Beer Breakfast!

If you happen to find yourself at loose ends in Irvine, CA early on February 6, the Animal House "League of Ordinary Gentlemen" at the Bl John Henry Newman group will be holding a beer breakfast at 7 AM at the Olde Ship.

Thanks to a regular visitor for bringing this to my attention. I don't know if these guys have wives or families, but if they do, I don't know how many wives will appreciate having husbands and fathers come unsteadily home at 11 AM or so and, at best, find them useless for the rest of the day.

I quote from Fr Ken Wolfe's e-mail to me from last July 13:

The Ordinariate has policies on the use of alcoholic beverages in communities such as Blessed John Henry Newman. If there is a serious concern about whether actions are in compliance with our policy on the use of alcoholic beverages on parish properties, a person who has first-hand experience should bring the facts to the attention of the Ordinary or Vicar General.

I don't know what the policies are -- if anyone knows, I'd like to hear them -- but it sounds as if Fr Wolfe has carefully worded his statements to discourage anyone who doesn't actually attend this beer breakfast from bringing it to anyone's attention. But if they party at the breakfast, I assume they're OK with it and won't report it.

I can't imagine that a 7 AM beer breakfast at a pub, clearly identified as a church-sponsored activity, would be in accordance with alcohol use policies in any denomination.

Indeed, Catholic acts of contrition frequently include a resolve to "avoid the near occasions of sin". It's very hard for me to imagine that a beer breakfast is anything but a near occasion of sin.

The Ottawa Group

My correspondent reports,

The former Anglican Catholic Church of Canadsa Cathedral of The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is now a US-Canadian Ordinariate mission. Between 30 and 40 members of this congregation and of two smaller ACCC groups in the Ottawa area were received in 2012. Mrs Deborah Gyapong is a member of this group and was a contributor to The Anglo-Catholic in its heyday, as well as authoring her own blogs, Foolishness to the World being the most recent. She is a journalist by profession. At one point, her posts, and the comments thereon, were key sources of Ordinariate information but she seems to have gradually wound down her interest in this medium. She was appointed to the board of the new Anglicanorum Coetibus Society, but like that body has posted nothing since last November. Annunciation has an up to date Facebook page and publishes a newsletter online, with details of many regular worship and fellowship opportunities. It has two clergy, at least one of whom is below secular retirement age. It owns a church.

It is holding its own, but it is not growing. This seems to me symptomatic of the lack of demand for what the Ordinariates have to offer. This post is typical of the buzz that preceded the erection of the Ordinariates. (Earlier posts that year looked forward to 100 parish groups poised to enter the North American Ordinariate, including a thousand Canadian members, and 26 groups in Australia). Even when groups are doing the right things, there seems to be a low ceiling.

Here's An Insight

into how Mrs Bush and the squatters operate. As we noted yesterday, John Cothran, a member of the squatter group, filed a claim with the court that, although not named in the Writ of Possession, he had continuously occupied the St Mary of the Angels premises since before June 21, 2012, the date of filing of the Vestry's forcible detainer Case.

Mr Cothran, 68, is a successful Hollywood actor. He is listed in the 2012 St Mary's parish directory at an address in suburban Sherman Oaks, CA. He is married to Judyann Elder, whose web bio says, "Elder is currently married to actor and playwright John Cothran, Jr.. The two reside in Sherman Oaks, California."

Beyond that, there is no credible way in which Mr Cothran could have lived on the parish premises since before June 21, 2012. The Kelleys occupied the small cottage at the rear of the property until September of that year. While there was a small bed in the undercroft, this area was occupied by loyal parishioners during the summer of 2012, and Mr Cothran, as a member of the Bush clique, could not have stayed there.

And beyond that, Mrs Bush at that time fought to prove that there was "no residence" on the property, in order to block the Kelley Family from getting a post office box, since post-9/11 regulations require a street address in order to get one.

I simply don't know how Mr Cothran or Mr Lancaster will try to explain to the court that Cothran has lived on the parish premises since 2012. I can see no way he can do this without bearing false witness -- something the ACA bishops have repeatedly condoned, if not directly encouraged.

