Not quite yet, Cap'n and Annie
Area's evangelical, Catholic churches grew most in '90s
By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
Evangelical Christian churches, both locally and nationally, experienced the greatest growth during the 1990s, while the Catholic Church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, also made substantial gains, according to a privately funded census.
The Catholic Church grew by 16 percent nationally and 37 percent locally between 1990 and 2000, remaining the largest religious group in both categories, while the Pentecostal denomination Assemblies of God increased 18.5 percent nationally and 63 percent in the Toledo area. The Religious Congregations and Membership: 2000, which will be officially released tomorrow, found that there were 4.2 million Mormons in the United States, an increase of 19 percent. Continuing a longtime trend of declining membership were mainline Protestant denominations such as the Presbyterian Church (USA), United Methodists, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Worship trends The ranks of Catholics, evangelicals, and conservative Christian religious bodies grew in the 1990s while mainline Protestants saw declines.
Time to clean house.