The Underground Pewster Crunches the Baptismal Numbers for the Diocese of Upper South Carolina

from Stand Firm by Sarah

This is a fascinating application of the blogger Statman's point on the spectacular decline in baptisms for TEC church-wide, to the Diocese of Upper South Carolina. Check out the entire post, from which the below is excerpted:

I went back and checked out the numbers for the Diocese of Upper South Carolina (DUSC) to include burials and marriages and got the following,

406 children baptised in 2002 in DUSC
71 adults baptised in 2002 in DUSC

309 burials in DUSC in 2002
38154 burials in TEc Domestic Dios in 2002

171 marriages DUSC in 2002
18798 marriages in TEc Domestic Dios

1.5:1 ratio of DUSC baptisms to burials in 2002

2:1 ratio of DUSC burials to marriages in 2002

ASA of DUSC was 9103 in 2002

For 2010,

377 children baptised in 2010 (down 8.2%)
43 adults baptised in 2010 (down 39.4%)

317 burials in DUSC (up 2%),
30,853 burials in TEc Domestic Dios (a drop of 19.2%)

121 marriages DUSC (down 29.3%),
11,647 marriages in TEc Domestic Dios (a drop of 39.1%)

1.3:1 ratio of DUSC baptisms to burials in 2010 (a drop in this ratio is not a good sign).

2.6:1 ratio of DUSC burials to marriages in 2010 (a rise in this ratio is not a good sign).

ASA 8337 ( a drop of 8.4%) in DUSC from 2002

People will say that the drop in marriages and church attendance merely parallels the pattern seen in other old denominations, but that is an excuse that they will have a hard time passing along to the man that just walked out of the grave.

Could it be that young families seeking a safe, God fearing place to raise their future precious young Christians are using reason, tradition, and scripture, to vote with their feet?

There are still plenty of old people left in the oldline denominations to bury, but at the current rate of replenishment, there won't be enough new old people to pay the bills fifty years from now.