Thursday, June 22, 2017

Our Lady Of Good Counsel Jacksonville, NC

We know very little about this group, other than what was reported here in this post. Although Fr Waun is a retired Navy chaplain, my regular correspondent has found that he continues as a civilian Catholic chaplain at the Marine Corps Air Station New River, next to Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville.

As previously reported, the church is a storefront. My regular correspondent hasn't located a photo of the interior, but says, "the property (3000 sq ft) is divided up into at least 6 suites, so the available space must be similar to the photo below. Other current tenants include a fitness studio."

Storefront chapels aren't unusual for "continuing" parishes, but this sort of thing doesn't seem especially compatible with ad orientem or DW mass. As reported a year ago, what we actually find there is OF and guitar. My correspondent adds that the founding group

contained several members of the Porterfield family. Kevin Porterfield set up the website, etc and was heavily involved in programming but perhaps he lost interest at a point. In the fall of 2015 he started teaching middle school so perhaps he has less volunteer time. Or perhaps as a teacher he has discovered the wisdom of avoiding personal social media. Nothing has been updated for about two years on the OLGC website; the FB page is a stub.
We might reasonably assume that ordination in the OCSP qualified Fr Waun to serve as a civilian contractor Catholic chaplain, which nicely supplements his Navy pension. The apparent lack of activity in the Our Lady of Good Counsel group suggests it is not Fr Waun's first priority.

The other Catholic church in Jacksonville, NC is the Infant of Prague Church. Certainly the interior we see here is at least as nice as those in the biggest OCSP parishes -- notices of choir practice on the parish website suggest some effort goes into a music program, and drop-ins might find something better than a guitar-and-tambourine mass. So your choice is between guitar and OF in the storefront and OF with stained glass and better music at Infant of Prague.

If you found yourself in Jacksonville, NC on a Sunday, which mass would you choose? Assuming Fr Waun were still holding mass in the storefront, of course.

What problem are we trying to solve?