Fr Phillips sent an e-mail to the OLA parish on April 12, 2012 (many thanks to a visitor for this copy):
An Important Request ftom the PastorThe visitor adds, "See how the good Pastor says we are a 'parish family' that must 'stay together'. No mention is made of his thoughts on those which Dcn Orr chooses to run off or cause internal family divisions."Dear Friends,
This might be the most important letter I have ever sent to you, so I ask that you read it carefully.
Earlier this week, Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson (the Ordinary of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter) visited our parish. During that visit he expressed his strong desire for Our Lady of the Atonement Church to take its place in the Ordinariate, especially given the fact that ours is the founding parish for the Pastoral Provision, which has been preserving the Anglican Patrimony within the Catholic Church. As you know, Pope Benedict XVI has expanded the work we began some thirty years ago by establishing Ordinariates as separate jurisdictions for this very purpose.
After our time together, Msgr. Steenson then visited Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller to discuss the place of our parish in the newly-erected Ordinariate. Our two “sister parishes” in Texas – Our Lady of Walsingham in Houston and St. Mary the Virgin in Arlington – have already received the permission of their respective bishops to make the move into the Ordinariate. After Msgr Steenson’s conversation with our Archbishop, it has become evident that he is not willing to give our parish this same permission. In fact, he stated to Msgr. Steenson that he is not willing to transfer the parish property into the new Ordinariate, nor is he interested in having our parishioners become part of it. In fact, his suggestion was that Msgr. Steenson could establish a new Ordinariate parish which would be allowed to meet here, alongside our present parish (which would remain an archdiocesan parish). This would, of course, drastically alter the parish of Our Lady of the Atonement – and, in fact, the archbishop said that he wanted to see the Novus Ordo Mass in English celebrated here, as it is in other archdiocesan parishes.
Another statement made by the archbishop was that he was perfectly willing for me, as a priest, to go into the Ordinariate, but without the parish, and that he would allow me (as a priest from outside) to take care of the parish, at the pleasure and discretion of the archdiocese. I find the very idea of that shocking – as though I would abandon my place as your pastor! My position is this: it’s all of us, or it’s none of us. We are, after all, a parish family.
Why would Archbishop Garcia-Siller say these things? For the simple reason that he has heard that our parish is made up primarily of disgruntled Catholics who have left other archdiocesan parishes to come here, and apparently he has received statements from some of his advisors who hold a negative view of our parish. In fact, he has been told that there are very few actual converts in our parish, and in his opinion the vast majority of those who are coming here probably should be in their territorial parishes.
So that we can present accurate information to the archbishop, I am requesting that you complete a very simple parish census form. Please go to this link: [details of the survey follow and aren't reprinted here]
It's worth noting that Fr Phillips, like any Catholic or Anglican priest, took a vow of obedience at his ordination. He doesn't seem to feel comfortable with this vow -- consider that the OF mass is now simply viewed as the equivalent of BCP Rite Two in Ordinariate parishes, but he doesn't want to use it at OLA.
Plainly the discussions with the archdiocese (as well as discussions with Msgr Steenson) weren't going well. On May 5, 2012, Fr Phillips posted the text of two e-mails to the parish at Atonement Online:
Here are two letters I sent to parishioners and friends, discussing the decision to withdraw our request for transfer into the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. The first one:Accounts Fr Phillips has given to individuals flesh out, and are partly at variance, with the accounts here, especially as relate to Msgr Steenson. However, based on comments from OLA parishioners in various forums, it appears that Abp Garcia-Siller's position on letting the parish go into the Ordinariate hasn't changed between 2012 and 2016 -- his offer actually appears to be the same, he'll happily excardinate Fr Phillips to the OCSP, but he wants to hold onto the property. As of 2012, an OCSP parish would be free to meet on the OLA property. This contradicts any view that he didn't oppose the parish's seeking entry to the OCSP in 2012, but now opposes it.Dear Friends,And the second:Fr. Jeffery Moore (our parochial vicar) and I had a good meeting with Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller and Bishop Oscar Cantu to discuss issues surrounding the Ordinariate and what that might mean for the parish. All of us desired to do what is best for the people of Our Lady of the Atonement Church, and it was in a spirit of cooperation that it became evident to me that for the sake of the continued stability and unity of our parish community, the best course of action at this time is to withdraw our request to enter the Ordinariate and to remain in our present status as a Personal Parish of the Anglican Common Identity, as is stated clearly in the Decree of Erection by which we were founded in 1983.
