Episcopal Press and News
Executive Council reviews mainline mission, membership trends
Episcopal News Service. October 29, 2007 [102907-03]
From Staff Reports
Latino and Asian populations are among the fastest-growing in North America, and should become greater priorities for Episcopal Church evangelism, members of Executive Council said October 27 while reviewing church membership and attendance statistics for the year 2006.
Overall U.S. Latino/Hispanic population is projected to grow by 34%, and Asian by 33%, in the decade 2000-2010, compared with 13% Black, 7% White, and 3% White, non-Hispanic, according to statistics presented by Kirk Hadaway, the Episcopal Church's director of research.
Multicultural mission is essential in these contexts, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told the Council, gathered in Dearborn, Michigan, for its regular fall meeting.
The seven Latin American and Caribbean dioceses of the Episcopal Church's Province 9 posted a 1,741-person gain in membership in 2006 for a 72,084 total, according to the aggregated Parochial Report data reported by Hadaway.
Four overseas dioceses -- Colombia, Dominican Republic, Micronesia, and Puerto Rico -- posted growth in membership and average Sunday attendance in 2006, Hadaway said. Domestic dioceses posting similar gains for 2006 numbered 11: Alaska, Central Pennsylvania, Eastern Oregon, Eau Claire, Kansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Upper South Carolina. The Navajoland Area Mission also reported growth.
Other upturns for Episcopalians included a 2.5% increase in plate and pledge offerings churchwide to more than $1.3 billion in 2006 in domestic dioceses, with the average parishioner's pledge increasing to $2,088 from $1,979. The value of total investments of all domestic congregations also climbed to nearly $4.2 billion in 2006, up from more than $3.9 billion in 2005.
Council members discussed the reality that all mainline denominations nationwide are experiencing a multi-year overall downturn in Sunday-morning attendance -- owing in part to declining birth rates, aging membership, and weekend work and scheduling patterns, statistics confirm.
Through its Congregations in Ministry Committee, Executive Council will begin a process of "scenario planning," a system practiced in corporate business, that will provide a "realistic, hopeful and faithful" approach to dealing with the majority of Episcopal parishes' expressed desire to grow, the Rev. Dr. James Lemler, the Episcopal Church's director of mission, told the Council.
The Episcopal Church's Standing Commission on Domestic Mission and Evangelism has also taken up activities of scenario planning, finding them a source of "problem solving" and encouragement, the Rev. Charles Fulton, the Episcopal Church's director of congregational development, added during the Council session.
Vitality of Episcopal congregations can be measured in ways other than Sunday morning attendance or membership patterns, Council members acknowledged, noting that parish day schools, outreach programs, and soup kitchens -- like diocesan hospitals and residential facilities -- also serve populations largely unmeasured and unreported at this time. Surveys of these activities could be implemented to provide a more holistic view of overall mission and ministry, Council members said.
Measures are underway to reverse a portion of the largest decline in any of the Episcopal Church's nine Provinces reported in 2006 -- Province 3's 15,554-member drop owing primarily to the Diocese of Virginia's declaration of some 15 congregations "vacant" after a majority of members voted to affiliate with overseas dioceses. [Profiles of Vitality are available here.]
Yet continuing members of four of these congregations have remained, according to a report presented to Council, and are in the process of reconstituting their parishes -- which may result in future posting of at least some membership gains to offset 2006 losses.
According to the churchwide Parochial Report data, membership in all 110 dioceses of the Episcopal Church totaled 2,320,506 in 2006, down 2.2%, or 51,502, from 2,372,008 in 2005. Average Sunday attendance for 2006 was reported at 804,688, down 2.6%, or 21,856, from 826,544 in 2005. Data is posted online here and here.
The Presbyterian Church and the Episcopal Church have comparable annual statistics, with Presbyterians numbering 46,544 fewer in 2006 than 2005, according to the website of the Presbyterian Church USA. Overall Presbyterian Church membership in 2006 was reported at 2,267,118.
All of the Episcopal Church's 110 dioceses reported in 2006, "for the first time in probably 25 years," Hadaway said. The rate of compliance of congregations within those dioceses "was quite good," he added -- with 93.7% for domestic congregations and nearly 91.1% non-domestic.
The Episcopal Church has for three years provided Lectionary-based study guides encouraging wider parish hospitality and evangelism. Titled "Groundwork," that series remains online and may be adapted for use in the Lectionary Year A cycle of Lent 2008, Lemler said.