Losses accelerated for Episcopal Church in 2006

Posted October 1, 2007
Bible Belt Blogger: Losses accelerated for Episcopal Church in 2006

Frank Lockwood

Membership in the Episcopal Church dropped by 48,971 to 2,320,506 during 2006, according to preliminary statistics from the denomination's research office. Overall membership dropped roughly 2.1 percent, from 2,369,477 in 2005.

Average Sunday attendance dropped 26,018 to 804,688 from 830,706 in 2005. If I'm doing the math right, that's a 3.1 percent decline.

By comparison, membership in 2005 dropped 35,688 from 2004 levels. Attendance fell only 2,966 between 2004 and 2005.

CAUTION: These are preliminary statistics. The final statistics will likely be released later this month.

Also, keep in mind that these statistics are for all Episcopal churches around the world, not just those in the United States. If this is like past years, the statistical picture in the U.S. will be worse than the overall picture. [In 2005, for example, attendance and membership in Episccopal churches outside the U.S. actually increased, while the U.S. based parishes and missions were suffering losses.]

Province by province preliminary figures are listed below. Province IX is made up completely of non-U.S. parishes*. Province II includes Haiti, plus Episcopalians in Europe and the Virgin Islands. Province VIII includes Taiwan.

Province
Members 2006
Average Sunday Attendance 2006
Province 1
Membership 215,164
Attendance 66,430

Province 2
355,445
105,560

Province 3
345,804
120,733

Province 4
498,908
187,266

Province 5
197,849
74,277

Province 6
103,297
35,905

Province 7
254,142
94,446

Province 8
277,813
99,348

Province 9 (None of these are U.S. parishes and missions)
72,084
20,723

The Episcopal Church
Membership 2,320,506
Attendance 804,688