The archbishop recalled his recent visit to the parish, commenting on how impressed he was with the Academy students, with our facility, and with the sense of the sacred found here. He expressed his respect for the fruitful and particular ministry of our parish, and he looks forward to strengthening our bond of communion, as do we.
What does this mean in practical terms? Our liturgical and devotional life does not change, our patrimony remains intact, and our clergy and people remain together as one parish family.
I’m grateful for the archbishop’s warmth and for the respect he has for our heritage, and we look forward to deepening our relationship with him.
From the time of our founding we have been under the maternal care of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Atonement. She has never failed us, and she did not fail us today. We continue under Our Lady’s patronage, and that of her Divine Son, in union with the Holy Father and with the bishops in communion with him.
Thank you to all who prayed for this important meeting. All of us there felt the presence and power of the Holy Ghost.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Christopher G. Phillips
Dear Friends,It’s difficult to communicate important information by way of email – there’s an understandable tendency for recipients to forward them all over the place, and there is always the strong possibility of someone misinterpreting them. However, I do want to reiterate some of the points I made in yesterday’s email about my meeting with Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller and Bishop Oscar Cantu.
1. The archbishop is NOT preventing the parish from seeking entrance into the Ordinariate at this time, or at some future time. He was clear about that, and is very respectful of our right to make that request any time.
2. It is important to all of us that we preserve the integrity and unity of our parish – church and school, clergy and people, buildings and patrimony – and at the present time the only way we can insure this is by remaining as we are; namely, a Personal Parish of the Pastoral Provision, rather than a parish of the Ordinariate. We all want the parish to be able to continue as it is, with our clergy and people intact, and with our church and school serving those who want to be here. At some point we may be able to have that in the Ordinariate -- but this is not the time.
3. Our way of worship – our liturgy, our devotional life, our music…everything we treasure and maintain – will be able to continue uninterrupted, and the archbishop and his auxiliary bishop have stated their support and admiration for what is done here.
I know the decision to withdraw our parish request to enter the Ordinariate is unexpected, and some of you might be perplexed. As you know, I have been very excited about the prospect of being in the Ordinariate, but I had to weigh every aspect of this, and decide what would be truly best for us. The stability of our parish is something I know you would not want to discard lightly, and this decision provides us with the best and safest way to continue to “preserve, nurture and share” our Anglican patrimony, as we have done for the past twenty-nine years.
As we have opportunities to deepen our communion with our Father-in-God, Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, let’s make the most of them. He was genuinely moved to learn that we will be remaining in his jurisdiction for now, and he looks forward (as do we) to strengthening our ties with the archdiocese which has been our home for so long.
The time may come when we are prepared to enter the Ordinariate, and when the Ordinariate will be in a better position to receive us as we are. We can be grateful that God has used our parish, in some small way, to prepare the ground for the establishment of the Ordinariate in this country. As strange as it seems for us not to be part of it from the very beginning, the time is not yet right.
Let’s all pray for the success of the Ordinariate, and especially for the men who are preparing for ordination over the next few months. No matter what jurisdiction we’re in, we’re all working for the same end – the building up of God’s Kingdom!
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Christopher G. Phillips
It's worth pointing out that in the case of Our Lady of Walsingham, much of the money for building this parish, and later the chancery, came from the Carl and Lois Davis Foundation. The Davises have been major donors to Catholic causes in Houston, including the archdiocese, and I assume the bishop there received donations that he could feel compensated for the departure of the OLW parish to the OCSP.
