[sionnsar]

It took some hunting to find the reference at titusonenine, but here it is. --sionnsar

Q&A: Context, analysis offered on church membership statistics

Read it all.

Here is an email from a blog reader about the article:

Below is a link to a Nov 29 ENS Q&A discussing why attendance and membership is falling in the Episcopal Church that might make a good post to TitusOneNine. Very interesting reading. Apparently the problem (according to 815) is that wealthy, educated people are not having enough children.

The given link goes to a longish interview published by the Episcopal News Service. There's some humor to be mined from it, but it's too long to repost here. --sionnsar

[sionnsar]

Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.

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[PAR35]

Here are the numbers from the story:

36,000-person decline in membership

a decline of almost 24,000 in average Sunday worship attendance.

In 2002 the decline was only 8,000

From the denominational web site:
There are 2,320,221 baptized members.

(For comparative purposes, about 3.5 million in the early 1960s)

[r9etb]

These guys are delusional.

[good_fight]

And how many of those reported members are active? My former ECUSA church had around 450 families registered as "members", but only around 120 families were active -- i.e., attending services at least twice a month. Only 145 families pledged any sort of financial support to the church.

It was a bit of a joke. For example, at Easter, most of the "regulars" attend the Saturday Easter Vigil service and leave the Sunday morning services to the "casuals". The church is packed to the rafters with 300 strangers. About half return for Christmas. Makes for a good one-time haul of loose cash in the offering plate, but doesn't really reflect the ongoing life the church.

[Cookie123]

About the only way to get your name off most parish registers is to officially request a transfer of your letter to another Episcopal Church. If you just stop going altogether, or join another denomination, in all likelihood your name may well remain on the parish registry - oftentimes for decades. It can therefore be counted when the parish sends it's membership stats to the diocese.