First the good news,
Thanks to God, we survived Hurricane Florence with only minimal leaks in our sturdy ark due to a poorly sealed porthole, and we are currently seeing minimal flooding of our shoreline due to rising river levels. Our elderly neighbors had a large tree come down right between two storage buildings, missing their house and car.
Thanks to God, we survived Hurricane Florence with only minimal leaks in our sturdy ark due to a poorly sealed porthole, and we are currently seeing minimal flooding of our shoreline due to rising river levels. Our elderly neighbors had a large tree come down right between two storage buildings, missing their house and car.
...the news is bad. The church is a movement, and the Episcopal Church is moving downward. The data from 2016 showed decline, but some optimists hoped the decline was slowing. This is not borne out by the data from 2017, when membership and attendance continued to drop at the same rate as in 2016 or, in some instances, at a sharper rate.
Year Membership ASA
2000 2,329,045 856,579
2005 2,205,376 787,271
2010 1,951,907 657,831
2015 1,779,335 579,780
2016 1,745,156 570,453
2017 1,712,563 556,744
There are always individual churches and dioceses that buck the trend, but the trend is clear. Baptized membership dropped in domestic dioceses by 19.1 percent in the decade up to 2017 and this continues, with a drop of 1.9 percent in 2016-17.They are getting blown away.
At this rate, Episcopalians will go the way of the Shakers by 2050.
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Good news on your hurricane survival! I am very tired from two days now of playing pick up sticks out in the yard, grateful that we had no real damage, and very sad for the people in east North Carolina dealing with their second devastating flood in three years.
ReplyDeleteI was one of those 2.3 million Episcopalians in 2000. Gone since late 2002 with no regrets other than sorrow at seeing a large previously Christian body go under so completely.