Compare this to the one I posted yesterday of the Our Lady of Grace group, pretty recent, since it follows Fr Bayles's much-anticipated ordination:
My regular correspondent comments, however,
I note from the July newsletter of St Luke, Washington that they have moved closer to purchasing property in the Washington suburbs for the construction of a church, parish hall, and rectory. St John Vianney, Cleburne purchased property last year on which they plan to build a church. Two other parishes, STM, Scranton and SJB, Bridgeport purchased church buildings from their local Catholic dioceses, and SJE, Calgary bought their property from the local Anglican diocese. Why did these groups attract not only members, but members prepared to donate generously, while others have remained small and struggling? STM, Scranton has been around for thirteen years years and of course property values in Scranton are pretty depressed, but I imagine that is not the case in Prince George County, VA. or suburban Dallas-Ft Worth.Naturally, I'll feel more confident about growth plans when I see cornerstones laid (with Bp Lopes or his successor wielding a shovel for the camera). And I believe the acquisitions of diocesan properties in Scranton and Bridgeport, while at what must have been distress prices, have not been trouble-free.
Nevertheless, several things strike me. I've noted all along that there are two tiers of communities in the OCSP, led by two groups of priests. The first tier, and first group, is made up of solid ex-TEC, ACC, or "continuing" parishes or rumps thereof, or parishes that came in from the Pastoral Provision, with priests who had led these parishes before the transition. The second tier, and second group, is made up of gathered communities led by priests with much sketchier backgrounds and much less experience. So far, the parishes that show much potential are all from the first tier.
However, even of the first group of priests, Frs Kenyon and Phillips represented serious disciplinary problems for the diocesan bishops who had to deal with them. The few in the second group who came in after ordination in TEC have had much less experience and are achieving much less success in the OCSP.
In fact, we will probably start to need to think of a new third tier of communities and priests, those which have been closed, and the priests who have had to be laicized, which would include former Frs Reese and Hurd. This tier, I predict, will grow faster than the first two.
