New Numbers Detail Uneven Episcopal Decline

on December 4, 2015

The Episcopal Church continued its membership and attendance decline in 2014, but dioceses and provinces (regions) of the U.S.-based church varied widely in their rate of decline, with some treading water while others posted sharp declines.

New statistical summaries and trend reports released today by the denomination’s Office for Research supplement raw statistics released back in early October, which can be viewed here. More than two months following the release of updated statistics, the Episcopal News Service still has not provided coverage of the denomination’s changes in the most recent reporting year.

As IRD reported in October, the church’s domestic U.S. membership dropped -2.7 percent from a reported 1,866,758 members in 2013 to 1,817,004 in 2014, a loss of 49,794 persons. Attendance took an even steeper hit, with the average number of Sunday worshipers dropping from 623,691 in 2013 to 600,411 in 2014, a decline of 23,280 persons in the pews, down -3.7 percent.

The new trend summaries reveal that 53 percent of Episcopal congregations report a 10 percent or greater decline in attendance over the past five years, while only 18 percent show 10 percent or greater attendance growth during the same time period. Seventy percent of Episcopal congregations have fewer than 100 attendees, with the denominational median congregation down to 60 attendees. The denomination reports a 25 percent decline in attendees and a 19 percent decline in membership during the past 10 years. Only 4 percent of Episcopal congregations report an average attendance of greater than 300 persons.

The decreasing numbers have had an effect upon the ability of smaller congregations to employ full-time clergy. In a first, a plurality of Episcopal congregations in 2014 (34.5%) have only a part-time or unpaid priest, outnumbering those with a lone full-time priest.

Among the church’s regions, Province IV (Southeast, membership -5%, attendance -7.1%) and Province IX (Caribbean/Central America, membership -9%, attendance -5.7%) took the steepest hits, while Province VII (South Central) reported modest membership and attendance losses below 1%. Collectively, non-domestic dioceses posted a modest attendance growth (uniquely in the entire Episcopal Church) although their membership numbers were weighed down by the Diocese of Honduras dropping -19.2%, the second year in a row that the Latin American diocese has dramatically revised its numbers.

Specific dioceses posting sharp losses are concentrated primarily in the Northeast, Rustbelt and rural areas including Connecticut (membership -3.6%, attendance -5%), Massachusetts (membership -4%, attendance -3.7%), Central New York (membership -3.6%, attendance -5.2%), Long Island (membership -5.1%, attendance -3.3%), Western New York (membership -6.6%, attendance -4.5%), Northwest Pennsylvania (membership -4%, attendance -7.2%), Kentucky (membership -5.6%, attendance -5%), Chicago (membership -3.7%, attendance -6.8%), Eastern Michigan (membership -4.6%, attendance -6.4%), Milwaukee (membership -4.8%, attendance -3.5%) and Northern Indiana (membership -5.6%, attendance -4.9%).

Rural dioceses have dwindled to the point where their long-term viability is in question. The tiny Diocese of Northern Michigan (membership -7.4%, attendance -3.2%), Western Kansas (membership -4.8%, attendance -7.8%) and Eastern Oregon (membership -7.8 percent, attendance -2.6%) all report fewer than 2,000 members and 1,000 weekly attendees. The continuing Diocese of Fort Worth, which saw 80% of its members depart for the Anglican Church in North America in 2008, reported membership -3.6% and attendance -3.8%, contrary to claims made at the denomination’s General Convention that the remaining Episcopalians stabilized and were growing.

Some urban dioceses in areas not experiencing economic distress or outward migration also reported sharp losses including Olympia (Western Washington State — membership -3.6%, attendance -5.1%), and California (San Francisco Bay Area – membership -4%, attendance -5.3%).

Dioceses posting both membership and attendance growth include Dallas (membership +1.6%, attendance +2.2%) and Arizona (membership +2.2%, attendance +0.1%), both diocese that have engaged in new church planting activity, something that has largely ceased elsewhere in the denomination. The Diocese of New Hampshire (membership +3.3%, attendance +22.7%) also posted surprising growth under its new bishop following a decade under the leadership of Bishop Gene Robinson in which the diocesan membership declined 19 percent. The Diocese of Nevada (membership +3.1, attendance +2.1), Southwestern Virginia (membership +0.2, attendance +0.1), San Joaquin (membership +2.3, attendance + 1.2%) and Southeastern Florida (membership +2.2%, attendance +0.3%) also reported growth.

