Posted on 12/05/2022 6:08:53 PM PST by marshmallow
(CP) The US Episcopal Church continued to suffer declines in membership and worship attendance in 2021, well below pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels, according to recently released statistics.
The Episcopal Church released the official statistics last week, which included summaries of data on average weekly worship attendance, baptized membership and financial figures.
According to the numbers, the denomination had approximately 1.678 million baptized members, which is nearly 60,000 fewer than the 1.736 million reported for 2020.
The Episcopal Church's 2021 membership is also nearly 400,000 fewer than it was in 2012, when the mainline Protestant denomination had over 2 million baptized members.
Average Sunday attendance was also in decline, with 2021 reporting approximately 312,000 worship attendees on average, contrasted with around 483,000 in 2020.
The 2021 attendance numbers also sharply contrast with 2019, the last year before the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns played a role in the numbers, which reported over 547,000 in average Sunday attendance.
In announcing the statistics on Nov. 22, the Episcopal News Service pointed out that some of the reported numbers for the denomination still "leave room for optimism."
(Excerpt) Read more at christiantoday.com ...
The local Episcopalian congregation joined my church for a joint worship - I think there were six of them.
That few?
They still had 60,000 to lose?
Figures are dicey due to the distortions of the covid lockdowns; but the decline and ultimate disappearance of TEC (The Episcopal Church) is baked in. Ten years from now it will have found some kind of “union” with other moribund mainliners in a last ecumenical spasm and exist in name only.
Preach the Gospel and talk openly about sin and salvation, then watch your congregation grow.
I love the Anglican liturgical tradition, but now it is all show without content, a Christian veneer on a thoroughly secular/Left agenda. People who are serious about their Christianity will go elsewhere.
The Episcopalian church in my town has a lesbian for a preacher. Another Christian church has a lesbian preacher too. They had to close due to members quitting.
The Episcopal Church was once a very Conservative place then made a hard Left 180 and become the most leftist. Liberal place out there. I will no longer call myself an Episcopalian. It just amazes me how it moved so far left in the last 40 plus years.
The Methodist and Presbyterians are moving Left to I guess, just not as fast.
They lost me in 2001.
“According to the numbers, the denomination had approximately 1.678 million baptized members,”
________
So that’s still a lot of people outside of Christianity who lie to themselves that they’re Christian. To them, man is god and anything man decides is good is god’s intent.
The Episcopal Church apowars to be active in Virginia and it is the United States military’s official denomination.
The local ones where I live in the first region of Virginia are active, they all have very old buildings some of them have beautiful old pipe organs in them.
Where I live if you want to attend an AA meeting it’s usually at in Episcopal Church, however I think the local Lutheran Church also has AA meetings.
They do quite a bit here and I have noticed that their congregations are mostly older and well-dressed every Sunday, their services are very stoic and I’ve only been to a few as I am not a member. I enjoy walking in their cemetaries because they are peaceful and there are some old markers in there that are very interesting.
Isn’t the National Cathedral episcopalian?
Episcopalianism was the largest denomination when the U.S. was founded. More U.S. Presidents have identified as Episcopalian than any other religion.
However, ECUSA was the leading denomination to exalt and promote gay marriage. Now look.
Moribund mainliners like the United Methodist church which constituency in the US is slated to suffer a 4M membership loss....
Guarantee that number is vastly inflated. Members die, move or just quit the church by dropping out but stay on the membership rolls for decades.
I suspect it was never more conservative theologically than other mainstream denominations. It was conservative in appearance - the mainstay of WASP families on the East Coast, guardians of (external) cultural traditions (summer parties, debutante balls, Ivy league, Old hymnals, etc.). But again, just external markers. The media managed to make them the paradigm of conservatism, but that was a conservatism of external appearances and lineages.
It worked when the mainstream Protestant Christianity was itself fairly conservative. Once it embraced the social justice gospel in the 1970s, all else came tumbling down.
excellent post
I have a friend who is Anglican.
It’s apparently the largest Protestant denomination in the world and actively growing. He said it’s not the same as Episcopal or even Canterbery(?)
(It came up bc the Reform is dying away, as well, while orthodox is growing.)
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