Posted on 09/05/2019 8:15:34 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Episcopal Church saw a greater decline in members and average worship attendance in 2018 than in 2017.
According to statistics recently made available by the Office of the General Convention, The Episcopal Church saw its active baptized members decline from approximately 1.712 million in 2017 to 1.676 million.
The 36,000-member drop is larger than the previous two years, when the denomination declined by about 32,500 members in 2017 and a little more than 34,000 members in 2016.
In 2018, the average Sunday worship attendance declined by about 23,500 people, making it the largest drop the church body has seen since at least 2014.
In previous years, 2017 saw an average worship attendance decline of around 13,700, 2016 saw a decline of 9,300, 2015 saw a decline of 20,600, and 2014 saw a near equal decline of 23,200.
The report on The Episcopal Church’s domestic dioceses also found that the number of congregations with 20 or fewer members had increased from 388 in 2017 to 418 in 2018.
Jeffrey Walton, Anglican expert at the theologically conservative Institute on Religion & Democracy, wrote on Tuesday that the numbers were not all bad for the liberal mainline denomination.
“Notably, non-domestic dioceses (many of whom did not support same-sex marriage rites) saw attendance nudge upward by 0.2%,” he explained.
“Similarly, the denomination’s flagship church, the Washington National Cathedral, reports an attendance rebound from 1,200 to nearly 1,500 in 2018, even as plate-and-pledge dropped more than one third, possibly indicating an increase in Sunday visitors.”
While during the 1960s The Episcopal Church reached a peak membership of 3.6 million, by 2010 the denomination’s total active baptized members dropped below 2 million.
Some have argued that this decline has been accelerated by the overall liberal theological direction of the denomination, which has been public about its support for same-sex marriage and other progressive causes.
"Formerly traditionalist dioceses now under progressive leadership seem to be faring especially badly," wrote Walton.
"The Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana, where Democratic Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg was married and is a parishioner, shed 9.5% of attendees in a single year."
The apparent uptick in decline for both membership and average attendance contrasts with previous reports on numbers, in which the denomination noted an apparent stabilizing of their losses.
When reporting the release of the 2016 numbers, Canon Michael Barlowe of the Genneral Convention stated in 2017 that “rates of decline in such key figures as Average Sunday Attendance have decreased,” adding that “congregational income through pledges and other offerings has remained constant.”
The release of the latest numbers comes as the mainline denomination announced the next meeting of its General Convention-appointed leadership.
The Executive Council of The Episcopal Church is scheduled to meet Oct. 18-21 at the Embassy Suites Montgomery Hotel and Conference Center in Montgomery, Alabama.
As a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church, I stopped attending services long ago due to their homo based and illegal immigrant based politics.
That’s so gay....................
Romans 2:12
“....Some have argued that this decline has been accelerated by the overall liberal theological direction...”
Which churches aren’t?
We got the same thing here ...
Gay Marriage
Anti-Gun
Illegals are OK
America bad
Mass incarceration
Systematic racism
Good.
ECUSA used to be called Catholic Light, now they are more Unitarian Heavy.
And I am a cradle Episcopalian.
Gunner
>>As a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church, I stopped attending services long ago due to their homo based and illegal immigrant based politics.<<
Also am a “cradle Episcopalian” who was abandoned by the church. Stopped attending & participating ~10 years ago. Nobody missed me until the quarterly pledge report showed a zero by my name.
Can’t support a church that denies its own articles of faith, including the Virgin Birth, the divinity of Jesus Christ, the Resurrection, the existence of Heaven & hell, and Eternal life through Salvation.
Sad, because the church has a rich history, and I very much like the liturgy. Still use the Book of Common Prayer for morning & evening devotions.
Most of them are dying
She always saw the Church as it was when she was a young girl. I had no wish to disillusion her. I liked taking her to services and we still had a traditional diocese for the last few years.
The "Progressives" are firmly in charge now and have hollowed out the Church. I will not support them.
If they are like any other major denomination I doubt if they drop your name from the membership roles when people stop going, if they did the drop in membership would probably be staggering.
If it makes you feel better, I as a cradle Catholic (of the Roman variety), so much so my brother was (is, but retired) bishop of the Church.
I’ve become enthusiastically Anglican. Specifically go to a church that uses the 1928 prayer book.
My brother is not mad and has privately called the current pope a “possible anti-pope”.
Look for an Anglican Church in your area - we left over 10 years ago and now worship in an Anglican Church - which will soon be separating from the Church of England - pity.
It seems all the churches and temples are losing membership as they cater to the LGBTQXYZ crowds!
I pray anywhere, anytime and its a hell of a lot cheaper and I don’t have to put up with the above!
Good!!
1200 to 1500 in the flagship Church?
The Catholic Church is so badly run and understaffed that 1500 in many places may not get you a second priest, and dropping from 1500 to 1200 might get the second priest, if you had one, yanked.
female preachers?
They only broke away from the ECUSA in 2009 and already their Average Sunday attendance is 20% of the ECUSA and they are one of the few churches that are actually growing !
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