Alarm Bells as Episcopal Church Decline Accelerates

Comment by Edward Martin on October 6, 2021 at 6:12 pm

This is a sad story. In shrinking, this denomination is not evangelizing whatsoever. The Great Commission is being ignored.

Comment by Star Tripper on October 6, 2021 at 9:51 pm

I am not surprised by this at all. The times call for actual Christian Churches and not the Worldly Churches.

Comment by David on October 7, 2021 at 6:33 am

Much of church decline can be explained by demographics. According to the Pew Research people, 65% of Episcopalians are Boomers are older. If my high school class of early Boomers is any indication, a quarter of this generation is now deceased. The church in question is 90% White and the birthrate among that group has been below replacement level for some time. People like to look at membership declines in disfavored denominations as justification of their political positions, but that tends to be merely schadenfreude.

https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/religious-denomination/episcopal-church/

Comment by David S. on October 7, 2021 at 9:03 am

David, over the summer the PC(USA) trumpeted that membership among the mainline Christian demographic now exceeded that of evangelicals, citing the study from this summer, which interestingly enough broke it down by race and only segregated whites by brand of Protestantism and not other races. (Oh the irony given the mainline church’s focus on race.) Of course, as detailed on this page and elsewhere, there were problems with the study. All one needed to do is look at the membership levels reported by the denominations themselves and realize that something fishy was going on, especially when on considers that the largest evangelical denomination, the SBC dwarfs, all others and the UMC is undergoing a split. But that did not stop Mr. J. Herbert Nelson and gang from being braggadocios about it.

Of course, when next year’s PC(USA) analysis is performed, I will be among those who are among the one less member crowd as those heretics have made it clear that individuals can deny essential doctrines and it falls within the scope of diversity of thought of the Westminster standards, in direct contravention of the clear and plain wording of the Westminster standards.

Comment by Loren J Golden on October 7, 2021 at 11:48 am

“Parts of the Episcopal Church ceased services altogether – streaming or otherwise – with parishioners directed to either a diocesan-wide virtual service or to the Washington National Cathedral.”
 
“A handful of bright spots were the Diocese of Easton (Maryland’s Eastern Shore) with a 17.2% increase in attendance.”
 
Out of curiosity, does the Easton Diocese include any nationally-known churches (similar to the National Cathedral, which is in the Washington Diocese), to which parish rectors are directing their respective flocks?  Or have Easton parishes been bucking the national denominational trend by staying open during the pandemic?

Comment by Loren J Golden on October 7, 2021 at 12:34 pm

David S,
 
Why should this surprise you?  The Westminster Confession and Catechisms have not been regarded by the PC(USA) or its predecessors as “standards” for a long time.  Back before the adoption of the Book of Confessions in 1967, both the UPCUSA and the PCUS required their officers to “sincerely receive and adopt the Confession of Faith and the Catechisms of this Church, as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures,” and promise to report if they could no longer do that in good faith.  But in truth, most ordained ministers did not adopt the Confession and Catechisms in this manner and were unwilling to confess this before their presbyteries.  To to keep from living a lie, the UPCUSA drafted a new confession (called the Confession of 1967), which explicitly contradicted the Westminster Confession on the nature and authority of Scripture, and put them together (omitting the Larger Catechism, which was only added during the 1983 union with the PCUS) with the Apostles and Nicene Creeds, the Barmen Declaration, and three confessions from the Reformation era as a Book of Confessions, and then replaced the aforementioned vow with a much diluted oath, asking, “Do you sincerely receive and adopt the essential tenets of the Reformed faith as expressed in the confessions of our church as authentic and reliable expositions of what Scripture leads us to believe and do, and will you be instructed and led by those confessions as you lead the people of God?”  Yet the UPCUSA and the PC(USA) have been extremely loath to identify any theological doctrine as an “essential tenet” to which they would be required to believe and teach, much less any confessional standard as “containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures.”
 
