Except that on one hand, only half of this work has been completed, while Msgr Andrew Burnham five years on has shown no perceptible progress in completing the daily offices. And here's a puzzle: the commission seems to have decided pretty quickly that the Anglican missal dating from the early 20th century constituted the full Anglican patrimony, even though as the erudite Dr Brand acknowledges, it was never authorized by any Anglican jurisdiction, and neither its style nor especially its implicit theology has ever been compatible with large factions of real Anglicans.
But if the commission was able to declare the Divine Worship missal authentically Anglican notwithstanding, why couldn't it settle on a single text for the daily offices in the same way? The argument for supplanting the Book of Divine Worship was primarily that it was accepted by just one national group as reflecting the US 1979 BCP, while the other ordinariate countries used other versions. So in order to be neutral, a whole new model would be imposed on all the ordinariates so as not to favor any single one.
OK, fair enough. But my understanding is that the obstacle to developing a single text for the daily offices is that the different ordinariates can't agree. So why not just re-convene the commission and shove a text for the daily offices down their collective throats? That's what was done with the DW missal, wasn't it? What's the difference?
But that's just a problem of detail. I'm interested in the scholarly Dr Brand's assertion that "the good seed, which having in the past fallen among the stones or in shallow soil", will finally land on productive ground (as apparently it hasn't heretofore under 266 bishops of Rome). How's that been working out?
The first thing that stands out is that the strongest ordinariate communities all date back to the Pastoral Provision, including the only one with an actual school. Wasn't Anglicanorum coetibus supposed to be "an audacious venture in realized ecumenism"? Where are the new ordinariate parishes that outdo those from the old regime? A few make noise about home school co-ops or something similar, but none appears to have developed support for anything like an accredited program in a full facility, even though a couple of parishes seem to have taken over buildings that were schools in their former dioceses.
The next thing is that nearly all the communities are in a precarious financial state. We don't know how long the current lockdown will last, but so far, none of the "phases" for restarting society envisions resuming church services at all. The most that's been mooted is that some jurisdictions have been forced to allow drive-in get-togethers in parking lots, but there's not even unanimity on when even this sort of thing might be accepted generally. At this point, I suspect that each successive Sunday without an offering will place all Christian communities at greater and greater risk.
The North American ordinariate, not financially strong before the lockdown, must certainly be among these. I feel confident Houston will never make public any figures on how many members are maintaining weekly payments to their parishes via mail or direct deposit, and we must assume that some members, subject to layoff, will be unable to do this in any case.
But even before the lockdown, my overall impression has been that these people have been too cheap to maintain their buildings. acquire or maintain an organ. Contra Dr Brand, a thee-thou liturgy hasn't inspired these folks to do much more than fund some portable altar rails. If the culture was pusillanimous before its faith was put to more serious test, what will the outcome be now?
Beyond that, even if we grant Dr Brand's metaphor of the seed not falling among stones or thorns, the ordinariate hasn't grown. Bp Lopes cites single-digit numbers of celibate vocations, but even this won't replace current projected retirements in coming years, not to mention unplanned vacancies. Existing groups aren't growing, while those at the margin continue to be unstable and will probably expire in the current circumstances. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
