This community, which has been worshipping in a local hospital chapel since 2016 and was formed, we conjectured, (cf your post of August 7, 2018) as an ordination opportunity for now-Fr McCrimmon has apparently outgrown the chapel and is moving to a cafetorium, As you can see from the new website, outreach to former Anglicans does not seem to be high on their agenda. Indeed, I have not found the word “Anglican” anywhere on the website, although it does appear on the (rarely updated) FB page. This has been a very publicity-shy community, but the hospital chapel has a capacity of 20-something, I estimate. Now they hope “very soon” to erect their own church.The home page simply says, "We encourage all Catholics to join us for the Sacrifice of the Mass." The About Us page says simply,I noticed on the website a reference to “gracious gifts” which have led to the plans to build a church. A familiar pattern. Yet Catholic churches do not seem to be in short supply in Orlando.
The Ordinariate exists for those who are and who will be coming into full communion with the Catholic Church. Through the reverence and beauty of our worship, study of sacred Scripture and charity for those in need, we desire to share the joy of being Roman Catholic!So the group is following what appears to be a general post-2019 line, to ditch any reference to Anglicanorum coetibus or Complementary Norms in hopes basically of hooking anyone who wanders in the door. This is simply a tacit acknowledgement that the idea of recruiting disgruntled Episcopalians with a liturgy that sorta-kinda resembles Rite One (but is longer and stuffier) simply hasn't worked.
But as we've seen, this goes against the very positive trend of vernacular liturgy in contemporary language that's widely inspired Protestant denominations worldwide, and as my St Thomas Hollywood friend and I agree, has actually resulted in a steady trickle of converts without the need for personal prelatures.
The St John Fisher parish meets at the Andover Elementary School in zip code 32825. I went to the Diocese of Orlando parish finder and found four diocesan parishes within five miles of that zip, each with four Sunday masses plus the Saturday vigil. What need will a small group with no facility and minimal program beyond the heavy furniture mass fulfill?
I find it somewhat disturbing, too, that the website is loaded with stock photos of English country churches and similar countryside scenes, with no truth-in-advertising caution that "Scenery in central Florida does not resemble images shown". The draw seems to be people who to a greater or lesser extent are living lives of grandiose fantasy, which the ordinariate will somehow feed.
A final concern is how little publicity Houston gives to this sort of activity. A normal house organ would have upbeat features on every such move, with photos and anecdotes illustrating the growth and plans. In fact, Peter Jesserer Smith, who writes for the Register, is a member of the Rochester ordinariate community but either hasn't been approached or isn't in a position to volunteer such services.
Heck, I've done this kind of thing as a volunteer for parish newsletters in the past. It's not that hard. Mr Smith, why aren't you contributing your talents to this enterprise? Instead, people come here for ordinariate news, which they can't find anywhere else. Something's missing.
