Livre d'Or

the several centuries of existing as a religious and ethnic minority within UK society, and how new waves of immigrants from the continent interact with that.

Exactly - even some similar elements of historical persecution! Although of course it's still Christianity, so integration within society is easier in a lot of ways, etc etc - I don't want to push it too far.

And yes, you're right on the Vatican - it's supposed to be centralised and hierarchical, and though of course there are tensions and resentment in both directions, ultimately most Catholics would agree that the Pope does have the right to make those policies and decisions, even if we disagree on the policies themselves. There's a similar contrast with what you were saying with the "small indie groups" thing - there are some places where young Catholics are trying to do their own thing, with varying degrees of distance from the mainstream and also success, but ultimately we are required to come back to the central liturgy, to the Eucharist, and that requires a priest; there's no way around it. The shortage of priests creates some situations like the ones you talk about with rabbis having multiple part-time communities, but there's a different set of factors behind it.