In general, I think you make some insightful and important points, however, at other times I think you may be speculating a little too wildly. For instance, the name Aelred was chosen very intentionally, with a full understanding of the gay connection in the Anglican communion, because of the members’ particular devotion to his works “Spiritual Friendship” And “Mirror of Charity.” There was, I think, some idea of “reclaiming” the saint from affirming groups that motivated their decision. . . . it was clear that Houston was aware of the connection, and had encouraged the group to proceed carefully. (To that, I should mention, my Spiritual director was very happy with the decision, who as a Cistercian has a great love for Aelred.)We're nevertheless looking at a very young ex-Protestant long on naive enthusiasm and short on experience and, we might surmise, caution -- and Houston's response is to "proceed carefully". Indeed. My regular correspondent's reaction is
"Reclaiming" St Aelred is a mug's game; miscommunication on the one side, antagonism on the other.I agree that the situation seems ripe for one set of listeners to hear one thing about "spiritual friendship" and another group another, and this is complicated by the contemporary idea that there is something called "being gay" that's separate from, but in the view of some justifies, same-sex conduct. I would say that a priest who's quite a bit older and probably quite a bit smarter should be handling this sort of thing. Prudence is the queen of virtues. I don't see it anywhere near this situation.
The visitor continues,
You also seem to be confused as to the level of formation and parish involvement the community has. I believe they all attended RCIA at St Joseph’s in Athens, and now attend mass there together (until a weekly DW Mass can be offered). From the outside, they really just look like a group with weird liturgy sponsored by the parish. Mr. Tipton himself is being mentored by the two priests in Athens, and the pastor of St. James in Madison (about 20 minutes away). The Pastor at St. James, I’ve been told, is getting permission to say the DW form for the community.My regular correspondent comments,
Nobody was suggesting that the core group of new Catholics at St Aelred's was not adequately prepared. They went through the RCIA process at St Joseph's and have been attending the parish OF mass there, except when Fr Perkins visited and celebrated DW. The point is that there is no way that group has seventy people in it. That would have been a number of receptions greater than all but two or three incoming OCSP groups of the last six years. Ten or twelve is a more typical number; many have been smaller. So most of the recent DW attendees were longer term Catholics looking, as your correspondent strangely put it, for a "less Evangelical Mass."This puzzled me, too, and I followed up with the visitor on what he meant by "less Evangelical". He replied,
I don’t use evangelical negatively, I’m talking more about musical choice, prayer postures and such which bear a resemblance to Evangelical protestant worship. When I see guitars, contemporary music, people holding up their hands, etc. That is, in my mind, an Evangelical expression of worship. It’s not inherently irreverent, and can of course be very reverent. There just exists in that area a sizeable minority who would prefer a more solemn expression of worship.So now we're in fact changing the subject, and we've gotten off Anglicans and reclaiming St Aelred and onto cradle Catholics who don't like hand-waving and guitars in mass. It seems to me that this is a problem with an entirely different remedy, especially since all but a few parts of the country lack the option of a nearby DW mass -- and even there, as my regular correspondent points out, many OCSP groups have only guitars themselves, and doubtless they wave their hands as well. So this is a straw man argument, and it misses the point.
Guitars and tambourines in mass reflect no formal music program, and that reflects no money for a formal music program. My visitor replied,
Huh. I’ve never drawn the connection between guitars and low funding. It makes sense, organs and singers get expensive.. but at the same time, there are certainly well funded programs that still use contemporary guitar music- think Bishop Barron’s word on fire conferences.But in any case, before anyone decides to go the 3 PM DW mass route in the next county, the appropriate place to address this is with the parish pastor, the parish council, and the parish worship committee. As Fr Z puts it, you have to be wiling to support your preferences with a monetary contribution. If there's no organist and you want to hire one, this is clearly a major project. A group would need to undertake this with strong leadership and serious backing. I get the sense that people who sorta-kinda might want to go to a DW mass if someone else pays the organist aren't that kind of serious -- on the other hand, if they are serious, they don't need to go outside the parish and the diocese.
Now we get to the crux. My visitor concludes,
Their medievalism can be a little pretentious (they really are sort of Tolkien-y hipsters), but they’re generally well meaning and open to newcomers. I was in the area for Fr. Perkins’ Mass, and my understanding was that the 70+ was a blend of their members and local Catholics who were looking for a less Evangelical Mass, something I could never find when I lived there.I think the bottom line is that a mixture of Tolkien-y hipsters and cradle Catholics without the fortitude to improve their worship environment in their own parishes isn't a recipe for success. Certainly when I anticipated what the OCSP would be in 2012, I never thought this was what it would turn out to be.
