St Barnabas Omaha, NE

Here is a view of the interior from this past Corpus Christi Sunday:

My regular correspondent notes,

The congregation does not seem large, if this Sunday was typical; however the community must have considerable resources. [Correction: the parish always owned its property, a matter that was resolved in litigation.] A new organ was installed; extensive repairs and upgrades to the church are continuing;; a new rectory has just been purchased, and I believe the parish has another building which will provide an apartment for the music director, and possibly the sexton. Fr Catania has been resident and assisting at a local diocesan parish but will be taking on full-time ministry at St Barnabas next month. An existing Catholic school is relocating next door to the church. The website has been completely overhauled and there is a general air of energy and enterprise about the place which is a refreshing change from some other communities we've looked at. St Barnabas is not yet a full parish but Fr Catania is working on that.

Pastors like Fr Catania and Fr Stainbrook who came directly from TEC rather than a continuing body seem to bring a different mentality to their new parish responsibilities. They expect to grow and to be connected to the local diocese as well as the Ordinariate. I think too many of the others are content to continue as a tiny outpost of orthodoxy in an unappreciative world

I would say that with the steadily shrinking job market in TEC, for a male priest to have had any sort of sustained career there -- especially in light of increasing demand for women, openly same-sex-attracted, and even transgender candidates -- means they've got to be especially well qualified, and this will carry over into the OCSP. "Continuers", seminarians who weren't ordained in TEC, or those who had more marginal careers, will perform pretty much the same in the OCSP, with some exceptions.

While the interior of St Barnabas is clearly much nicer than the great majority of OCSP communities, it's worth noting that the nave looks less than half full, with many empty pews. This is consistent with my memory of TEC, where on many Sundays, we had to lean across two rows of pews to exchange the peace.

At its best, the OCSP is cloning TEC, but more frequently it's cloning "continuers". I think Bp Lopes has to rethink some basics here. One thing I notice about our successful diocesan parish -- which has been this way for many generations -- is that a diocesan vocations director is in residence there, and promising seminarians spend summer internships there. Associates rotate into other parishes and transmit their experiences and abilities more widely that way.

It seems to me that Bp Lopes needs to pay more attention to personnel issues while closing the least successful communities and relying on the most capable priests to move around and build on success.

UPDATE: A visitor informs me that there was a major bequest to the parish in late 2015, which accounts for the spending that's taken place. However, as reflected in the photo, attendance has steadily declined as well.