This blog has been running since November 2012, a little over two years. As of today, it will probably pass 60,000 page views, somewhat less than 100 per day. This is significant, since I've sometimes gone weeks at a time without posting anything new, yet the number of visitors stays constant at between 50 and 100 per day. Over the past year, I've had indications that not only do supporters of Fr Kelley, the elected vestry, and the faithful parishioners read this blog, but the opponents do as well. In fact, my understanding is that a complaint about it was lodged through Roman Catholic channels in an apparent effort to get it stopped. (The Roman Catholic channels, reading some posts, reacted with "Gee, that's not so bad", as I understand it. Oh, well.)
One regular visitor here noted a while ago that if you google any major figure in the ACA -- Brian Marsh, Stephen Strawn, or John Vaughan, for instance -- posts here pop up among the top three or four links on the page. Same applies to "William H Lancaster attorney". The links here to the numerous news articles covering his departure from Seyfarth Shaw probably keep those articles among the top hits for his name on Google as well. This case has not been good for Mr Lancaster's career.
One reason I started this blog is that, in the summer of 2012, a good friend mentioned to me that if you did some digging, you could come up with surprising information on people like Strawn and Anthony Morello, which should be better known. Once I started looking, I agreed. I tried first to get David Virtue to publish a piece I wrote on Morello's scandal in Modesto, CA. When he ignored it, I decided to start this blog. (Virtue, of course, has no problem publishing scandal pieces on gay Episcopalians.)
The bottom line for me, after two years of this kind of research, is a more lasting lesson about schism. The "continuing Anglican" movement pretended to be somehow purer, less gay, less chickified, than the mainstream Anglican Communion. Minimal investigation of public records shows it is nothing of the sort: its leading figures, from the top down, conceal potentially explosive secrets. Most have been eased out of Roman Catholic or Episcopalian bodies, deposed outright, or deemed not to have basic qualifications for ordination. Not for nothing are the more conservative Roman Catholic elements, distressed to some degree over developments in the Vatican, refusing to consider anything like the "continuing Anglican" route.
Earlier this year I noted that the Standing Committee of the APA Diocese of Mid-America, one of the most significant bodies in that denomination, had refused to proceed with merger talks because of "grave concerns" about the present leadership of the ACA, "given past actions." I would assume that this blog played a part in making available the public record of past actions by the ACA's leadership.
If I were to venture any sort of prediction for 2015, I would guess that St Mary of the Angels's legal situation will be favorably resolved. In the wake of that, it's very hard for me to imagine that the ACA, up to now characterized as the largest and most respectable of the "continuing Anglican" denominations, will survive the year. Sincere clergy, vestry, and laity in the ACA need to take note and begin making serious contingency plans.
For 2015, Fr Kelley, his family, the elected vestry of St Mary's, and the other loyal parishioners continue in my prayers. I also pray that the dissident group will soften their hearts.
