SILVER LINING
The Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh has decided to discontinue its legal proceedings:
Eight years of property litigation involving the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh has ended, but most parishes that broke from the Episcopal Church still face negotiations over their buildings.
Eight years of property litigation involving the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh has ended, but most parishes that broke from the Episcopal Church still face negotiations over their buildings.
After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last week denied an appeal from the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh, which had argued that it owned the property, the Anglican decided diocese it will not appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, spokesman David Trautman said.
“This whole string of litigation is ended, is done,” he said.
Which is all to the good. Shake the dust from your feet and all that. Besides, the sooner ACNA gets clear of the legal distractions and gets on with the work of the Lord, the better for ACNA and for a genuine Anglican witness in North America.
Besides, if present trends continue, ACNA will be able to get those properties back for pennies on the dollar a whole lot sooner than it might have originally anticipated. The Episcopal Organization’s Pittsburgh outlet is never going to be able to keep those parishes viable what with TEO basically flatlining and all.
Once a flagship denomination of American mainline Protestantism, the U.S.-based Episcopal Church has for the first time in decades reported membership below two million. Self-reported statistics provided by the denomination this month show that the church has dropped from 2,006,343 members in 2009 to 1,951,907 in 2010, the most recent reporting year. The loss of 54,436 members increases the annual rate of decline from 2 percent to 3 percent, outpacing the most recently reported declines in most other mainline churches. The church’s 10-year change in active members has dropped 16 percent.
A branch of the otherwise fast-growing 80 million member worldwide Anglican Communion, the third largest family of Christian churches globally, the Episcopal Church had also seen a steady decrease in the number of parishes, losing or closing over 100 in 2010, as well as a drop in attendance from 682,963 in 2009 to 657,831 in 2010, a 4 percent drop. Fifty-four percent of all U.S. Episcopal Churches suffered attendance loss over the prior year. Over the last decade, attendance was down 23 percent.
Here are TEO’s own numbers.
Some points of interest. Forty-two percent of TEO’s congregations have lost at least 10% of their membership in the past five years. Fifty-four percent of TEO parishes saw their average Sunday attendance drop from the previous year while 57% of parishes saw a 10% or more ASA drop over the past five years. Fifty-eight percent of TEO parishes have 200 members or less. And 68% of TEO parishes have an ASA of 100 or less.
Yup. The sky’s the limit for the Episcopal religion. Uh, Robbie? Any sign of those progressives who were going to flood TEO parishes because you got a pointy hat?
“This whole string of litigation is ended, is done,” he said.
Which is all to the good. Shake the dust from your feet and all that. Besides, the sooner ACNA gets clear of the legal distractions and gets on with the work of the Lord, the better for ACNA and for a genuine Anglican witness in North America.
Besides, if present trends continue, ACNA will be able to get those properties back for pennies on the dollar a whole lot sooner than it might have originally anticipated. The Episcopal Organization’s Pittsburgh outlet is never going to be able to keep those parishes viable what with TEO basically flatlining and all.
Once a flagship denomination of American mainline Protestantism, the U.S.-based Episcopal Church has for the first time in decades reported membership below two million. Self-reported statistics provided by the denomination this month show that the church has dropped from 2,006,343 members in 2009 to 1,951,907 in 2010, the most recent reporting year. The loss of 54,436 members increases the annual rate of decline from 2 percent to 3 percent, outpacing the most recently reported declines in most other mainline churches. The church’s 10-year change in active members has dropped 16 percent.
A branch of the otherwise fast-growing 80 million member worldwide Anglican Communion, the third largest family of Christian churches globally, the Episcopal Church had also seen a steady decrease in the number of parishes, losing or closing over 100 in 2010, as well as a drop in attendance from 682,963 in 2009 to 657,831 in 2010, a 4 percent drop. Fifty-four percent of all U.S. Episcopal Churches suffered attendance loss over the prior year. Over the last decade, attendance was down 23 percent.
Here are TEO’s own numbers.
Some points of interest. Forty-two percent of TEO’s congregations have lost at least 10% of their membership in the past five years. Fifty-four percent of TEO parishes saw their average Sunday attendance drop from the previous year while 57% of parishes saw a 10% or more ASA drop over the past five years. Fifty-eight percent of TEO parishes have 200 members or less. And 68% of TEO parishes have an ASA of 100 or less.
Yup. The sky’s the limit for the Episcopal religion. Uh, Robbie? Any sign of those progressives who were going to flood TEO parishes because you got a pointy hat?
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