney construction plans.
