Peter Jesserer Smith is looking for answers, on the actually quite reasonable basis that information sharing helps communities learn and grow. An idea Houston vigorously rejects, in my observation. In any event, there is a picture (from a while back) on the FB page with maybe twenty-five or thirty lay members so of course by OCSP standards this was a not entirely negligible community which has now ceased to exist, despite an abundance of local Ordinariate clergy.Well, the ordinariates are clergy-centered enterprises, one of whose key functions is to provide career paths for married Protestant refugees from that job market who haven't learned to code. My correspondent continues,
I always assumed that despite Fr Sellers’ initial efforts to recruit membership from among his former TEC parishioners in the area, the majority of those attending St Margaret were connected with the school where it assembled. As we know, Fr Sellers was originally Chaplain, later President of St John XXIII Prep.I think the question is another variation of "What problem are we trying to solve?" My regular correspondent sent me a photo from Facebook that shows how the worship space was arranged at the time the group started in 2015.Fr Scott Blick, another Ordinariate priest, became Chaplain when Fr Sellers was promoted, Fr Simington assisted there while a deacon, and most recently Fr Mitchican taught there before his priestly ordination and then became Chaplain.
Fr Sellers’ abrupt departure as President probably spelled the end of the school’s cosy relationship with the OCSP. If the congregation had had a significant membership not associated with the school no doubt they would have looked into another worship site.
The fact that this didn’t happen suggests that St Margaret’s was basically a Sunday extension of the school chapel and had no potential as an independent entity.
No kneelers, no altar rail, altar appears to be set up in like that in St Peter’s in Rome, where the celebrant peers through the candles and the crucifix at the congregation, although not for the same reason, judging by the direction of the sunshine.Beyond that,
Fr Sellers began the process of forming St Margaret by contacting “200 families” of former parishioners for a series of eight organisational meetings in a very long process that led to a modest beginning that stayed pretty modest.It's hard to avoid thinking that nobody thought this through beyond seeing a need to find a job for Fr Sellers, a member of the old Steenson clique. The tone deafness here is astonishing. If Mr Jesserer Smith is still interested in lessons to draw, the first one might be that you don't look to existing elites to make a success of something new. But there are others.Fr Sellers’ decision to provide congregational music on the guitar, with his wife accompanying him on keyboard, probably meant that the community was not a draw for the Trad crowd in chapel veils.
His tenure as unpaid Director of Communications for the OCSP, then as Director of Schools, of which there were none at the time, was unproductive, to put it charitably.
His initial chaplain’s job at St John XXIII clearly a handout from Cardinal DiNardo, whose brother-in-law was President of the school at the time. He is now officially retired from the OCSP, although he is not canonical retirement age [we think about 68], and continues to minister in the local diocese.
One is simply the pattern of failure in so many ordinariate startups. If there's a secret, it must be very well kept. However, I think one factor that probably does lead to success is having sufficient money to create something like the ordinariates' selling point, a high-church style worship space, liturgy, and music. If the organizers can't make a start that shows the promise of something like that emerging in the medium term, the effort isn't worth it.
Another issue Mr Jesserer Smith might want to bring up with himself is whether it's a responsible move to keep trying to promote such marginal, unstable efforts. If these things won't last more than five years or so, isn't it delaying the spiritual growth of the few dozen members -- including the Jesserer Smith family -- when they might be making more productive use of their time, talent, and treasure at a perfectly fine diocesan parish far closer to home?
