Anglican breakaway group eclipses Church in Wales

I missed this one from Religious Intelligence and apparently so did Stand Firm and TitusOneNine. If you look at those two highly ranked blogs you may notice that they miss a fair number of stories related to the burgeoning new province in North America. ed.

Sunday, 22nd February 2009. 7:00am

By: George Conger.

The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) has eclipsed the Church in Wales, the Scottish Episcopal Church and 10 other provinces in the number of active members, statistics released this week by the ACNA report.
Anglican breakaway group eclipses Church in Wales

The average Sunday attendance (ASA) for the ACNA’s 693 congregations is 81,311, with an estimated membership in excess of 100,000, the report finds. By way of comparison, the Church in Wales, whose Archbishop Dr Barry Morgan has vowed to fight recognition of the ACNA with “every fibre” of his being, has a total membership of 70,353 and the Scottish Episcopal Church 53,553.

US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori (pictured) has claimed that secessions from The Episcopal Church to the breakaway groups have been minimal, and the ASA for the Episcopal Church remains 10 times as large: 768,476 in 2007 with an active baptized membership of 2,116,749.

The African-overseen churches comprise the bulk of the ACNA’s membership. The Anglican Mission in the Americas under the oversight of Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda reports an ASA of 21,600 in 180 congregations. The Convocation of Anglicans in North America under the oversight of Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria reports that its 69 congregations have an ASA of 9,828.

Uganda’s 51 American parishes report an ASA of 7,000, while Kenya and the Southern Cone’s American 55 American parishes have an ASA of 10,000.

The four dioceses that quit The Episcopal Church and are under the temporary oversight of Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone: Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, Quincy and San Joaquin have 163 congregations with an ASA of 16,483 --- a figure that does not include those congregations that have opted to remain with the national Episcopal Church.

The Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) reports that its 24 congregations have an ASA of 3,400, while the Reformed Episcopal Church --- an evangelical group that seceded from the Episcopal Church in the 19th century — reports that its 150 parishes have an ASA of 13,000.

“Based on a firm Sunday attendance average of 81,311 people, it is reasonable to very conservatively project that more than 100,000 Anglicans in North America are active members of a congregation of the proposed province,” the ACNA concluded.

Of the Communions 38 provinces, 12 have a smaller number of members: Bangladesh, Brazil, Hong Kong, Indian Ocean, Japan, Jerusalem & Middle East, Korea, Mexico, Myanmar, Scotland, Southern Cone, and Wales.