Friday, May 17, 2013

As Far As Anyone I've Talked To Is Aware,

the status of St Mary of the Angels Hollywood's request to join the Ordinariate is unchanged since the parish's letter to the Pope, published here on January 9. Of course, there's been a new Pope since then, but the parish hasn't heard back from anyone as of now. Various parties have begun the effort to see what other channels might be pursued. My inquiries to St Mary's vestry members have brought out no new contacts from the Ordinariate, at least to the knowledge of anyone I've talked to.

A core group of parishioners, including the elected vestry, meets for mass with Fr Kelley on Sundays at a private residence. Naturally, this group is unaffiliated with any denomination and has no episcopal supervision (but then, there's no episcopal supervision to speak of in the ACA Diocese of the West). It's worth pointing out that they find themselves in that situation because they'd applied to join the Ordinariate when the parish was in the TAC Patrimony of the Primate, whose purpose was specifically (in the words of the ACA House of Bishops) to serve as a holding tank for parishes that wished to do this. The members who'd followed all the procedures in good faith then found themselves turned loose by the Ordinariate, the parish seized by the ACA in violation of its own canons, and the pro-Ordinariate members then formally excommunicated by the ACA or less formally denied communion by being denied access to the property.

The Ordinary's inaction in this matter is, to say the least, puzzling.