Concerning St. Barnabas in Nebraska, your blog posting for July 22nd sounds like a carbon copy of Our Lady Of The Atonemen in San Antonio, TX. A few Episcopalians (about 17) were the original members of OLOTA. The rest of the members of the parish were cradle Catholics who were looking for something better than what was being offered in the San Antonio diocese. Those of us (cradle Catholics) who came to OLOTA and stayed were looking for "heavy furniture" liturgy and a church that looked like a church, a mass closely emulating the "traddie" Mass, but in English.It seems to me that a pattern is beginning to emerge here, Episcopalians attracted to a Pastoral Provision parish or an Anglican parish headed for the ordinariate begin to experience a bait and switch. On one hand, Rite Two Episcopalians see a great deal that's familiar in a novus ordo diocesan parish, especially if it has a reverent mass and a budget for a music program. The 1979 Book of Common Prayer, inspired by the novus ordo, had been in effect for 30 years by the time Anglicanorum coetibus was issued, after all.Fr. Phillips, needing money and wanting more parishioners, decided to have a Latin Mass. This Latin Mass was a Novus Ordo Mass, but the prayers were skillfully created to closely emulate the "traddie" Mass. It is worth noting that Fr. Phillips was a frequent guest/visitor at St. Barnabas in Nebraska. One would have to wonder what Fr. Phillip's influence played in creating an OLOTA atmosphere at that parish.
So the draw among Episcopalians was less than projected -- remember that Cdl Ratzinger was told in 1993 that 250,000 would come over. But by 2009, the Rite Two Episcopalians were going to the ACNA. Instead, the ordinariate was drawing disgruntled cradle Catholics, though not all that many of those, and as yesterday's visitor pointed out, the Episcopalian heritage was being erased from the masses and a completely non-indigenous Anglican Papalist liturgy was substituted.
So Episcopalians, who'd possibly expected a familiar reverent liturgy but maybe less campiness among the clergy, were getting a new liturgical fussiness but the same old campy clergy, or if they weren't outright con artists, thy were at best also-rans who hadn't established Protestant careers.
Given this, I challenge the Anglicanorum Coetibus Society to explain what's "patrimonial" about a 20th-century Anglican Papalist liturgy invented in the UK, or a mass where many familiar Anglican features like the gospel procession have been eliminated. The Anglican in Anglicanorum coetibus has become an excuse for something new and unfamiliar that appeals only to traditionalist Catholics, not Anglicans.
There's a puzzling secondary group of people who'd been on the denominational carousel, with previous affiliations among more radical Protestant groups, who've found something congenial in the selective censoriousness of ordinariate stalwarts. My regular correspondent sent me a link to this blog by Shane Schaetzel, one of that group, who is the prime mover of the St George group in Republic, MO. My regular correspondent comments,
A lot going on here, from “Ladies put on the head covering” to “ =look to the Red States, those with strong gun rights”, but it does sum up the mentality of those the OCSP is attracting. Don’t waste your time on the mainstream Church. “God has called us to build something completely new.” For the record, I’m okay with “Gentlemen, put on some pants.” Rest I find alarming.
This is more like Anabaptist separatism, not Anglicanism or Catholicism. Who needs patrimony if we're building something completely new? The recent Society item on Bp Lopes's visit to St Barnabas refers only to the refreshments as "patrimonial". In the past, Mrs Gyapong has defended bare-breasted nursing during mass as "patrimonial" as well, which suggests that if boobs and booze are what's patrimonial, we might wish to celebrate a feast day for Ven Hugh Hefner. But as I've surmised, there's a secret payoff here. Chapel veils aren't the whole deal, if you ask me.
UPDATE: Bp Barron thinks John Henry Newman was the most influential figure at Vatican II who was not present there. So it seems like we could call novus ordo patrimonial.