More Procedural Wrangling

I'm told that Mrs Bush was served with the Writ of Possession (i.e., the eviction notice) on Tuesday, January 19. However, California landlord-tenant law provides that

People who are not named as tenants in the rental agreement or lease sometimes move into a rental unit before the landlord files the unlawful detainer (eviction) lawsuit. The landlord may not know that these people (called "occupants") are living in the rental unit, and therefore may not name them as defendants in the summons and complaint. As a result, these occupants are not named in the writ of possession if the landlord wins the unlawful detainer action. A sheriff enforcing the writ of possession cannot lawfully evict an occupant whose name does not appear on the writ of possession and who claims to have lived in the unit since before the unlawful detainer lawsuit was filed. (See "Writ of possession.")

* * *

These occupants then have 10 days from the date they are served to file a Prejudgment Claim of Right to Possession form with the Clerk of Court, and to pay the clerk the required filing fee (or file an "Application for Waiver of Court Fees and Costs" if they are unable to pay the filing fee (see The Eviction Process)). Any unnamed occupant who does not file a Prejudgment Claim of Right to Possession form with the Clerk of Court (along with the filing fee or a request for waiver of the fee) can then be evicted.

On Wednesay, January 20, John Cothran, a member of the squatter group, filed a claim that he had "occupied" the premises since June 21, 2012 (date of filing of the Vestry's Forcible Detainer Case), "continuously." (This contains an admission that three weeks' rent is due to the Vestry, while the claim is being tested.) California law provides,

Five to 15 days after the occupant has paid the filing fee (or has filed a request for waiver of the fee), and has deposited an amount equal to 15 days' rent, the court will hold a hearing. If the occupant does not deposit the 15 days' rent, the court will hold the hearing within five days.

At the hearing, the court will decide whether or not the occupant has a valid claim to possession. If the court decides that the occupant's claim to possession is valid, the amount of rent deposited will be returned to the occupant. The court will then order further proceedings, as appropriate to the case (for example, the occupant may be given five days to answer the landlord's complaint).

If the court finds that the occupant's claim to possession is not valid, an amount equal to the daily rent for each day the eviction was delayed will be subtracted from the rent that is returned to the occupant, and the sheriff or marshal will continue with the eviction.

The hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, February 2, at 1:30pm.

My own view is that this is yet another hail-Mary play on the part of the squatters. I hope to attend the hearing.

More Canadian Groups

My correspondent reports,

We have touched on the St Edmund's group in Kitchener, ON, which seems to have been left in the lurch by Fr Catania's abrupt departure for Rochester. No masses have been held there since November. The city is within commuting distance of Toronto, and the group was previously ministered to by a local diocesan priest, before Fr Catania's rather mysterious arrival, but it now seems to be in hiatus. The group was never large: eleven people were received and I do not think there were any new arrivals eligible for membership, but the lay leader was very active and published a monthly newsletter for many years, although this was discontinued under Fr Catania's regime. Website is not being updated. Presumably a dead duck.

I can't help but think that if the Kitchener group is being left in the lurch, the Ordinariate enterprise exists primarily for the benefit of the clergy -- Fr Catania seems to have been moved around to suit some private agenda, with growing the number of groups a distant secondary consideration. My correspondent continues,

Good Shepherd, Oshawa, ON is another very small group---perhaps a dozen members, with a priest who has had a number of health problems, although he has resumed a full schedule of daily masses recently. A lay member, not part of the original ACCC group but a former Anglican who became Catholic decades ago, has been very active on various social media in support of the group and the Ordinariate project generally, although he has often drawn attention to problems with its poor communication. Good Shepherd owns its own church---a previous rector was an ACCC bishop---so perhaps it has an endowment from more prosperous days which supports it. But I do not think it has attracted any new members. Several members commute there from Toronto; the ACCC never got a foothold in the latter city so would-be continuers made the trek to Oshawa, about 40 minutes away. Toronto now has its own OCSP group. I do not think Good Shepherd has a long-term future.

Publicity For Ordinariate Groups In Host Parishes

Yesterday I had an e-mail exchange with a visitor regarding how much publicity Ordinariate groups get on the websites of Catholic diocesan parishes that host them. My visitor said, "I have noted that at least half the parishes which host an OCSP group make no mention of its mass time(s) in their bulletin, as one noted with Our Lady of Fatima, Fredericton." Later he pointed out, "Some of these groups have no website and no Facebook page. How do they think anyone is going to hear about them?"

