As you reported on May 14 of this year, Fr John Worgul of the OCSP has been appointed Pastor of a diocesan parish, St Joseph, Sykesville. As part of this arrangement, the Ordinariate community of St Timothy, previously led by Fr Worgul while he served on the staff of St Joseph’s as Director of Faith Formation, planned to move from its rented premises in Catonsville to the former St Joseph’s church in Sykesville, now used as a wedding etc chapel by the parish, whose main church is actually now located in Eldersburg, MD (both churches pictured here.) The pending arrangement is discussed here.Speaking just as someone who's been around parishes for over 40 years, it sounds to me as though the lack of on line presence is a symptom of not enough lay involvement, although a prosperous novus ordo parish can afford a communications specialist to maintain this and other outreach programs. But in this day and age, it ought to be possible to recruit volunteers who can at least do a minimal job with a Facebook page -- or by the same token, someone who can call someone in Houston and try to get the parish finder updated.Trying to find out how this worked out has been quite challenging. The St Timothy website gives no hint of the move and links to the (former Facebook page are broken. However, on the link to their YouTube channel I was able to find two videos of mass being celebrated last month by Fr Worgul in the new premises. (Old) St Joseph’s is smaller and more spartan than the previous chapel in Catonsville;
I am not sure if there is space for Mr Stagmer, who provides music on the guitar, to be accompanied by a keyboard player as was the practice at their former venue. In any event, the mass on July 19 was, as has been the custom at St Timothy, celebrated versus populum, with vested female servers, and the aforementioned guitar music. Communion was given in the hand to those who presented themselves in a standing line, as commonly seen at Catholic parishes. I counted twenty-five communicants, including the servers, and about half a dozen non-communicating children. I think this is a typical turnout for St Timothy’s.
The newly-ordained Fr Armando Alejandro, formerly a parishioner of Our Lady of the Atonement San Antonio and teacher at Atonement Academy, has been appointed as Assistant Priest at the diocesan parish and will be living in the rectory. Fr Worgul and his wife have a house elsewhere in the vicinity. No sign of Fr Alejandro in the video but his picture is up on the St Joseph, Sykesville Staff page.
Of course there is nothing about the move or the new appointments of Ordinariate clergy to St Joseph’s on the OCSP website. The Ordinariate community is still shown as “St Timothy, Catonsville” and the link takes you to the St Timothy website which as yet has no hint that the congregation is now worshipping in Sykesville, twenty miles away. Nothing on the St Joseph website about the Ordinariate congregation. I guess the presumption is that everyone who cares already knows. There’s a lot of that in the OCSP. Not my idea of—-what did Bp Lopes call it?—- “Evangelism in the front row.”
Instead, it sounds as if people are coasting and not much growth is taking place. It's worth asking what the appeal is for the Evangelical megachurches in the Los Angeles area, where laity is pretty clearly so supportive of their church's work that they'll risk citations or fines for it. What's there that isn't at St Timothy's?
