Jeffrey Steenson came up at the last minute to give them the real skrinny, upon which the parish voted overwhelmingly to say, "Never mind". I would say that this is a pretty good illustration of the term "bungling", which I've used in reference to the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter in the past. A visitor has sent me some additional background:
Fr Seraiah [the prospective Ordinariate priest for St Aidan's] was a blogger on the Anglo-Catholic, but he was not an Anglo-Catholic, IMHO. His background was Protestant evangelical and then Reformed Episcopal Church, where he ran into trouble for his views on "headship" and support of the preterist Quiverfull movement, a bit too conservative even for them. I am not surprised that he failed to make an attractive case for the Ordinariate to the St Aidan's flock.My visitor said in a later e-mail,
Many people expressed sympathy that [Seraiah] moved his family from Abingdon, VA to Des Moines to be rector of St Aidan's, only to have them ultimately decide not to enter the Ordinariate. In fact he had recently lost his job in as pastor of a small REC parish in Abingdon in a church split over Vision Forum and the Quiverfull movement, as I mentioned. Before this he was the pastor of a Reformed Bible church in Arkansas. The St Aidan's job was a bailout for someone who had been a very enthusiastic blogger, latterly, about AC. After St Aidan's made its decision he was ordained and given a parish in the Diocese of Des Moines. One hand washes the other.This goes to some of the odd assumptions behind the establishment of the OCSP. Up to January 1, 2012, Msgr Steenson's identity was a closely-held secret (except that an in-group had clearly known the score for years). But as soon as he was designated, all sorts of candidate parishes and groups were going to be received, poof! The level of actual catechesis they got was, however, clearly inconsistent. Just how much Seraiah knew of Catholic doctrine prior to his reception and ordination is an interesting question -- I would have reservations about whether he was even capable of instructing the St Aidan's parish in much of anything. Somehow, nobody around Cardlinal Wuerl or Msgr Steenson asked any questions.
In a corporate situation, heads would have rolled. It took a few years for this to happen in the OCSP, but the people lower down are still running things, at least so far. But as Admiral Beatty (an Anglican) once said, “Chatfield, there seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today.” I have a hard time avoiding the impression that Steenson, driven by opportunism and careerism himself, had a difficult time recognizing it among his subordinates -- I've noted before that the changed career paths in the Anglican Communion disadvantage straight males, and Anglicanorum coetibus offers tempting opportunities for clerics seeking an easier path. I repeat, we have cause for larger reassessment and recalibration in the Anglo-Catholic project.
The circumstances that led to the emergency ordination of a Protestant evangelical with highly uncertain theological background into the Catholic Church don't seem to be a one-time glitch. Mr Glenn Baaten, who spent his career as a Presbyterian pastor, but latterly had a brief period of months as an ACNA priest without specific pastoral duties, will be ordained an OCSP priest this coming June. My understanding is that several candidates with much better Anglican credentials were bypassed in favor of Baaten.