Further, theological liberals have enjoyed complete control over the denomination’s bureaucratic offices and theological institutions since the 1920s and have been in a position to staff every committee and task force with a majority that would best represent their interests, even if they have not always been able to garner a majority of votes on the floor of the General Assembly and/or a majority of presbyteries to ratify any votes they do push through.  Consequently, even the most controversial reports voted on by the GA, even if they were defeated or included no directives to enact, were received as “resource documents,” from which the denomination’s bureaucratic staff members selected those parts that advanced their non-Biblical causes to advocate and advise, while ignoring those parts with which they disagreed.  This is why Presbyterian Evangelicals, despite concerted efforts from the 1970s through the early 2000s have been unable to implement any meaningful, lasting reform: The inherent bureaucratic structures in the PC(USA) and its predecessors overwhelmingly favor both the policies of those in power, and keeping in power those who already hold the offices and their likeminded successors.  It has been like this for decades, and there is no evidence whatsoever that it will change, before the PC(USA) ultimately self-destructs.

Comment by Steve on October 7, 2021 at 12:57 pm

David makes the same argument every time, and every time it is a gross misrepresention.
He’s comparing apples to oranges, fleas to elephants.
2020 is the first time there has been a decline in the white population.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/12/us-2020-census-white-population-declines.
There is no correlation, must less causation, between declines in the white population and church membership and/or attendance.
Besides which, his argument seems racist to me. Truth should attract all races.

Comment by c on October 7, 2021 at 1:39 pm

Loren,

The Diocese of Easton consists of the 9 counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, the part of Maryland on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay. Easton (where Trinity Cathedral, the bishop’s seat, is located), Salisbury, and Ocean City are the largest cities, otherwise it’s largely rural. There are currently 40 churches in the diocese. The stats show a membership decline from 7836 in 2019 to 7403 in 2020, a drop of 433 people and decrease of 5.5%, but attendance went up from 2258 to 2647, or 389 people, which is the 17.2% increase.

Of course, as Jeffrey mentioned the 2020 attendance figures were calculated for January 1-March 1.

As for the rest of 2020 and into the first part of this year, the diocese allowed inside-the-building worship off and on based on what the state allowed. Because of its largely rural nature, large chunks of the MD Eastern Shore were often under less restrictions than other areas of the state depending on how Maryland officials were designating the severity of Covid for those areas (Ocean City, though, often was under more restrictions than the rest of the Eastern Shore). Less restrictions = go ahead and open, more restrictions = closed.

But also like other denominations congregations were encouraged to do things like virtual, parking lot, and drive-in when the buildings were closed. The bishop let individual churches decide how they wanted to worship when inside-the-building worship was permitted.

Hope this helps.

Comment by David on October 7, 2021 at 2:31 pm

Steve:

The article you cite simply mentions the total White population and not its age breakdown. An elderly White population will eventually lead to a decline of the total for obvious reasons. There is a lack of replacement population—something found in many denominations where the sunday school building is leased out to a daycare center.

Comment by David on October 7, 2021 at 3:57 pm

You might add this link to my previous comment.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/05/12/charted-the-religions-that-make-the-most-babies/

Comment by Steve on October 7, 2021 at 6:06 pm

David:
I have looked at the Washinton Post article.
It says 2.3 for Mainstream Protestants.
I believe that is an adequate replacement level?
You have never provided a stat for the reduction in population that corresponds to the matches the reduction in the church.
Basically, the known figures show the white population in gradual decline , going nowhere soon, whereas the Episcopal Church is in a nosedive and expected to cease to exist in a couple decades.
Your assertions and offered proof are nonsense and always have been.

Comment by Steve on October 7, 2021 at 6:12 pm

Sorry, I do see that for mainline protestants, its 1.9.
That’s still not a low enough decline so that it matches with the catastrophic Episcopal Church losses.

Comment by Steve on October 7, 2021 at 6:16 pm

And, as you like to assert that all churches are in decline regardless of how woke they may be, the superior replacement numbers of the evangelical protestants certainly seem to cut against that, don’t they.

Comment by Steve on October 7, 2021 at 6:25 pm

And as for lack of a next generation staying on: whose fault is that except for the clergy, who promised they could save the church by abandoning orthodoxy. That hasn’t worked out very well, has it? I see the Episcopal Church as an early test case of get woke, go broke. It shouldn’t be a surprise that when a church continually berates its members as being inherently racist or homophobic and not deserving of keeping what they earned through talent and hard work, and the church engages in property disputes and litigation, members might not be inclined to subject themselves to further.

Comment by Steve on October 7, 2021 at 6:52 pm

If Episcopalians are not reproducing enough, this excerpt from an interview with Bishop Schori might suggest how abandoning orthodoxy may have helped create that result:

“Aren’t Episcopalians interested in replenishing their ranks by having children?”

