As for PCUSA being a dying denomination, I searched the Western Pennsylvania 152XX zipcodes at their website (pcusa.org) and found a long list of churches, including two of the wealthiest and most powerful churches in this area, Shadyside Presbyterian and Fox Chapel Presbyterian.The Episcopal Church in America is probably ten times wealthier than the PCUSA and probably has a much longer list of church properties as well.
Yet it is even smaller in numbers than the PCUSA.
The PCUSA, like the Episcopals, have lost touch with the central tenets of their own founders and is probably less than half the size it was 25 years ago.
There is no point in being an English-speaking Presbyterian anyway if you do not assent to the Westminster Confession.
The PCUSA is dying and will need to merge with some other denominations or it will cease to exist.
As for PCUSA being a dying denomination, I searched the Western Pennsylvania 152XX zipcodes at their website (pcusa.org) and found a long list of churches, including two of the wealthiest and most powerful churches in this area, Shadyside Presbyterian and Fox Chapel Presbyterian .
This denomination, while it has about $6 billion in assets stashed away in pension funds and "foundation" money, has been declining drastically in recent decades. Don't mistake residual wealth for healthy future prospects:
http://www.layman.org/layman/news/2004-news/former-moderator-rogers.htm Former Moderator Rogers puts
positive spin on PCUSA shrinkage
By John H. Adams
The Layman Online
Tuesday, July 13, 2004 Despite the largest loss in membership in the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 25 years, former General Assembly Moderator Jack B. Rogers has declared that the newly released Comparative Statistics for 2003 include "much to encourage us … They are a testament to the evangelism of generations of Presbyterians."
The title of his essay is "Encouraging Figures."
"Our statistics show the unifying power of Christ's message that cuts across human boundaries," said Rogers, whose comments about the data are posted on the PCUSA's Web site. "It demonstrates the exciting variety of people and programs that are called Presbyterian. We are a marvelously diverse group in age, gender, and ethnicity. From that comes notable creativity."
Rogers was moderator of the 213th General Assembly (2001-2002). He attacked the Confessing Church Movement and evangelicals (calling them "militant fundamentalists" and comparing them to Osama Bin Laden) and advocated same-sex marriages. Consequently, membership losses in 2002 and 2003 were the highest two-year decline since before the 1983 reunion of the two mainline Presbyterian denominations that became the PCUSA.
But in his assessment of the 2003 Comparative Statistics, Rogers found little to lament. And his spin on the data was to turn negatives into positives.
"What catches the future pastor's eye is the fact that almost 4/5ths of our smallest congregations are without an installed pastor," he said. "That could mean opportunities for mid-career people to have 'tent-making' vocations."
He delighted to discover that, "In 2003, there were 733 women candidates under care out of a total candidate pool of 1,371.The number of women in seminary and in active ministry has shown steady growth over the last nine years."
He also gleaned from the data that the PCUSA includes "a rainbow of ethnicities."
Rogers goes beyond the Comparative Statistics to find other positive news – the denomination's $40-million Mission Initiative Campaign, which is trying to raise money for new church development and foreign missions.
He links the campaign, a.k.a., "Joining Hearts & Hands," to a spike in new church development in 2003 – increasing from a five-year average of 27 to 38 in 2003. But Rogers omitted any reference to the campaign's status. So far, according to a second-quarter report posted on the PCUSA Web site, the campaign's expenses have exceeded its cash contributions by $802,626.
He also omitted any reference to the loss of 46,658 members in 2003 and 41,812 in 2002, the years in which membership fluctuations might have been influenced by his leadership.
Rather, he declared, "In some ways Comparative Statistics is like a snapshot of a really big family. It increases our appreciation of the goodness of God to us. These numbers reflect our achievements and our challenges."