As you can see here this start-up will officially start celebrating in its new location this Sunday, having raised considerably more than the initial $160,000 required to purchase a house and property in the area.UPDATE: Although the link to the real estate listing in my correspondent's note was up when I checked before posting this morning, I'm told it's since been taken down. A photo of this extravagant rectory, taken from a screen shot of the listing in July, is still at the July post in the link below. Good to know Houston reads this blog!
I first covered this story in July under the title, "Who Are They Trying To Kid?". To recap, this is a 3,000 square foot house on ten acres, on the market at $895,000, that will be used as a rectory, and we can only assume the front parlor will be the location for Sunday mass. It's worth repeating my correspondent's comment from that post:
Fr Fletcher doesn't have a diocesan day job; he's a Parochial Vicar of Our Lady of Walsingham, which given its membership (ASA 1000+) and mass schedule (Saturday Vigil and four Sunday masses, plus daily mass) needs more than one priest, I assume. Initially there were three priests-in-residence besides the Pastor, now Dean, but they seem to have faded out of the picture. Presumably someone put up significant cash for this Woodlands spin-off, which wasn't necessarily the Ordinariate's first priority.Houston issues no statistics on this or any other community, but the assumption we might reasonably make is that a group of two dozen or so will come up with a monthly payment well into four figures from its weekly pledges. Well, I guess.
This simply confirms my continuing impression that some people in the ordinariate travel first class, others in coach, and it would seem there's a definite club within a club. (If you think about it, the Presentation Woodlands group has a priest present and owns its facility. Maybe it's not quite up to 30 families yet, but it's not all that far from becoming a full parish, wouldn't you say?)
There's another issue here, too. Let's look at the announcement in the link above:
Click here to learn more and join in if you'd like to:Nothing about Anglicans at all. It says, "We are a Roman Catholic community", trading on the diocesan Catholic brand, but anyone who gets involved isn't going to get diocesan Catholic. No mention of the precious treasures, no mention of the ordinariate. No music, no adoration, no Bible study, no daily mass, as far as I can see.
- be a part of our growing community
- help start a new Catholic parish in Montgomery County
- have a place to participate in the sacraments
- or just find out more about what it means to be Catholic.
Some of the clergy ride in first, some in second, but it looks as if the laity ride in the baggage compartment with the pets.
