From the Northern Plains Anglican via Stand Firm:
The Episcopal Church had a big ol' ad in USA Today. You can see it here.
The second-to-last claim it makes is
We celebrate our unity in Christ while honoring our differences, always putting the work of love before uniformity of opinion.
That's the claim. The national FACTS are:
* Membership profile is disproportionately affluent, older, white and homosexual, and with a high number of clergy relative to the small number of active members. This is even more exaggerated in denominational leadership.
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* Disproportionately low presence of men, young adults, teens, children and working class people.
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* Decline by attrition and lack of evangelism, indicating current members' inability and/or unwillingness to interact with people who are not already part of their social circle.
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* More use of disciplinary sanctions against dissenting clergy than at any time in Episcopal Church history.
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* Millions of dollars in litigation over church property, even when dissenting congregations offer to pay for title. Not to mention the elimination of national staff and programs while increasing the lawsuit budget and hiring a personal litigator for the Presiding Bishop.
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* De facto exclusion of traditional Christians from governing bodies and ordination as clergy.
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Yep, some mad love and honoring of differences in the Episcopal Church today. South Dakota presents an interesting anomaly. The diocese is multi-ethnic; clergy are hard to recruit and retain; congregations serve some of the poorest counties in the United States. But it's current trend is the same as the rest of the denomination: fading away by attrition.
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