Merging the St Mary's group with OLG, Pasadena would be tantamount to handing it over to Fr Bartus, who runs OLG as part of his franchise operation. The three parishes of BJHN, OLG and HM run the same FB posts, except for occasional pictures taken at local services. Frs Barbour, Barker, and Bayles are essentially Bartus's employees. Mr Coulombe is the lay administrator of OLG. I think that integrating worship with the local diocesan parish is a far better idea. As you point out, there are many potential areas of mutual benefit.The story of St Mary of the Angels, especially the period between the late 1970s and now, is in many ways a story of personal agendas, often hidden, overriding the welfare of the parish and the will of God. For a not-parallel in the return of the exiles, we need look no farther than the book of Esther, wherein Haman, in his hidden personal agenda to take revenge on Mordecai, orders the ethnic cleansing of the Jews in Persia. The only thing that thwarts him is Esther, who becomes aware of God's will and after fervent prayer prevails on King Ahasuerus to discover the real service Mordecai performed for him and recognize Haman's agenda.
So far, there's no Esther who'll go to King Ahasuerus, who might be Abp Gomez or Cardinal Ladaria, and get them to figure out what's really going on. Right. Msgr Stetson, who is retired but in residence in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles as a confidant to Abp Gomez, will likely make sure no such thing gets done, and even at the Our Mother of Good Counsel parish, there's a pro-Bartus anti-Kelley faction, one of whom tracked me down at our new parish to complain to its pastor about this blog. Nothing good is going to come of this, says The Amazing Criswell.
One funny footnote is that Mr Coulombe, who we now understand to be the lay "Team Leader" of the tiny and shrinking Pasadena group (is that any kind of coincidence?), a cradle Catholic of French Canadian background, has no discernible Anglican connection. The only possible one might be that, by his account, his family once lived in an apartment building owned by The Amazing Criswell. There's something Old Testament peeking out here, if you ask me.
Criswell's prediction is that, although some assurance has apparently been given to Fr Kelley and the St Mary's group that they would be received in some sort of near term and Fr Kelley ordained with them, this assurance has been made before. I'll believe it when we see a flight to Los Angeles and a reception mass on Bp Lopes's schedule. The characters here have more in common with Haman than Ezra or Nehemiah.
