The Charismatic Episcopal Church And The US-Canadian Ordinariate

Yesterday I briefly revisited the Charismatic Episcopal Church in relation to Houston's policy (or not) on whether it will ordain clergy from denominations other than Anglican -- given the right circumstances, it apparently will. My visitor referred to a quasi-Lutheran denomination as a "typical fringe body with a bishop (or archbishop) for every ten clergy and a clergyman for every ten laypeople." This, of course, can refer to many "continuing" groups, as well as others, and it's hard not to think the CEC fits just as well.

The Wikipedia entry for the CEC says,

The Charismatic Episcopal Church began when a variety of independent churches throughout the United States, as part of the Convergence Movement, began to blend evangelical teaching and charismatic worship with liturgies from the Book of Common Prayer[.]

The CEC was founded de novo in 1992 and was never a part of TEC or any other denomination in the Anglican Communion. Further, according to Wikipedia,

The ICCEC states that it is not a splinter group of any other denomination or communion, but is a convergence of the sacramental, evangelical, and charismatic traditions that it perceives in the church from the apostolic era until present times.

As we saw yesterday, there are various groups, like the Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church, which are not Anglican but choose to use liturgy from the 1979 TEC BCP. This doesn't make them Anglican, and apparently there's no strict requirement that CEC parishes rely exclusively on the 1979 BCP. According to Wikipedia,

Many parishes follow the liturgy of the American version of the Book of Common Prayer (1979). A provisional sacramentary drafted by the Worship & Music Committee of the Northeast [US] Diocese, which includes Roman, Anglican and Eastern rites, is in wide trial use. Some parishes use other worship rites, such as the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, or other Anglican, Roman, or Eastern rites.

Like other fringe groups, not excluding "continuers", the CEC has suffered from frequent scandal and schism. Again, according to Wikipedia,

In 2006 the US church experienced a crisis resulting in the departure of approximately 30% of its clergy and congregations, including seven actively serving bishops and one retired bishop. Though from diocese to diocese a variety of reasons were given for these departures, the crisis stemmed from allegations against some ICCEC leadership in America. These allegations were heard and adjudicated in June and September 2006 by the Patriarch's Council. In September 2006, the council issued a statement of its findings, which was then followed by several more US departures. Some of the departing clergy and congregations found new homes within the Antiochian Orthodox Church as Western-Rite clergy and parishes, some became Roman Catholic, while some are now affiliated with various Anglican bodies.

Given the small number of OCSP clergy, the fairly large proportion of Ordinariate priests who have at least passed through the CEC is remarkable, especially given the Anglican Use Pastoral Provision's position specifically excluding the CEC from its definition of Anglican. A visitor reports,

I believe four current OCSP clergy were formerly CEC: Frs Ed Meeks, Randy Sly, Vaughn Treco, and John Worgul. Fr Meeks was originally a Catholic seminarian; at a later point his CEC parish (Christ the King, Towson, MD) joined the Anglican Church in America. Fr Worgul also left by 2007, possibly for the same denomination Fr Sly had been a Wesleyan Methodist minister before joining the CEC. So only Fr Treco relied entirely on his CEC credentials to be accepted for Catholic ordination as a married man. Fr Meeks was until recently the Vicar for Vocations, but as I recall Fr Treco's interview on some local Catholic media he credited his charm offensive on the Archbishop of Minneapolis and St Paul for his acceptance for ordination. Despite the fact that then-Mr Treco was living in the area, the Potomac Falls, VA group, St John Fisher, was allowed to fold when Fr Sly moved to Kansas City, MO for family reasons and Mr Treco moved to Minnesota where he took over the community of St Bede, which had been ministered to by a former Anglican, now Catholic monk. The Ordinariate group there meets twice monthly.

Staffing priorities are never transparent in the OCSP. After noting that the former administrator (Fr Jon Chalmers) of the group in Greenville, SC had left for a school position in Birmingham, AB and been replaced by the former administrator of St John Vianney, Cleburne, TX, (Fr Jonathan Duncan) who has been replaced by no one (clergy at St Timothy's Ft Worth doing double duty) I see that St Anselm's, Greenville celebrates a mass only on Wednesdays.