I was a guest at graduation in May at Pope St. John XXIII college prep in Katy. The mass, celebrated according to the Roman Missal Third Edition, was beautiful with many trappings reminiscent of Episcopal church. Fr. Steve Sellers' homily was great, with the theme of the importance of, "having compassion," and he urged the graduates to always do so.This goes to my concern, implied yesterday, that although there's been churning of personnel, the basic problems that had been identified as of mid-2015, poor financial reporting, poor communications, and weak clergy recruitment, not to mention limited growth, haven't been addressed. Given that the ordinary and his vicar general have been replaced since then, it's hard to imagine what else in the organization could be fixed, though. So why has so little changed?I looked at the school website, and that of his affiliated St. Margaret of Scotland OCSP parish, and they are well-done and informative.
It makes me wonder, given your observation that he was dumped as director of OCSP communications, if maybe his management structure was so difficult that he just couldn't let his talent shine.
I'm also interested in the observation that Msgr. Gipson was unqualified to serve as OCSP CFO. BS. I'm pretty sure that as rector of the giant Episcopal St. Martin's, Houston, the magnificent new church building was financed and constructed. No amateur could have accomplished such a thing.
These men are highly qualified for their previous posts at the OCSP. I wonder if there's a toxic management structure that doesn't allow "Reagan to be Reagan," and shorts to ground initiatives the top "managers" bring to the table.
Why don't you check that out.
The ParishSOFT implementation, as I believe was acknowledged at Bp Lopes's arrival, had failed by late 2015. To date, there has been no replacement, nor any sort of interim workaround. My understanding, as outlined by yesterday's note from my correspondent, is that even attempts to get communities to update their entries in the OCSP parish finder have been unsuccessful. As far as I'm aware, equivalent efforts to clarify community numbers and finances have also stalled.
A big reason for this, which I believe is understood in Houston, is that only a handful of successful Anglican parishes came into the OCSP as full bodies with most of their membership. This meant that few functioning vestries, with members experienced in skills like law, finance, and management, were bringing laity into the organization who could add their insights and advice. This also left a critical shortage of capable lay volunteers and staff.
Another reason is the thin bench of clergy. This comes in large part from the fact that only about half a dozen communities can pay anything like a full stipend to pastors. Even if Bp Lopes can hold the stick of replacement over an underperforming priest, there's nobody available to replace him. Yeah, Fr Featherstonehaugh hasn't updated his parish info. Yeah, he isn't forwarding his parish census forms. As a practical matter, Bp Lopes's only option is to shut down his Podunk chapel group, which is an acknowledgement at that point of Bp Lopes's own failure. So things limp along.
I think about my own experience in the working world: in the 1980s and 1990s, there was no shortage of underperforming high tech companies -- I worked for my share. At some point, management was forced by its board or its lenders to face reality and either shut the thing down completely or sell its operation, if it was worth anything, to another company that would acquire the assets at a distress price.
My own view is that Anglicanorum coetibus was a bad business model from the start. TEC had a history of scorched-earth legal proceedings against full parishes that attempted to leave -- it learned its lesson from St Mary of the Angels in the late 1970s and revised its canons accordingly. The ACC, by limiting new ordinations to open parish positions, seems to have brought about a similar effect, reducing a pool of underemployed clergy who would be available to start OCSP groups or replace retiring OCSP clergy.
Between Cardinal Ratzinger's election to the pontificate in 2005 and the promulgation of Anglicanorum coetibus in 2009, there was plenty of time to think this through and either decide it wasn't so great an idea in the first place or work on a better plan. One option could well have been to find a way to include people like John Hepworth and David Moyer in the planning.
But at this stage, I don't think this thing can be fixed. I would note, though, that my visitor's remark that a mass had "many trappings reminiscent of Episcopal church", isn't that unusual. The idea that diocesan parishes are all flip-flops and halter-tops is incorrect. With a little effort, it's possible to find very reverent celebrations at diocesan parishes that are in fact very special places. Anglo-Catholics maybe need to do some growing up and acquire a little humility.
