Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 10/18/2026 10:03:12 PM PDT by Cronos
New data released this week by the Episcopal Church shows both a modest decline in attendance and a large loss in membership alongside leading indicators including baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and receptions conducted within the mainline Protestant denomination.
Parochial report data for the reporting year 2025 shows attendance declined between 2024 and 2025 by 6,033 persons (1.5%) from 413,034 to 407,001, the first decline following a multi-year post-COVID rebound. Access the data on the Episcopal General Convention website here.
Membership across both U.S. and overseas dioceses, which was not reported for the 2024 year, now stands at 1,425,065, a decline of 122,714 (7.9%) from 1,547,779 last made available for the reporting year 2023. This makes 2025 the first year with a reported church membership below 1.5 million persons. A net 81 Episcopal parishes and missions closed between 2023 and 2025, declining from 6,754 in 2023 to 6,673 in 2025.
A press release from the Episcopal Church’s Office of Public Affairs spun the declining attendance numbers as “stabilizing” while noting that the more dire membership decline is part of a trend that “has persisted for decades.”
Other metrics tracked by the denomination, listed in an analysis of data conducted for the Episcopal Church by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, also fell across the two-year period. Combined baptisms of adults and children fell 931 (4.6 percent) across the two year period from 20,247 in 2023 to 19,316 in 2025. Confirmations fell 1,722 (12 percent) from 14,853 in 2023 to 13,131 in 2025. Receptions fell 2,179 (29 percent) from 7,567 to 5,388 across the same period. The full data for the 2023 reporting year can be viewed in an annual table of statistics viewable here. A similar table has not yet been made available for the 2025 year.
Statistical data for the denomination is collected from self-reported parochial reports and compiled by staff at the denomination’s New York headquarters.
Marriages declined by 489 (10 percent) from 4,886 in 2023 to 4,397 in 2025. Burials dropped 1,335 (5.4 percent) from 24,878 in 2023 to 23,543 in 2025.
The median average age of Episcopalians is now 60 years old, and the median congregation has an average in-person attendance of 37, with half of all congregations reporting attendance under 50 persons even when factoring in online attendance. The Hartford Institute analysis notes that only 15 percent of all Episcopalians attend the bottom half of local churches. In contrast, 31.4 percent of Episcopalians attend churches with an attendance of 251 or greater.
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
If trends continue, the mainline Anglican flock in America will lose another half of its membership by 2040, with some demographers predicting institutional demise by 2050. But that’s better than the Anglican Church of Canada, which could be gone by 2040.
Episcopalians hold five funerals for every wedding, he noted, in a Jan. 23 address for the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida.
In the 1950s, according to historians, “mainline” Protestants — Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists and others — were 52% of the U.S. population. That fell to 30% by 1970 and, today, has hit 8.7%.
The Philadelphia Eleven are the 11 women who were the 1st female ordained priests in the Episcopal Church on July 29, 1974, 2 years before General Convention affirmed and explicitly authorized the ordination of women to the priesthood. The service was held at the predominately Black Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia, where Suzanne Hiatt served as deacon, and whose rector was civil rights advocate Paul Washington. Four years earlier the Church of the Advocate had hosted a Black Panther Convention. Of the original 11 women ordained, 5 were lesbians, with 2 being openly gay at the time of their ordination and the others came out later.
Go woke, go broke.
People who GENUINELY seek religion and the truth are not looking for pandering.
They ultimately come to the conclusion that they are looking for some sort of orthodoxy (what Jesus would want in his time), consistency, and things that are based on clear Biblical teachings (not where you have to reinterpret the meaning of words, inject new material, or exclude parts of the Bible).
While these denominations get a temporary boost in positive coverage by the MSM, Hollywood, and politicians, they do not offer what people really wanting God in their life seek.
Those seeking God eventually see a church that is commercial in its approach to attract and keep members, jumping on every social fad: LGBTQIA, abortion, climate change, female pastors, immigration (The Episcopal church adopted all of them).
I did not know that 5 were openly L.
wow, so the rot was rapid right from the start.
By 2040 - the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church USA and the United Methodist Church will be functionally Extinct.
These groups are just going to get there first. A preview of coming attractions for all religions.
I thought the UMC was showing signs of a conservative push-back (and I thought the conservatives were winning)
But the ECUSA - you are i think 100% correct. since they are on average over 60, there could be a sudden precipitous fall when the congregants pass away
But, as i understand it, the ACNA is going strong - the conservative Anglicans. So there is hope!
But they're not ALL homosexuals and lesbians....
How will they continue to maintain all of those beautiful gothic buildings? I know I’m being superficial, but I’m an architecture nerd. I really think these structures are a part of the fabric of this nation.
How will they continue to maintain all of those beautiful gothic buildings? I know I’m being superficial, but I’m an architecture nerd. I really think these structures are a part of the fabric of this nation.
Most of those churches will eventually be converted into Mosques.
I don’t think you are being superficial.
I was recently in East Anglia and visited the gorgeous ~1000 year old cathedrals of Norwich, Ioswivh, Ely, Bury St Edmund’s, Peterborough, and Lincoln, and St.Botolphs in Boston (the original Boston).
The churches were still functional and maintained l they have suggested donations for visitors and charge for tours. If you want to pray they are free.
Then he should order, as Defender of the Faith, that Englishmen should consider converting back to Catholicism.
Then start deporting Moose Limbs because their country as a Catholic Monarchy can not have sharia law, etc.
It would catch on.
That country needs to be saved in more ways than one.
“Most of those churches will eventually be converted into Mosques.”
Which will make wonderful targets in the Great Muslim Purge.
... but they get to keep the real estate.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.