The statistics reported by the Episcopal organization are further confirmation of what we have been witnessing and discussing on these pages for the past decade. Others are reporting on the 2018 data , so this is getting plenty of attention on the web. You can mine the data yourself at 815's official pages.The organization is in decline and will continue to do so as predicted by myself and by many. Like the small Church in Wales we reported on earlier, funerals outnumber baptisms in many dioceses, and at least one diocese reported zero baptisms in 2018.
Here in South Carolina, the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina has lost nearly 2000 Sunday worshipers over the past decade despite a marked growth in the population of the state. The losses are being felt most painfully in the smaller cities and towns. In my area, which is in one of the most rapidly growing regions of South Carolina in terms of overall population, the declines are seen in every parish, and there are a couple of parishes that reported an average Sunday attendance in the single digits in 2018, and one witness reports that zero cars were seen at one parish for the past 8 Sundays.
In the lower half of the state, cumulative statistics for the Episcopal Diocese in South Carolina (the remnant that did not leave with Bishop Lawrence and The Diocese of South Carolina) can not even be pulled up at 815's web site while individual parish stats are available. I wonder why?
The denomination is dying, but does anyone care?
Does the Devil care? I think he does. After all, part of his plan was to infiltrate the Church and to destroy it from within, planting the seeds of Biblical revisionism and a false gospel narrative, but in so doing, the parasite winds up killing its host and thus killing itself. A Church cannot survive because it cannot evangelize an interpretation of the Bible that very clearly contradicts God's inspired word. Yes, there are other denominations to feed upon, but at some point they will be gone too. No, the Devil needs to keep the Episcopal organization alive on its deathbed in the vain hope that the revisionist stench emanating from its rotting corpse will attract new converts to his cause, ensuring the continuation of Satan's fiendish plot to undermine the integrity of the Gospel.
Does God care that the denomination is dying?
I believe he does, but like the tree that produces no fruit, he knows that it must be cut down, and it is being cut down.
Here in South Carolina, the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina has lost nearly 2000 Sunday worshipers over the past decade despite a marked growth in the population of the state. The losses are being felt most painfully in the smaller cities and towns. In my area, which is in one of the most rapidly growing regions of South Carolina in terms of overall population, the declines are seen in every parish, and there are a couple of parishes that reported an average Sunday attendance in the single digits in 2018, and one witness reports that zero cars were seen at one parish for the past 8 Sundays.
In the lower half of the state, cumulative statistics for the Episcopal Diocese in South Carolina (the remnant that did not leave with Bishop Lawrence and The Diocese of South Carolina) can not even be pulled up at 815's web site while individual parish stats are available. I wonder why?
The denomination is dying, but does anyone care?
Does the Devil care? I think he does. After all, part of his plan was to infiltrate the Church and to destroy it from within, planting the seeds of Biblical revisionism and a false gospel narrative, but in so doing, the parasite winds up killing its host and thus killing itself. A Church cannot survive because it cannot evangelize an interpretation of the Bible that very clearly contradicts God's inspired word. Yes, there are other denominations to feed upon, but at some point they will be gone too. No, the Devil needs to keep the Episcopal organization alive on its deathbed in the vain hope that the revisionist stench emanating from its rotting corpse will attract new converts to his cause, ensuring the continuation of Satan's fiendish plot to undermine the integrity of the Gospel.
Does God care that the denomination is dying?
I believe he does, but like the tree that produces no fruit, he knows that it must be cut down, and it is being cut down.
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