Near the end of this article is a link to three Facebook pages for "Anglican Patrimony Groups." One of them, the Tampa Bay Group, was familiar to us as the one that the local bishop asked to have shut down, at which point the former Anglican clergyman involved, Philip Mayer, became a diocesan seminarian under the Pastoral Provision. But apparently the group lives on, now assisted by Mr David Hodil, a transitional deacon due to be ordained priest for the OCSP this year.This brings me to the very odd two-tier focus in the OCSP. We have the "showcase" parishes, like Our Lady of Walsingham, that are good enough to make a TEC bishop like Bp Martins observe that it's doing a very good job of looking Anglican. There are a few of these, although in the context of St Thomas Fifth Avenue (or St Thomas Hollywood), there are many more TEC parishes that do a competent job of looking Catholic. (But isn't there a game of let's pretend going on in both cases? Why in particular should Catholics need to do this for anyone?)Mr Hodil sells insurance but he has a degree from the Reformed Theological Seminary and more recently has taken courses at St Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, FL He is a separated (or perhaps now divorced) man, with children. He is connected to Incarnation, Orlando, which I suppose will be looking for a new pastor down the road as Fr Holiday is of secular retirement age.
Although a former curate there, Jason McCrimmon, will be ordained priest at the same time as Mr Hodil. He is currently attached to St John Fisher, Orlando, a small group meeting for a Sunday evening mass in a hospital chapel whose main purpose seems to be to be part of Mr McCrimmon's "ministry plan." So, an embarrassment of riches in Florida.
The great majority of OCSP communities simply aren't at this level. These seem to hold spoken masses (if that), and squint to imagine the Men's and Boys' Choir, the carved reredos, the statuary facade, the expensive vestments. It appears that this appeals to only small numbers, and likely will never appeal to more than that.
I don't see any of the current crop of candidates for ordination providing anything like the leadership that would put their little groups past the squinting stage. This brings me back once again to St Thomas Fifth Avenue, which recently received an award for restoring its stained glass windows and facade:
In the words of Peg Breen, President of the New York Landmarks Conservancy, “These awards are the Oscars of the preservation world” and another honoree said “I’d rather receive a Lucy than an Oscar”. Accepting the award on behalf of Saint Thomas was Barbara Pettus who, in a brief speech , closed with the following:In the wake of the ParishSoft disaster, the former regime in Houston is said to have acknowledged that the OCSP lacked the depth in lay leadership and parish staff and volunteers to accomplish even a fairly simple task like implementing a parish accounting system, something routine for Catholic dioceses and parishes in the US, and which indeed continues to be eminently possible in TEC at parishes like St Thomas Fifth Avenue. (The best that can be said of OLW is that there ain't much to restore.)“So many people helped make this possible. Julie Sloan oversaw the work done by twelve studios from California to New Mexico and from Virginia to Boston. Walter Melvin Architects advised us on major stone restoration work which was required once the windows were removed and on the best way to clean the stone traceries of all the windows and, later, on cleaning the façade. Eagle Scaffolding designed a cantilevered scaffolding system that made the project all but invisible to worshippers and visitors. And our general contractor, Westerman Construction, along with our Facilities Manager, Angel Estrada, coordinated schedules, budgets and vendors so that we finished the project on time, under budget and accident-free. Many thanks to all of you!“
This reminds me too of Woodrow Wilson, when he was president of Princeton, acknowleding at the dedication of some Ralph Adams Cram commissions at his campus, that Cram had added 500 years to Princeton's history. (Woodrow Wilson made a joke??) Isn't the intent of Anglicanorum coetibus in some key way to add 500 years to the Catholic Church's history?
What are the CDF and Bp Lopes trying to accomplish here other than a few "showcase" parishes and a larger collection of Potemkin villages?