Bishop Schori: “No. It’s probably the opposite. We encourage people to pay attention to the stewardship of the earth and not use more than their portion.”

And to a certain extent, she had a point: it would seem to be much better to have people who are legitimately drawn to the denomination rather than being born into it. Unfortunately they don’t seem to be getting much of either these days.

Comment by Steve on October 7, 2021 at 7:39 pm

Here’s some of what an official Episcopalian publication had to say on the subject of low numbers of young people:
“Episcopal Church members are older on average than the American public. The
differences are greatest among the oldest and youngest age categories. Proportionately, we have many more persons age 65 or older and many fewer children, youth and young adults than the general population. This is due, in part, to the cumulative effects of a low birth rate following the baby boom era among a highly educated, predominantly white
constituency. But the Episcopal Church has also failed to retain many of the children of its members over the years.”
Further:
“If larger proportions of older adults lead to growth problems, larger proportions of
younger adults lead to growth opportunities. The congregation that is able to attract
younger adults is somewhat exceptional. To be sure, such churches are most often found
in the newer suburbs and are thus able to reach that increasingly elusive commodity in
American society: married couples with children in the home. Yet the fact that such
congregations are also able to reach younger adults in general—people who are less
frequent attendees—implies that they have qualities that go beyond an advantageous
location. They tend to be more exciting, innovative and are more involved in
recruitment. They want to reach people and make the effort to do so.”
https://www.episcopalchurch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/02/new_facts_on_growth_2014_final.pdf

Comment by Steve on October 7, 2021 at 8:58 pm

Also from that report:
“The Episcopal Church was something of a mainline anomaly from the early 1990s through 2001 when consistent growth in average Sunday worship attendance was recorded.”
Runs contrary to your allegations of unbroken cumulative decline based on low birthrates. Note that the end of growth corresponds to about the time Bishop Robinson was ordained, occasioning considerable conflict within the church. The report goes on to note how conflict is a prime source of decline.

Comment by Cornfed on October 8, 2021 at 9:46 pm

No surprise, there. If your church only reflects worldly values, then why does one need church at all?

Comment by Jeffrey Lewis on October 9, 2021 at 7:20 am

This is sad not surprising at all. I’ve been an Episcopalian all my life and have been ordained for 16 years. It used to be the case that at church we’d sing and pray and be on our knees with other Christians who probably cancelled each other’s votes. Now the Church has made anyone who is traditionally Christian or culturally careful made to feel unwelcome – or worse – all in the name of inclusion. But the Episcopal Church has become one of the least welcoming and delusional places I know, all with a patina of tradition and righteousness. There are forces that make life challenging for churches these days for sure, but the Episcopal Church had largely driven itself into oblivion. Look to the churches that are growing. There are many.

Comment by Mike on October 9, 2021 at 8:52 am

In all of the comments, no one has referenced the fact that part of the decline was caused by many churches, and some whole dioceses, leaving as a result of the promotion of gay marriage and all other forms of sexual deviancy being pushed upon churches and dioceses that would not accept them. Some of the largest churches, and many that were experiencing growth in their congregations, departed for this reason.

Falls Church Anglican is one good example. Despite losing their building after a long and expensive court fight, today they not only have another bigger property, with more members and attendees than before they left, but have started ten other churches. Losing good churches like this doesn’t forebode well for the Episcopal Church as a whole. Remember, liberals don’t start churches. They move in on those already existing, and then start to take them down hill.

Comment by Bob on October 9, 2021 at 12:00 pm

Concerning Katherine Schori and Episcopalian reproduction. She also astonishingly said more educated people have fewer children, an example of her condescending attitude toward just about everyone. Her mother (who I knew) and father were both PhD scientists. They had 4 children . Honor father and mother was not her strong suit though I recall her mother was proud of her accomplishment as an oceanographer. And horrified by women priests.

Comment by Loren J Golden on October 9, 2021 at 12:23 pm

Mike,
 
The discussion of membership losses was limited to those that occurred in 2020.  By this late date, those churches that were going to leave because of the degraded sexual morality in the denomination will have already done so.  Those churches remaining in the Episcopal Church by 2020 will be limited to those that either have made peace with the sexual immorality of the age, or are in no position to depart as a congregation, either by suing their way out of a draconian and vindictive denomination, with little hope of winning the battle in secular court, or by leaving their property behind for said denomination to dispose of at its pleasure and starting anew elsewhere—both of which would be costly ventures.  There might still be those who have finally decided to just leave their churches, individually or in families, but again, those will be small numbers.
 
