Yeah, I Guess The UK Ordinariate Is Hype, Too

This past Sunday, I linked to a piece in the respected UK Catholic Herald that declared the UK ordinariate a success story. I was inclined to grant this, insofar as it did strongly imply that the success hadn't carried over to North America or Australia. But just yesterday, a visitor sent me a link to another Catholic Herald story, entitled, "Our ordinariate parish has doubled in size. Here’s the secret ingredient".

I won't hold you in suspense.

For the ordinariate to flourish, control of sanctuaries is essential. Wherever this has occurred, one finds success in varying degrees. In Pembury where I minister, for example, we have overseen the transformation of the building to an English gothic style and numbers have nearly doubled. In the last decade we have averaged a vocation a year and our parish of around 150 members is now served by two deacons and four priests.

Harking back to my middle school algebra, if 2x=150, x=75. You can call this doubling in size, but this is like a football team that moves from a record of 1 win, 11 losses to 2 wins, 10 losses and crows that it's doubled its win record. More likely this is statistical chatter. And somehow there are four priests serving this group. Doesn't the surrounding diocese have any wish to use any of them? The claim raises more questions than it answers, but the story seems to fit the Catholic Herald's narrative that the UK ordinariate is a success story.

People are getting smarter, while the traditional print media is staying stupid.

I ran this link by my regular correspondent, who replied,

A classic OOLW story. The St Anselm community was offered the use of a diocesan “mass site” —-some kind of hall. I can find the exact details —- Mr Murphy followed this group closely on Ordinariate Expats cf here —-but the gist is that the hall had linoleum flooring, folding chairs, a portable altar, the side aisles were used for storage—-the kind of grotty place that had apparently been okay for years for the local Catholic yobs, but was certainly not up to the standards of “Anglican Patrimony.” Then the OOLW team got to work and turned it into a little Gothic gem with a full kitchen suitable for serving Christmas lunch. The Ordinariate Expatriates article does mention that the 72 ordinariate members joined 72 previous parishioners of the mass site, so “growth” to 150 is not exactly how I’d describe it.

More to the point, though, is that the Ordinariate Expats post that outlines the changes in the worship space is from 2016. The Catholic Herald piece that claims the parish size has doubled to 150 is by the same author as the Expats post, Fr Ed Tomlinson, but it dates from October 31 of this year. Basically, the best Fr Tomlinson can claim is that a tiny ordinariate parish of 150 was formed from equal parts Anglican converts and diocesan parishioners as of 2016, but it hasn't grown a bit over the next three years.

UPDATE: My regular correspondent comments,

Numbers (72+72) were given in the September-October 2015 issue of Faith Magazine reposted on Ordinariate Expatriates Sept 26, 2015, so there has been essentially no growth in over four years, not three.

And the Catholic Herald is using this to bolster a claim that the UK ordinariate is a success. And it's sharing the secret with the world.