The new documents provided by the Office for Research can be located here:

EPISCOPAL DOMESTIC FAST FACTS: 2014

Statistical Totals for the Episcopal Church by Province and Diocese: 2013-2014

Parochial Report Membership and Attendance Totals for the Episcopal Church: 2014

Statistical Totals for the Episcopal Church by Province: 2013-2014

EPISCOPAL DOMESTIC FAST FACTS TRENDS: 2010-2014

UPDATE: The significant attendance jump in the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire is due to the inclusion of students attending compulsory weekday chapel services at two Episcopal prep schools. 2014 is the first reporting year in which these institutions began reporting attendance to the diocese. More here.

  1. Comment by JeffreyRo55 on December 4, 2015 at 4:58 pm

    Why worry about a trivial matter like membership loss when the really important issues like carbon footprints and the hurt feelings of men who want to use women’s restrooms are at crisis level?

  2. Comment by Gregg on December 5, 2015 at 3:31 pm

    Don’t forget the sudden and inexplicable uptick in “Islamophobia”

  3. Comment by BarryObama2014 on December 5, 2015 at 7:26 am

    What a sad joke the Episcopalian Church has become, never let liberals take over your church! Let this be a cautionary tale.

  4. Comment by RobinHMasters on December 5, 2015 at 12:36 pm

    The continuing Diocese of Fort Worth, which saw 80% of its members depart for the Anglican Church in North America in 2008,

    Not quite the right phrase. 20% of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth departed for the Episcopal Church.

  5. Comment by Jeff Walton on December 7, 2015 at 3:26 pm

    That’s a good point. The diocese severed its relationship with the national church, so arguably the Episcopal-affiliated remnant is, in effect, a new diocese. Of course, both sides have divergent perspectives on this.

  6. Comment by Jacob Pierce on September 12, 2016 at 1:07 am

    Except there is no mechanism for a diocese to leave the church, nor has there ever been. Even during the Civil War the southern dioceses were called and ruled absent at General Convention. Still waiting on your report for ACNA numbers, Jeff. Still waiting on ACNA’s full statistics too…

  7. Comment by Jeff Walton on September 12, 2016 at 4:11 pm

    Here, here! You are completely correct to ask for detailed ACNA statistics, and I’d like to see them, too. ACNA provides a single top-line attendance and membership figure, without the ability to delve down into individual parish or diocesan statistics. I have some of my own theories about why we don’t have publicly accessible detailed data from ACNA (hint: ACNA is growing, but not all parts of it are). http://www.anglican.ink/article/acna-grows-13-2013

  8. Comment by T_Ford on December 6, 2015 at 2:30 pm

    Other than New Hampshire, most of the dioceses posting gains are retirement destinations. So the likely answer is due to transfers rather that converts.

  9. Comment by Fidei Defensor on December 6, 2015 at 3:44 pm

    They removed Jesus Christ from the cornerstone of their church to try to replace it with the wood, hay, and stubble of a worldly political agenda. It hasn’t worked, and the decline of this denomination will continue.

  10. Comment by Namyriah on December 6, 2015 at 10:25 pm

    We watched the Mel Brooks movie The Twelve Chairs recently. There is a priest (played by Dom Deluise) who is discovered to be a Communist mole. One of the characters asks him, how could he be a priest and be in league with the atheists? He replies, “The church must change with the times.”

  11. Comment by Xerxesfire on December 6, 2015 at 11:23 pm

    Sadly, there are clergy in some churches who truly have departed from orthodox Christian beliefs and others still who are agnostic or atheist. Now that movie has become all too real. Just as the Bible says, “a man reaps what he sows”, the same is true of the churches who embrace liberalism.

  12. Comment by AltWolf on December 7, 2015 at 2:39 am

    I’m not sure why all believing Episcopalians don’t become Catholic?

  13. Comment by accelerator on December 11, 2015 at 10:36 pm

    Pope Francis might be one current reason.

  14. Comment by Donkey Hotay on August 1, 2016 at 11:40 pm

    Seriously? I like having women and gay priests. I like knowing that my church truly regards all as equals in the Body of Christ. Also, the music. The Roman Catholic music is awful, who knows what they were smoking when they tossed Bach and Haydn out the (Roman arched) window for the tuneless pap they “sing” now.

  15. Comment by Jennifer P on December 7, 2015 at 9:55 am

    Populations in rural areas are in decline everywhere. So it’s not surprising that parishes there are dwindling.

    But most everywhere else the losses are directly related to the faithfulness of the parish to the Gospel and Biblical morality. If there is a rainbow flag in the parish and the theology is from the political Left, chances are it’s pretty empty. But if you’re in the deep South where you can still find Episcopalians who embrace and preach the Gospel and expect Christians to actually live a moral life then they are holding their own and even growing a little.

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