The fact is, the mainline churches have severely compromised their theology to the world over the past century and a half, and they cannot offer the Gospel of Jesus Christ to anyone, for they have forsaken it.  The only things the Episcopal Church truly has had to offer in the last several decades are the trappings of High Church Christianity without any of the doctrines that make Christianity unpalatable to the unbelieving world (e.g., an infallible and inerrant Bible, an exclusive Savior, a penal substitutionary Atonement, and a restrictive sexual ethic).  But without the a High Church Liturgy and the celebration of the Lord’s Supper in the context of an in-person worship service, the voyeuristic “participation” in the same thing online is but a pale imitation, with no staying power to keep unbelievers who might have otherwise enjoyed Christian community in a context like an Episcopal congregation from leaving the Church altogether.

Comment by Search4Truth on October 9, 2021 at 7:55 pm

Why do you people even try to discuss these ideas with David? He has no interest in discussion, only arguments and insults.

Comment by Jeff Allen on October 10, 2021 at 10:07 am

We ? I all filter information through our biases and life experience.

David always gives a different perspective to the story.
I enjoy his different takes on the subjects at hand.

Pentecostals are doing well because they are appealing to a rapidly growing demographic (Spanish) I now live in Denver and there are many nice buildings of mainlines that have been purchased by Spanish Pentecostals. The Oneness Pentecostals are going gangbusters. I live close to one and it is young, growing and all Spanish. Our part of town is mostly old white people (Me) and young Spanish families.
The only children on my street are Hispanic

The mainlines historically are white middle or upper class. That demo is aging and declining. Of course liberalism plays a part of the church decline but it certainly is not all of it.

Comment by DAKOTAH on October 10, 2021 at 2:36 pm

Luke 21:24 says toward the end of the verse ” until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” Sure there is some revival in Africa and some other areas of the world, but true repentance and people becoming born again believers is slowing down in this country and I sense it is because of the anticipation of the Rapture. The mainline churches are the Laodicean Church of this age. They must repent and turn to Christ. In Revelation 3:16 Jesus says, “So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” In Revelation 3:17–18, He further says, “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” (KJV).
So many things are converging in our life time. The end is near. Luke 21:28 says
“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
Even so. Come Lord Jesus.

Comment by Steve on October 10, 2021 at 4:51 pm

I’ve been Googling how birth rates are calculated, and came across this page: https://www.azcalculator.com/calc/crude-birth-rate.php
If I understand correctly, birth rate is basically the number of births per 1000 people.
It can get more complicated than this if trying to get things more precise, but it seems unlikely that an outfit like Pew would make it complicated.
Going with the “crude” approach, it would appear that a 1.9 birth rate would be .2 below the replacement rate of 2.1, i.e., there would be .2 too few births out of a population of 1000. To get to 1 birth, multiply by five, you get 1 birth too few out of a population of 5000. 1/5000 expressed as a percentage would be .02% for the year. As may be seen from the article, Episcopalian membership declined by 4% last year. So, low birthrate would appear to explain only 1/200 of the decline in Episcopalian membership, assuming the 1.9 birthrate is correct. If we suspect that Episcopalians’ birthrates are below 1.9, picking a lower number still isn’t going to get us anywhere near to the 4% decline for the year, assuming the birthrate doesn’t go way into negative (below zero) territory (that would be possible if deaths exceeded births by more than 2.1 per thousand).

Comment by Steve on October 11, 2021 at 3:32 pm

It occurs to me that replacement rate probably needs to be higher for a population comprised of Episcopalians, inasmuch as they skew much older than the general population. But we’d need to know what that replacement rate is in order to figure how much of Episcopal decline is due to deaths. A more direct, simple and accurate way of determining this would be to know the number of Episcopal deaths for a year, and divide by the number of members at the start of the membership period. Absent figures like that, its hard to say with any certainly how much decline is due to deaths.

