Posted on 02/19/2002 3:34:03 PM PST by tracer
An annual survey of church demographics released this week shows The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is now the fifth-largest denomination in the United States.
But a top LDS leader doesn't expect a growth spurt because of attention to the faith during the Olympics.
"I don't think we'll see a great surge in convert baptism but a great surge of better understanding and appreciation for what the Mormon Church really is," said Elder M. Russell Ballard of the church's Council of the Twelve Apostles.
The National Council of Churches' 2002 "Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches," believed by many to be among the most authoritative chronicle of shifting denominational growth patterns, shows the LDS Church moved from sixth place last year to fifth place in total membership.
"This ranking represents a very brisk increase in membership for a church with a relatively brief history," said the Rev. Dr. Eileen W. Lindner, "Yearbook" editor and NCC deputy general secretary for research and planning. The LDS Church was organized in 1830, at Fayette, N.Y., by Joseph Smith, who said the church was not a "reformation" of errant Christian teaching but a "restoration" of Christ's original church and priesthood.
"The distinctive theological position of the LDS and the history of its persecution make such rapid growth all the more remarkable; however, the church's strong emphasis on outreach through both mission personnel and electronic and print advertising makes it unique among contemporary North American churches," she wrote.
Catholics (63.6 million), Southern Baptists (15.9 million), United Methodists (8.3 million) and the Church of God in Christ (5.5 million) outnumber the LDS Church (5.2 million), which was ranked sixth in last year's membership totals behind the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The two faiths traded places in this year's total, as the LDS Church gained roughly 95,000 members while the ELCA lost about 25,000.
This is the first time the LDS Church has been ranked among the top five.
But probably not all in the same "denomination", despite being theologically the same. Thus Greek Orthodox counted separately from Russian Orthodox, etc.
In any event, I (FWIW) don't view religious growth as a race or contest of any kind. Rather, I posted this article from the point of view of interesting demographic change on the religious landscape of America. This is indeed interesting in light of the struggles the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints endured and overcame in its infancy during the most formative years of our nation.
I am aware that the Greek Orthodox Church has grown in recent years, and my mother tells of several converts joining her parish from many walks of life. And I would not be surprised to learn that in fact there are more than 7+ million people who are Orthodox Christians in the U.S. today
Do you agree that the various rites (denominations) would enjoy a tremendous advantage by uniting under a single banner of Orthodox Christianity in the U.S. and world-wide?
Quite apart from the logistical and fiscal benefits to be derived from the economy of scale, I believe that a unified Orthodox Church would benefit from the spiritual solidarity, scope, and span of influence beyond that which is the case at present. And the presence of such a large single Christian denomination would do much to facilitate the growth of Christianity in the face of the seemingly tremendous odds present in the world today.
Finally, I (who was an altar boy so many years ago) send my greeting of "Kristos Anesti!" in advance of the upcoming Easter holiday. All the best....
Firesign Theater, cute.
Seriously now, Leary founded something called the League for Spirtual Discovery, or LSD.
Very definitely not to be confused with LDS.
The Orthodox Church is one entity. ONE CHURCH. THEY ARE OF ONE COUNCIL!!!!1
The Council of the Church is made up of about 13 Patriarchs, I believe. The Ecumenical Patriarch in Turkey is the first AMONG EQUALS among those Patriarchs.
All Orthodox Christians are in communion with each other and with NO OTHER CHURCHES. Their priests can be transferred between jurisdictions and they all can attend the same seminaries and NOT the seminaries of other churches.
A group of Serbians can meet and have Liturgy with the Romanians or the Greeks or any other Orthodox Christians....but not with any other church.
I realize that it is so difficult a concept for divided and varied Protestant sects to understand....but the Orthodox Christian Churches ARE THE SECOND LARGEST CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THE WORLD after the Roman Catholics.
An Orthodox Bishop from Dallas, Texas told me that the the ORTHODOX Christians in the world are only divided by language and that is ONLY because the Orthodox Christians believe that the Church should serve in the language of the people.
Rome wanted the Church to serve only in Latin....and that is one of the reasons of the great schism in 1054.
OK. But I'll bet that's not how these bozos count it.
I've had the same nonsense about the Jews.
The Christ who is actually present according to His promise in the Holy Eucharist, or the Christ who established a symbolic memorial?
The Christ who governed His Church by the councilar action of His Holy Apostles as recorded in Acts 15 and through the Holy Ecumenical Councils which followed that pattern, or the Christ who made Peter prince of the Apostles and gave an indivisible charism to him, inherited by the Popes of Rome?
The Christ who saves us from separation from God as a consequence of sin (both our own and ancestral) by uniting the Divine nature to the Human nature in His incarnation and by trampling down Death by death on the Cross, or the Christ who saves us from God's anger at Adam's sin imputed to all his descendants by offering himself as a human sacrifice to appease God's wrath?
No, doctrines divide us, those who hold true doctrine from those who hold false doctrine, and those who hold one false doctrine from those holding a different false doctrine.
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