This raises an interesting problem, with which, as a new Catholic, I'm not very familiar. From what I see on sites like Fr Z's blog and what I can gather from occasional remarks by priests, dioceses seem to show great interest in parish tithes, registrations, and their relation to mass times and the number of priests assigned to a parish. Last year at Our Mother of Good Counsel, for instance, there was a drive for formal registration, followed a couple of months later by the announcement that mass times would be reduced.

The parish had had three priests (including one visiting from Mexico who was handling the Spanish masses); when he returned to Mexico, he was not replaced, and the mass schedule was reduced.

This says to me that diocesan priests are under some pressure to watch their numbers. To put an Ordinariate mass time on the diocesan parish website that could, at least potentially, reduce the numbers they report to the diocese -- or reduce the offertory tithed to the diocese -- isn't necessarily in the interest of the diocesan parish.

Naturally, there are other issues, which could make this question entirely theoretical. If the diocesan parish has only guitar-and-tambourine masses where everyone holds hands around the altar, while the Ordinariate group has something more reverent, that could attract some diocesan parishioners away from the diocesan mass. I'm not sure if this actually takes place anywhere, since I know diocesan parishes exist that have reverent masses with organ and choir, while Ordinariate groups exist that have masses with guitar. So it's quite possible that actual circumstances and the actual very small numbers involved in both the number and membership of Ordinariate groups make this a non-issue.

I would be interested to hear the insights of other visitors.

Three More Canadian Groups/Parilshes

My correspondent reports,

The bishop-elect mentioned in an interview that he had never been to Canada, so perhaps rather than starting with any of the three groups you have mentioned he will go first to Calgary, to visit Canada's only full parish. The nucleus of St John the Evangelist was the only group to be led in by a priest of the ACC. Members from two local ACCC parishes and an ACNA parish were soon added. Weekly attendance figures suggest that Fr Kenyon has been successful at attracting others, cradle Catholics or previously received Anglicans, as well. As we have discussed, the parish has an ambitious plan to purchase its building from the Anglican Diocese of Calgary. Lately,

however, I have noticed a few ominous signs. Attendance seems to have plateaued. Fr Kenyon noted in a bulletin put out before the building campaign started that the parish needed $5000 a week to meet its expenses. Until very recently, Notices which included attendance and the weekly givings have been posted on the website, and since the beginning of the building campaign the regular offering has rarely met this figure, although combined givings remain significantly higher. Now the Assistant Priest is being "released to the local diocese" as of February. The Notices do not seem to be posted any more.

Given the economic situation in Calgary, I suspect that this means that the parish is facing financial problems. This has been a bright spot in the Canadian Deanery, with many parish activities going on, and the apparatus of parish life--Parish Council, Finance Committee, website--in place and well-run. I am sure Bp Lopes wishes to find that this is one place he doesn't have to worry about. I am not sure that is the case any longer.

When Bp Lopes heads to Canada's west coast he will definitely find some challenges. The Blessed John Henry Newman Fellowship in Victoria, BC is moving out of the very attractive church it has been renting from the Anglican Diocese of British Columbia to share space with a local Catholic parish. This could be due to a number of reasons but I doubt that having outgrown their space is a possibility. There has been some coming and going, but I believe the group has 20+ members, including four clergy, three of whom are over canonical retirement age (the parochial administrator is in his 60s). There are regular parish activities, though publicised only to those on the email list; the webpage is not well-maintained. The new location is served by a bus which runs once an hour on Sundays, although the website promises transportation help to those who might need it. I would say that the long-term survival of this group is iffy.

The Vancouver group is definitely on borrowed time. It actually meets in Maple Ridge, a western exurb of Vancouver, at a church which is 40 minutes from downtown Vancouver by car and inaccessible from there by public transit on Sundays. There are ten members, including a family of five, plus the priest and his wife. They were all members of an ACCC mission which met in Abbotsford, a small city west of Vancouver, which is presumably why they now worship at this church. There is no website or Facebook page. No one has joined the group since it was received in 2012; the family is young but the other members, including the priest, are in their 70s. If/when their priest retires the group will fold, I assume. This group has been listed twice on the OCSP parish list since it was put up. The fact that no one in charge has noticed this never fails to puzzle me.