Comment by Steve on October 12, 2021 at 7:58 am

Hopefully my last post on this topic. I seem to remember this webpage had a post some prior year that in fact indicated Episcopalian declines mostly are due to deaths. David was not wrong about that. What I think he is wrong about is the reasons for Episcopalians skewing so old. I do not think that can be explained by low birth rates during baby boomers’ child bearing years. In my vibrant growing church in the 1990s, there were plenty of children, both the nursery and Sunday school saw heavy use. The fertility numbers provided by David are current, not for prior decades, but even if they were, they wouldn’t explain catastrophic losses. The Episcopal Church has always had a problem with kids going off to college and not coming back. In my own case, church activities drew me back after college, and when I had kids, I also wanted them to be baptized and attend some church. I have to concede that if current 20 and 30 somethings are not having kids, a major reason prior generations would return to church after college is gone. I’ve never understood how the church thought it could promote non-procreative lifestyles and expect to have a future. Darwin award may be in order. The Shakers were pretty short sighted in that department too, but at least they have a legacy of nice furniture. The Episcopal Church also always had a problem with parents disappearing after their kids are grown. (When I say always, I mean during my lifetime: earlier generations presumably were more committed.)

Comment by mike geibel on November 19, 2021 at 7:41 pm

Comment by David: “People like to look at membership declines in disfavored denominations as justification of their political positions, but that tends to be merely schadenfreude.”

Maybe, but I left the EP because of its politics and now attend a church where we identify as Christians and leave our umbrellas, cell phones and politics at the door.

Comment by Ian on December 15, 2021 at 12:28 am

My home church in central Virginia has done well during the pandemic. Nevertheless, our numbers are down.

May I suggest that there is actually an opportunity here for the church? What else is changing in our world? Here are a few issues (you can probably think of more): climate change, inflation, ruptured supply chains, endless pandemic, a growing gap between rich and poor, failure in Afghanistan, resource depletion, vaccination squabbles, biosphere destruction, . . . Our world is hurting. People are worried, demoralized and often scared.

The church can enter this space. The church’s core message is constant; however, its expression always needs to be adjusted to fit the current situation.

I am a loyal church member, but I do wish that the message was more relevant to today’s issues and crises.

Comment by Tim D. on February 26, 2022 at 8:30 pm

David’s comments are interesting, but ultimately devoid of the much greater value he’d get by breaking it down further by political orientation and religion instead of just looking at the White population en masse..

Conservative, Christian Whites still have an above replacement birthrate. That the Episcopalian church is thus in such severe decline should tell you a lot more than it would by simply saying ‘White people are below replacement fertility rates’ when really that’s only true if you look at atheists and liberals. Hmmmm, it’s almost as if… no, I won’t say it. I’m sure you can all figure out the correlation for yourselves.

Comment by Barbara Haring on August 18, 2022 at 7:00 pm

I don’t think they mean the word “equality” what they want is “equity”. The two aren’t even close in meaning and therefore not interchangeable. Wokeness is about equity and has no thought given to equality at all. Equality means we all have the right to pursue life, liberty and happiness as works best for us with varying outcomes. Equity means no matter what we do we must all have equal outcomes. Everyone gets a trophy or no one gets trophy.

I come from a long line of Episcopalians. My great grandfather was an Episcopal priest. My grandchildren are sixth generation Episcopalians, but we’re hanging on by a thread. My husband, a convert from Methodist, said he thought we were okay because of our religion being liturgical. But the past month I have seen that the sermons are going to be used to push the Woke agenda. For three weeks we had to endure why we need to be more open to the needs of LGBTQ, etc., persons. One week was about the need for us personally to be more inclusive, the next was about the church needing to be more inclusive, the following week was about a parishioner feeling his “trans” child was welcome in the church but they were moving from Texas to Colorado because Texas wasn’t welcoming enough. Last Sunday it was about “restorative justice”. Which as the priest went on with his sermon looked more like he was talking about “forgiveness” but we can’t say that anymore, I guess.

Our son and his family belong to the same church and we love going to church and spending most of Sunday together. But our daughter-in-law was not brought up in any church but she is truly a good Christian. I was sure glad they were on vacation last Sunday because if she heard that sermon she would once again, as they did during COVID, try to find another spiritual home. I know I’m struggling with it and I have a legacy. I fear that one of the upcoming weeks the sermon will be on “white privilege”. We are mostly a white congregation but we have some Blacks and some Hispanic. We usually don’t think about it that way, but diversity is not meant to do other than divide us and that type of sermon would sure do it.