Anglicans were justifiably preoccupied earlier this month with the shock announcement by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby that he is to resign in the wake of the Makin Review that exposed a conspiracy of silence about the abuses of barrister John Smyth.
Annual release of data from the Episcopal Church’s 2023 parochial reports has mostly been overlooked (it was dropped at 6:30 p.m. on the Friday before the Veterans Day holiday weekend) but there is a trove of numbers worth examining. As I noted on the evening of the statistical release, U.S. membership continues its uninterrupted decline, down 2.6 percent, while attendance across the same period saw a 10.69 percent rebound from post-pandemic lows.
This is a respite from the calamitous declines of recent years, and the denomination’s data shows that only 35 parishes and missions were shuttered (down from 6,789 in 2022 to 6,754 in 2023).
That said, these numbers should be considered in the context of the past decade. Here are numbers from the denomination’s Table of Statistics (note that these are for the entire denomination, not just U.S.-based dioceses, so the membership and attendance percentages vary slightly from above):
Membership
2013: 2,009,084
2022: 1,584,785
2023: 1,547,779 (-37,006 or 2.3% since 2022, -461,305 or -23% since 2013)
Attendance
2013: 657,102
2022: 372,952
2023: 410,912 (+37,960 or 10% since 2022, -246,190 or -37% since 2013)
Baptisms (Children)
2013: 28,509
2022: 15,272
2023: 16,924 (+1,652 or 10.8% since 2022, -11,585 or -41% since 2013)
Baptisms (Adult)
2013: 4,484
2022: 2,147
2023: 3,323 (+1,176 or 55% since 2022, -1,161 or -26% since 2013)
Receptions
2013: 6,970
2022: 4,106
2023: 7,567 (+3,461 or 84% since 2022, +597 or +8.7% since 2013)
Marriages
2013: 10,394
2022: 5,562
2023: 4,886 (-676 or 12% since 2022, -5,508 or -53% since 2013)
Burials:
2013: 29,605
2022: 25,905
2023: 24,878 (-1,027 or 4% since 2022, -4,727 or -16% since 2013)
Open Parishes & Missions
2013: 7,115
2022: 6,789
2023: 6,754 (-35 or half a percent since 2022, -361 or -5.1% since 2013)
The two items I’ll highlight are marriages and receptions: the former shows no rebound at all post-COVID (unlike baptisms, which are at least up from the prior year) and the latter is the only tracked metric showing growth across the past decade (unless we fail to adjust plate-and-pledge numbers for the rate of inflation). There does appear to be a modest but sustained pipeline of people being received into the Episcopal Church. Additionally, note that the number of people buried in Episcopal Church funerals has consistently declined. There is not a great “die-off” accompanying the membership slide, people are walking out the door alive.
(Readers may access the 2013 Table of Statistics here. 2022 is viewable here and the latest 2023 statistics are viewable here.)
Membership loss from 2022-2023 has widely varied: a handful of dioceses (mostly overseas jurisdictions like Haiti, Cuba, Taiwan, and the Dominican Republic) reported a gain in the number of members, while most in the United States continued to decline.
Among the worst are Eastern Michigan (-11.6% in 2023, or -46.1% since 2014) merged this year with Western Michigan (-1.9% in 2023, or -33.4% since 2014) into the new Diocese of the Great Lakes.
The Diocese of Eau Claire (-5.4% in 2023, or -50.4% since 2014) merged this year with Fond du Lac (-3.2% in 2023, or -37.7% since 2014) and Milwaukee (-2.7% in 2023, or -32.2% since 2014) into the new Diocese of Wisconsin.
Midwestern dioceses in general seemed to struggle more than most others, with neighboring Iowa posting a 10.9% decline in 2023 and down 43.6% since 2014.
The Dioceses of Vermont (-10.9% in 2023, or -38.2% since 2014), Maine (-1.6% in 2023, or -29.4% since 2014), and New Hampshire (-11.9% in 2023, or -29.5% since 2014) have begun collaborating with one another to share resources and hold joint conferences, a move that may lead to a future merger. Vermont, especially, is down to 4,045 members and has struggled with finances and a contentious episcopacy in recent years.
Readers may access Episcopal Church Baptized Members by Province and Diocese 2014-2023 here.
More from IRD:
Episcopal Membership Drips as Attendance Rebounds
Episcopal Withering on the Vine
ACNA’s Attendance & Membership Rebound
Comment by Nick Thomas on November 25, 2024 at 10:20 am
Two big observations:
1) So the LGBTQ+ community isn’t fooding Episcopal churches to get married? Strictly from the perspective of membership and plate-and-pledge, the theological left that pushed gay marriage in the early part of the 20th century cost the Episcopal Church an immense number of members and a lot of money for an experiment that has largely failed. Had the schism not happened, I doubt we’d see the decline we’re seeing.
2) The Michigan and Wisconsin numbers are shocking. Let’s not forget the dioceses here cover areas that are dominated by a mostly white population with farming, working-class, or lower-middle-class occupations. Statistically, it’s also a very aging part of the country with a lot of retirees — the kind who won’t or can’t relocate to Florida. The progressive TEC has nothing to offer them. With the exception of maybe the ex-Fond du Lac diocese, the dioceses here aren’t even moderate. The money from gilded age patrons has long run out. Those with money are either post-church gentry liberals or they’re highly concentrated and all attend the same dozen or so churches. Most of the churches in the ex-diocese of Eastern Michigan can’t even afford a seminary-trained clergyman. Of the moderates or conservatives left behind by TEC, those who are still alive have probably went to a Methodist or Lutheran church or gone to Rome.
Comment by JoeR on November 29, 2024 at 5:51 pm
Protecting the Brand over protecting the parishioners is abysmal.
The Alphabet soup folks aren’t flocking to church services. Their agenda is destruction.