More Comments From Visitors On The Presentation Group

The question of the newly formed Presentation group in The Woodlands, TX has spurred unusual interest from several visitors, and the issues it raises actually relate to questions that might be addressed as we approach the tenth anniversary of Anglicanorum coetibus. So I want to take some extra time to go over some visitor comments in the particular context of the 2009 apostolic constitution and its complementary norms, as well as in the implementation as it's shaken out.

The constitution itself makes clear that

§4 The Ordinariate is composed of lay faithful, clerics and members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, originally belonging to the Anglican Communion and now in full communion with the Catholic Church, or those who receive the Sacraments of Initiation within the jurisdiction of the Ordinariate.

Regarding liturgy,

. . . the Ordinariate has the faculty to celebrate the Holy Eucharist and the other Sacraments, the Liturgy of the Hours and other liturgical celebrations according to the liturgical books proper to the Anglican tradition, which have been approved by the Holy See, so as to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared. (Section III)

In practice, it seems to me that there's confusion about this mission, especially as it relates to diocesan parishes. As my regular correspondent puts it,

[P]eople drive, sometimes a long way, to get what they want in a parish. And the Ordinariate seems to be just another choice, offering the taste and tone some people associate with Anglicanism, preserving “Roman” customs from the heyday of the Anglo-Catholic revival, featuring the English choral tradition, whatever. The point is that it has nothing to do with evangelism and offers no template for bringing, say, Presbyterians into the Church, because the people who are choosing to attend Ordinariate communities are overwhelmingly already Catholic, mostly lifelong. No formerly Anglican congregation has joined the OCSP since March, 2015; no former clergyman has even entered with a “gathered” group of converts since 2016.

To that I would add that the customs "from the heyday of the Anglo-Catholic revival" are basically what individual ordinariate groups say they are, but most are too poor to afford the opulent church decoration or inspiring music that was a feature of Episcopalianism among US wealthy elites in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

This would include some of the newest and apparently most popular, such as Holy Martyrs, Murrieta, CA, and Church of the Presentation, The Woodlands, TX. These groups operate in highly provisional venues without the professional music resources that can be found even in successful diocesan Catholic parishes. So the draw must be something else, and it's worth investigating that.

A visitor remarks,

I am not sure of the geographic boundaries of what is considered "The Woodlands" but Houston development is no doubt building northward from the City and expanding out with new developments.

A google maps search shows, it takes about 20 minutes to get from the Presentation Church's new property to another Catholic Church. To my eye, it is not in "Woodlands" anymore but in a developing area called Montgomery, Texas. It also looks like there is a large suburban area with no Catholic Church to the Northeast. Perhaps the location isn't bad.

The problem is -- and this is being fuzzed over in this kind of discussion -- whether development is expanding in a particular area (as it is in Murrieta, CA as well), it's the diocesan bishop's responsibility to address this problem, especially as in both areas, there are likely to be Latin, Filipino, Vietnamese, and other populations for whom Anglican traditions are unfamiliar, but who are entitled to a Catholic mass that meets their needs. If x number of Anglicans in a new area will be well served by an ordinariate parish, that doesn't exempt the diocesan bishop from carrying on with his own efforts to provide for his faithful.

The visitor continues,

Do Ordinariate Communities seem to do better in the Suburbs, or in the City Center? The one I have visited several times has an off hour mass in a dangerous area, in a beautiful old Church, but an enthusiastic group that drives in from all over the region.

It is hard to know if this approach (like what most Latin Mass Churches are doing) is better than starting in a suburban area where white Catholic and Episcopal/Methodist types reside.

These are good questions, but a telling point is that if you were to ask them of Bp Lopes or Fr Perkins, you would get nothing but some hemming and hawing, because there's simply not enough data to answer them effectively. Ordinariate parishes and groups turn out to be small and largely unstable. A significant number of full parishes are struggling to maintain the antiquated properties that have been handed on to them by dioceses, whether they're in center-city (like Scranton, PA) or suburban (like Bridgeport, PA and Fort Washington, MD) areas. Even one of the most solid, Our Lady of the Atonement, San Antonio, is facing the consequences of financial mismanagement.

The actuality is that there's no plan, no formula, no vision, and no effective leadership for evengelizing Anglicans in the North American ordinariate. Mild successes are seized on opportunistically. In Southern California, of four groups-in-formation, three are stagnant and even failing, even though they're all under the leadership of one priest and served by supply priests familiar with all of them. The one in Murrieta is a partial success, although it does not offer the traditional "Anglican" opulence or inspiring music.

Insofar as the Presentation group behaves in a similar way, we'll have to seek out an explanation there, too. The visitor offers some possible insight:

Do you know of Taylor Marshall? I alluded before to those I call the "Latinizers". These people are often followers of Dr. Taylor Marshall, a former Episcopal Priest who lives in Dallas. Marshall is a proponent of the Traditional Latin Mass, and has recently become among the brimary belligerents in the Catholic liturgical Wars.

I think many Conservative Catholics find the Ordinariate to be a comfortable place to live, as they have a similar bunker mentality to the conservative Anglo-Catholics, who were victimized by the Bishopa of The Episcopal Church.

I agree on Taylor Marshall, a johnny-come-lately "Thomist" and self-promoter who in fact has kept his distance from Anglicanorum coetibus (it would dilute his personal brand). But Anglo-Catholics in The Episcopal Church are actually quite comfortable -- recognize that since the 1840s and the start of the movement, "Anglo-Catholic" has always been a polite way of saying gay. Gays are an established interest group to whom the elites in TEC are happy to cater -- their parishes make money. Those who left TEC over the past 40 years are not largely Anglo-Catholic. They do have bunker mentalities.

I think we may be coming closer to one aspect of the problem at Presentation, which I'll continue to address tomorrow.