I was later considering the financial situation of OLA and I wondered exactly how did OLA stack up against other parishes in the San Antonio archdiocese. [The e-mail linked to a 2016 bishop's appeal page that has since been deleted.]The visitor updates her observations in the context of the 2019 ordinariate bishop's appeal:As you look at some of the other parishes’ numbers and Atonement’s numbers, please know that the amount each parish is assigned as a goal is directly related to the cathedraticum each parish pays to the archdiocese annually.
Looking at OLA, you can determine that their original goal was $37,137.00 but that they had a few hefty donors to bump them up to the $85,791.49 that they actually collected. By reviewing the list of parishes that had the highest participation rates, Atonement is not listed so they had to have a participation rate less than 40%. As a comparison, my parish of [redacted] had a parish goal around$124,000 but fell short of making it. [It] actually collected in the neighborhood of $119,000 and also had a pretty dismal participation rate.
The goal of the appeal was 4.5 million dollars so Our Lady of Atonement’s expected share = $37,137.00 / $4,500,000 or 0.825% of the total appeal meaning OLA’s expected tithe on an annual basis is less than one percent of cathedraticum income for the Archdiocese of San Antonio.
Before they jumped to OCSP, they were contributing almost $86K to the Archbishop’s Appeal. Considering all the money Fr. Phillips and Dn. Orr funneled into the off book Our Lady’s Dowry account, if OLA is still the same size group, and they are being honest with Houston about their finances, $50K seems pretty modest indeed. I guess my question for OLA would be, “Where did all the big givers go?” Could it be they were more attached to Fr. Phillips than the whole Anglican Patrimony after all?Well, the "Anglican Patrimony" is interpreted uniquely by each presumptive heir to it, it's pretty clear. I betcha if you asked two "experts" -- Mrs Gyapong, say, and Fr Bartus -- without giving them the opportunity to coordinate their answers, you'd either get two different replies, or replies so vapid as to be indistinguishable. I assume this would apply to Fr Phillips as well. In fact, I would guess that Fr Phillips mostly told people what they wanted to hear, which would of course vary by the individual hearer. Then if you went to Fr Shane, you'd get something entirely different as well, and he might slip and include the need to use a condom or something.
The visitor estimated that at the time it left the Archdiocese of San Antonio, OLA had about 800 families. Later impressions would indicate that its current size isn't as big, though apparently the actual numbers are closely guarded and not released to the public. This makes me think that the $50,000 a visitor gave for the 2019 bishop's appeal goal represents an increase imposed on a smaller parish.
But it's hard for me to avoid thinking that overall interest in the "Anglican Patrimony" has plateaued, and given the need to raise operating expenses from the bishop's appeal, existing interest is probably not enough to make the North American ordinariate financially viable.
UPDATE: A visitor replies,
“Where did all the big givers go?And cites a published statistic,The entrance into the Ordinariate saw a number of families leave the parish and the school. Unless you were a part of the inner circle, the parish laity were never informed that we were re-attempting to enter the Ordinariate. I suspect many identified with the Archdiocese.
Consider the debt the parish is in. The new school building addition is vacant and unfinished inside.
"272 households (67%) are comprised of converts and/or formerly-lapsed Catholics, eligible for membership in the Ordinariate."This would make 100% of the households in the parish to be 408, half the number the visitor above gave for the (presumable) number at the time the parish left the archdiocese.
