I don't know how typical my local REC parish is, but they have a service of Holy Communion once a month. The other Sundays are Morning Prayer. Fr Seraiah left the REC when his parish closed after an internal dispute and he was only briefly in charge of an ACA parish before his ordination for the OCSP. Thereafter he was the pastor of a diocesan parish until Shane Schaetzel was able to draft him to lead the Ordinariate group he had formed in Springfield, MO.Let's start with the Reformed Episcopal Church. As we've recently seen, this was founded in the context of the evangelical Second Great Awakening as a reaction to the viral influence of the Oxford Movement in the US Episcopal Church, and it had definite anti-Catholic elements. (Let's keep in mind that a good part of all Protestant confirmation classes covers the reasons for Protestantism, which are specifically anti-Catholic.)As the group is very small, Fr Seraiah supports himself and his family as the parochial administrator of a local diocesan parish, St Suzanne, Mt Vernon. My question is, why does Fr Seraiah think he needs the OCSP? As we know, Fr Seraiah was baptised in the Church and raised as a Protestant Evangelical. His Anglican experience was in the proudly Protestant REC; his progression to "Anglo-Catholicism" just a very short stop on his journey to the Catholic church.
What aspect of what personal" Anglican Patrimony" is he trying to maintain in his tiny St George chapel? Why does he not simply dedicate himself to his ministry at St Suzanne? During Holy Week the St George, Republic congregation was invited to join that of St Suzanne for services there. Why can't that happen every Sunday?
I am reminded of commercials for Ancestry. com I see regularly. The gist is that the father always believed he was, say, Scottish. Cue footage of Dad in a kilt playing the bagpipes. Now they have discovered the family has a significant mixture of Italian. Cue Dad playing "Tarentella Napoletana" on the accordion. In this case, Fr Seraiah wants to play "Tarentella Napoletana" because he once boarded with an Italian family. And they were actually from Milan.
This does raise the question of what candidates coming to the OCSP from the REC specifically believe. One might say that the REC has become something of a fellow-traveler with the "continuing" movement, and REC ordinations are de facto recognized in "continuing" denominations, although this isn't much help. A candidate for REC orders told me a while ago that a master's degree in any field would be sufficient for ordination there, which goes to the generally low standards exercised outside TEC.
Just last May, we saw now-Fr Matt Whitehead ordained from the REC after a figurative 30 seconds in the microwave. Houston doesn't seem to have published policies on what denominations are "Anglican" enough to be recognized as such, nor for that matter on what constitutes acceptable formation vis-a-vis what sort of remedial courses are needed. Depends on someone's mood is all I can think.
And this goes to Ancestry.com and the remarks from Fr Longenecker, as well as others I've cited here from Prof Guelzo: you're Anglican if you think you are. Ich bin ein Berliner. I drink green beer on St Paddy's day and margaritas on Cinco de Mayo! If my DNA test confirms it, so much the better! The problem is that something very close to this attitude is allowing Houston to waive a very great deal in deciding whom to ordain a Catholic priest, and the fallout from this is proving not to be just theoretical.
And we're back to the issue of the tiny groups-in-formation that never leave that category -- maybe they're better characterized as groups-not-yet-suppressed. (What, exactly, happens to the St Joseph of Arimathea group in Indianapolis when Luke Reese leaves for state prison? I think a diocesan priest says DW mass there now, but is it still in the OCSP?) Why do we keep such tiny groups separate, except possibly to massage the egos of their lay organizers or justify ordaining their marginal priests?
