There was never . . . a clear set of guidelines and responsibilities for candidates and the organization. We were told once at a meeting that we were canonically the equivalent of seminarians, but never pointed in the direction of what that actually entailed. I presume that everything was done on the fly and very much based on ad hoc application of rules to accomplish ordination/ deployment based on the whims and personal likes/dislikes of Steenson, Hough and the now laicized former TEC priest [Hurd] provided by the Archdiocese of Washington.My regular correspondent registered something like the same puzzlement:
Jonathan Mitchican, former rector of Church of the Holy Comforter, Drexel Hill was received into the Church last summer, as we read here. He, however, was not forced to "gather" half a dozen potential converts to say Evensong in his living room under the patronage of St Swithun to justify his eventual ordination. Instead he was given a job working on "special projects" with Fr Sellers at St John XXIII Preparatory School on Katy, TX, also doing supply teaching and assisting the Chaplain, another OCSP priest, Fr Scott Blick. I think that this indicates that Mr Mitchican is seen as having real potential. Certainly this account is more reassuring than Mr Tipton's prose.My correspondent in fact clarified that Mr Mitchicam was a TEC clergyman for 11 years and had become a rector. He also relocated with his family to the Houston area, which suggests that other possibilities may be in line for him in the OCSP. Even so, given his experience in real pastoral leadership, he's underemployed in "special projects" and substitute teaching. This says that even if his talents are recognized, there's currently no place where they can be effectively used, while rather sketchily qualified candidates are being ordained and put in charge of the Potemkin groups.
I think it's probably correct to say there's no real vision in Houston for where things might be taken, nor how existing talents might best be used. I would agree with the visitor who sees little change between Steenson and Lopes in this regard.
UPDATE: My regular correspondent notes, "Mr Mitchican was ordained deacon earlier this year and is scheduled to be ordained priest August 22, 2018. I think they have plans for him." Still, it's hard to see how Blake/Gregory Tipton and Mitchican seem to have been on roughly the same schedule for ordination -- Tipton possibly even faster -- when Mitchican had 11 years of real TEC pastoral experience; Tipton had only been baptized in 2009.
