I've been thinking about the very small OCSP groups which are still around but have not grown---or in some cases have shrunk. St Augustine, San Diego is an example of the latter situation, as I have discussed. I assume that part of the problem is that Fr Baaten, as well as his duties as Chaplain at the Santiago Retreat Center, has to be prepared to sub in as required by Fr Bartus at the various "SoCal Ordinariate" venues.The episode that stays in my mind about the San Diego group is the one in December 2017, where a parishioner left the group in a huff due to complaints that she was nursing a baby in the back of the room while standing and singing lustily, the infant and her breast uncovered. Mrs Gyapong emphatically supported the lady on the basis that nursing in public without covering the process was part of the Anglican patrimony.When Bp Lopes last visited the Irvine Newman group, Fr Bartus of course had to be on hand. As the former Pastor of St Martha, Murrieta it was probably impolitic for Fr Barker to celebrate at Holy Martyrs, Murrieta in Fr Bartus' absence, so Fr Baaten was thrown into the breach. Mass at St Augustine San Diego was cancelled. And as we know, Fr Baaten celebrated the Easter Vigil in Irvine while Fr Barker was in Covina. St Augustine didn't have a Vigil.
For whatever reason, the thirty-three St Augustine members received in 2012 seem to have shrunk to an ASA of ten, based on FaceBook pix from the last year or two. There were sixteen in the group picture taken on the occasion of Msgr Newton's visit in 2015, about a year before Fr Baaten took over as administrator (he is one of the laypeople in the picture). The website has recently been updated, which is a hopeful sign. For literally years it has remained essentially unchanged from the original days in Carlsbad under Fr Ortiz-Guzman.
I would credit the new permanent deacon, except that he has been a member of the congregation since at least 2015, where he can be seen in the picture with Msgr Newton. There seems to be no reason to suppose that under the existing leadership this group is going to regain even its initial size, let alone grow. Fr Baaten is 61. He was of course an archetypal "marginal candidate" for ordination
Why on earth would anyone at all, much less as many as a dozen, want to confront this sort of issue at mass? There are 48 other Catholic churches in San Diego, and in fact other mass times at that host parish. Even if some lady in those other places is nursing a baby that way, if there are 3-500 people in that mass, it might not even be noticed. A dozen at mass with Mrs Schmidlap running a peep show in back, calling attention to it with her piercing soprano, that's different. There's a reason for all the crowd scenes in Acts.
And once again, although it appears Fr Baaten did the right thing in asking Mrs Schmidlap to refrain from running the peep show at mass, I still question what these dozen or so are missing in opportunities, programs, leadership, and fellowship by staying in such a tiny Anglican ghetto. It almost seems as though priests and their bishop want them around to justify having Fr Baaten as an occasional supply priest to say DW mass at the other California groups -- when, let's face it, I'm not sure how many of the other groups could even pay a stipend to a diocesan supply priest.
It was an act of mercy to close the Minnesota group. How many acts of mercy must still be performed for the ordinariate faithful?
