There's a lot to notice, and it's hard to know where to start. On page 3, there's a message from the group's chairman, Peter Sefton-Williams. He says,
In recent months the "Friends" have responded to significant calls for financial assistance from the Ordinariate.There is simply no equivalent support group for the North American ordinariate, it goes without saying. There are second collections for seminarians, but no group of at least mid-level donors systematically raising funds for such a purpose, and certainly not to restore church buildings or organs, or purchase consistent sets of chasubles.The biggest outlay has been two grants, each of £8,000, continuing our support for two recently ordained priests, Fr Mason in Eastbourne and Fr Creer in Salisbury. We have also responded to a request for £11,000 towards the production of the "Divine Worship -- Daily Office" books which will be co-funded by the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Australia. In addition we have recently provided £10,000 towards the restoration of the organ at the Church of the Most Precious Blood in Borough, London, and granted £5,000 to help secure a new presbytery in Pembury, Kent. Other grants have included a contribution towards the provision of a common set of purple chasubles for all Ordinariate clergy, support for an Ordinariate seminarian and a contribution towards the university fees of two Ordinariate priests working towards a Doctorate.
Thanks to your generosity, we have been able to meet all these requests in full.
The North American ordinariate, for whatever reason, is not co-funding the Daily Office book, while the much smaller Australian ordinariate is. What's the story there? Sounds like Msgr Reid has been effective since his arrival.
And I simply don't know how to get my head around the idea that two UK ordinariate priests are pursuing doctorates, with a volunteer group helping to pay their fees. I have nothing else to say there.
The only effort remotely equivalent to the UK Friends in North America is the Anglicanorum Coetibus Society, which over eight years has proved a feckless effort, and the fecklessness is due in large measure to its narcissism. Its blog is nothing more than a vehicle for self-congratulation by a small clique.
But beyond the evidence of a serious group of committed core donors, the effort in the publication itself is remarkable. There is an intelligent discussion of Ronald Knox and biographies of several Elizabethan convert priests and martyrs, among other articles. Nobody connected with the Anglicanorum Coetibus Society is remotely capable of anything at this level, nor is anybody in Houston.
Why the difference? A visitor recently sent me a copy of an essay by Fr Aidan Nichols, OP, The Realm, which argues, not entirely in jest, for a re-establishment of Catholicism as the established Church in England. I get the impression that for people like the UK Friends, this is something not far from a living option to work for, and they see a reason to put significant time and treasure to achieve it.
In the US, and almost certainly Canada as well, this is nothing like the remotest possibility. In addition, there are almost no North American Anglican Papalist landmarks or church buildings that carry equivalent antiquarian interest, and other Catholic major donors are funding diocesan projects in that sort of direction.
But even taking such differences into account, I'm left with a stunning contrast. In North America, we have a record most visibly of a tinhorn self-promoter, Fr Phillips, a limited number of priests who've tried unsuccesfully to replicate his tinhorn formula, and another limited number of journeymen who are trying to clean up after Phillips and keep something going for another few years.
By their fruits you will know them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Just so, every good tree bears good fruit, and a rotten tree bears bad fruit.
