From The Living Church,
Attendance in the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is up by double digits for the third consecutive year, according to congregational report data released June 19 during the denomination’s Provincial Council meeting at Trinity Anglican Seminary in Ambridge, Pennsylvania.
“We’ve grown in every category that we track,” said Dan Hassler, director of administration and operations. “We are at highest attendance and membership of all time.”
The denomination in 2024 reported a net increase of 14 congregations to a total of 1,027, an increase in membership of 1,997 (+1.5 percent) to a total of 130,111 and an increase in attendance of 11,354 (+13.4 percent) to a total of 96,148.
“It is humbling and incredible,” Archbishop Steve Wood said of the numbers in his opening address to the council. “And it makes me eager to see what the Lord is up to next.”
Provincial Council is the annual governance meeting of the ACNA, comprising a bishop, elected clergy, and two elected lay members from each of 28 dioceses, alongside delegates from a half-dozen ministry organizations with an official status.
The council is charged with producing a provincial budget and electing members to trial courts and the Executive Committee (a smaller governance body that meets monthly). Canonical changes are also reviewed and passed before they can be brought for ratification before the larger assembly, which convenes less frequently.
Hassler said leading indicators, including baptisms (+207, or 5.6%), confirmations (+656, or 15.8%), and weddings (+104, or 17.4%) are also up. These metrics are regarded as signaling the direction of future membership and attendance numbers. For the first time, 27 local churches now have an average attendance exceeding 500, up from 16 surpassing that number the year before.
Conversations with council delegates indicated different sources of growth, among them a post-COVID return, as well as an increasing number of people specifically seeking Anglican worship.
The Rev. David Drake of Church of the Resurrection in Timonium, Maryland, in a June 20 concluding panel interview with Archbishop Steve Wood, discussed the Asbury Outpouring, 16 days of continuous prayer and worship that began at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky, on February 8, 2023.
Nearly all 41 churches in the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic have grown in the past two years (Resurrection’s attendance grew 38% ). The Baltimore-area rector said the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit was responsible for the growth. Provincial Council organizers highlighted 1 Corinthians 3:7 (“So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth”).
Provincial finances also improved—2024-25 is the first fiscal year since its 2009 inauguration that the ACNA has operated fully within financial sustainability, reporting a budget surplus of $435,000, Executive Director Deborah Tepley said. The Provincial Executive Committee will determine how to spend surplus. Tepley said it may go toward decreasing a $175,000 debt, establishing cash reserves, or investing in missional priorities such as church planting, leadership development, or the Common Life Commission (CLC).
The latter exists to address overlapping jurisdictions, work toward regionalization, and help mediation/training of diocesan leaders. Bishop Steve Breedlove, the CLC’s chairman, said the commission’s goal is for dioceses to not step on each other’s toes, work together in creating missionary dioceses that work collaboratively, and provide resources to one another “against a scarcity mindset.”
Note the amazing 73.9% attendance rate for ACNA members.
We don't have 2024 data from the Episcopal organization, but 2023 numbers looked grim. From Juicy Ecumenism,
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)
Note a 26.7% attendance rate for Episcopalians. Compared with the 73.9% rate for ACNA.
More burials than baptisms is not a good sign either.
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