pecusa shrinks some more

From David Virtue at VirtueOnline:

In the Episcopal Church, size apparently doesn't matter. As the church shrinks, its cries for inclusivity and diversity grow louder and louder.

The latest figures for Episcopal Church attendance do not augur well. The 77th annual edition of the Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches, long a highly regarded chronicler of growth and financial trends of religious institutions, records a slight but startling decline in membership of the nation's largest Christian communions. In 2007, The Episcopal Church said it had 2,116,749 baptized members down 1.76 percent. A more accurate reading of TEC, based on Fast Facts from a church source, showed that Average Sunday Attendance, had gone from 765,326 to 727,822 in 2007. While 2008 is not known at this time, nor are the first two months of 2009, it is hard to imagine that the church can still claim 700,000 active members.

A survey in mid 2008, before the economy tanked, revealed that the proportion of parishes in some or serious financial difficulty almost doubled from 2000 to 2005, increasing from 13% to 25% and then remained unchanged for 2008. 26.4% of congregations have average Sunday attendance of less than 35. A majority (62%) of Episcopal parishes and missions report that more than half of their members are age 50 and above. 90% of Episcopal congregations reported having conflicts or disagreements in the last five years. 47% of Episcopal congregations report serious conflict over the ordination of gay priests/bishops. Overall, 63% of Episcopal parishes have at least one full-time paid clergy. Another 25% are served by part-time clergy, priests, or by seminary students. The remainder report having no clergy at all or that they are served by supply or interim priests. 11% of Episcopal congregations report that they have no youth in the church and 58% have 10 or fewer youth among their active members or regular participants. Only 20% of Episcopal congregations have 20 or more youth actively involved.

The overall picture is not comforting. Only one diocese, South Carolina showed any sign of growth. The aggressive Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMIA), headquartered in Pawleys Island, just miles down the road from the Diocese of South Carolina's headquarters in Charleston is making inroads in that part of the country, no doubt to the chagrin of Bishop Mark Lawrence.

WHILE TEC slowly sinks, news comes that the yet to be inaugurated Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is making great strides forward. A story in today's digest shows remarkable strength even before it makes its official debut in June, according to figures revealed by its leaders.

According to a report released by the Diocese of Pittsburgh, some 81,311 people worship at the 693 congregations of the Anglican Church in North America each Sunday. These parishioners and parishes are outside of The Episcopal Church and The Anglican Church in Canada. The vast majority are temporarily under the ecclesiastical oversight of six separate orthodox Anglican provinces.

While each jurisdiction is small, as a united body, the Anglican Church in North America, which includes both the U.S. and Canada, has significantly more members than 12 of the Anglican Communion's 38 provinces including Bangladesh, Brazil, Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui, Indian Ocean, Japan, Jerusalem & Middle East, Korea, Mexico, Myanmar, Scotland, Southern Cone, and Wales.

It is estimated that at least 100,000 plus Anglicans in North America attend church regularly. What will this picture look like in five years? Certainly in ten years, at the present rate of TEC decline and ACNA growth, ACNA could well rival TEC. Don't laugh. It could happen.

Just how bad are things in TEC? You can read Part III in my continuing series on "Episcopal Dioceses and Parishes Face Worst Financial Crisis since Depression". The story is depressing, but it's the truth. Financially, TEC is hurting and cutting back on many of its "sacred" programs including the much bally-hoed Millennium Development Goals. However, ASSIST News Services reports that, despite the economic downturn, most evangelical parachurch ministries exceeded, met or came very close to their 2008 fourth-quarter contributions goals. According to a recent survey of its members by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA), 72 percent of responding organizations reported they exceeded, met or came within 10 percent of their goals. Twenty-eight percent reported they were more than 10 percent below their goals.

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