Growth/decline trends

[BrianH]

Interesting for those of us, who watch these things.

*episcopal church up; other mainlines down
According to the National Council of churches 2005 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, the Episcopal Church has 2,320,221 members and a growth rate of .57 percent. While this growth is small, other “mainline” churches continue to decline:

“Churches that declined in membership in 2004 are the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 4,984,925 members, down 1.05 percent; the Presbyterian Church (USA), 3,241,309 members, down 4.87 percent; The Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod), 2,488,936 members, down .95 percent); American Baptist Churches in the USA, 1,433,075 members, down 3.45 percent; and the United Church of Christ, 1,296,652 members, down 2.58 percent.”

The Roman Catholic Church remains the largest Christian church by far. "The Catholic Church remains the largest faith group in the U.S. with 67,259,768 members and a growth rate last year of 1.28 percent. The second largest denomination in the U.S. is still the Southern Baptist Convention with 16,439,603 members and a growth rate of 1.18 percent. The United Methodist Church is third largest with a reported membership of 8,251,175 and a growth rate of .002 percent.

The Church of Jesus of Latter-day Saints, with a reported membership of 5,503,192, rose from the fifth to the fourth largest church in the U.S. The yearbook noted that the church “continues to grow remarkably” at a rate of 1.71 percent last year.

A reported surge in membership of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) has placed the communion on the list of the largest American churches. The Syosset, N.Y., based church grew 11.11 percent to 1-million members, according to the yearbook.

Other churches in the top 25 that continued to grow in 2004 are the Assemblies of God, 2,729,562 members and a growth rate of 1.57 percent; the Episcopal Church, 2,320,221 members and a growth rate of .57 percent; the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 1,432,795 members and a growth rate of .14 percent; and Jehovah’s Witnesses, 1,041,030 members and a growth rate of 1.82 percent." *

 

[mark_a]

BrianH:

Interesting for those of us, who watch these things.

episcopal church up; other mainlines down
According to the National Council of churches 2005 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, the Episcopal Church has 2,320,221 members and a growth rate of .57 percent. While this growth is small, other “mainline” churches continue to decline:

“Churches that declined in membership in 2004 are the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 4,984,925 members, down 1.05 percent; the Presbyterian Church (USA), 3,241,309 members, down 4.87 percent; The Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod), 2,488,936 members, down .95 percent); American Baptist Churches in the USA, 1,433,075 members, down 3.45 percent; and the United Church of Christ, 1,296,652 members, down 2.58 percent.”

*The Roman Catholic Church remains the largest Christian church by far. "The Catholic Church remains the largest faith group in the U.S. with 67,259,768 members and a growth rate last year of 1.28 percent. The second largest denomination in the U.S. is still the Southern Baptist Convention with 16,439,603 members and a growth rate of 1.18 percent. The United Methodist Church is third largest with a reported membership of 8,251,175 and a growth rate of .002 percent. *

*The Church of Jesus of Latter-day Saints, with a reported membership of 5,503,192, rose from the fifth to the fourth largest church in the U.S. The yearbook noted that the church “continues to grow remarkably” at a rate of 1.71 percent last year. *

*A reported surge in membership of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) has placed the communion on the list of the largest American churches. The Syosset, N.Y., based church grew 11.11 percent to 1-million members, according to the yearbook. *

*Other churches in the top 25 that continued to grow in 2004 are the Assemblies of God, 2,729,562 members and a growth rate of 1.57 percent; the Episcopal Church, 2,320,221 members and a growth rate of .57 percent; the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 1,432,795 members and a growth rate of .14 percent; and Jehovah’s Witnesses, 1,041,030 members and a growth rate of 1.82 percent." *

It’s interesting to see the growth rate of the Catholic Church at 1.28%. Seems pretty respectable (comparatively) for such a large Church.

Can you post a link?

 

[BrianH]

It is on the National Council of churches website. I would agree that the growth rate of Catholicism is a very respectable.
BrianH

 

[buzzcut]

I find these kind of numbers interesting too but they need to be interpreted with some caution.

The U.S. population grows at around 0.9 to 1.0 percent per year anyway, so any church that wants to consider itself really growing needs to be growing at at least that rate.

The Catholic numbers are good, but then you have to consider that part of that increase may be due to immigration. If large numbers of Catholics immigrate, then the Catholic Church “grows” without actually doing anything, if you see what I mean.

Finally, you have to consider how many people will say they belong to denomination X or whatever in response to surveys, but haven’t actually been to a church of any kind in years.

 

[StMarkEofE]

buzzcut:

I find these kind of numbers interesting too but they need to be interpreted with some caution.

The U.S. population grows at around 0.9 to 1.0 percent per year anyway, so any church that wants to consider itself really growing needs to be growing at at least that rate.

The Catholic numbers are good, but then you have to consider that part of that increase may be due to immigration. If large numbers of Catholics immigrate, then the Catholic Church “grows” without actually doing anything, if you see what I mean.

Finally, you have to consider how many people will say they belong to denomination X or whatever in response to surveys, but haven’t actually been to a church of any kind in years.

I would think that just the number of births within the RCC would account for much of the increase as well. (Births, immigration)

 

[manualman]

This flies in the face of some considerable amount of conventional wisdom often discussed here about the realtionship between the ‘drifting to the left’ of the Episcopal Church (women priests, openly gay bishops, etc) and their dwindling numbers.

Is this current Episcopal growth rate a change from recent declines or is the rhetoric I’ve been hearing overblown?

 

[Alfie]

StMarkEofE:

I would think that just the number of births within the RCC would account for much of the increase as well. (Births, immigration)

I belong to the United Methodist church. Children under the age of twelve are not considered to be members of the Methodist church until they take confirmation and decide for themselves wether they want to join the church. If you add the number of children to the official numbers of Methodists it would be over ten million members.

 

[buzzcut]

Some of the problems in this field of study are indicated at Adherents.com where Episcopal church numbers for 1994 are given as 1.6 million according to one source, and 2.5 million according to another!

adherents.com/Na/Na_269.html

Louie Crewe has made a chart of number of registered Episcopal communicants over a 10-year period. This gives about 1.8 million for 2003. But further down the page you can see actual weekly attendance coming in at only 0.8 million for the same year! Moreover, there are both ups and downs within the period – it’s not a straight line. Look at the charts here:

newark.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/communicants93_03.html

 

[BrianH]

Alfie:

I belong to the United Methodist church. Children under the age of twelve are not considered to be members of the Methodist church until they take confirmation and decide for themselves wether they want to join the church. If you add the number of children to the official numbers of Methodists it would be over ten million members.

and my kids would add 5 more, as my family, all under 12, go every week and are counted only as attendance and not members.
BrianH

 

[BrianH]

manualman:

This flies in the face of some considerable amount of conventional wisdom often discussed here about the realtionship between the ‘drifting to the left’ of the Episcopal Church (women priests, openly gay bishops, etc) and their dwindling numbers.

Is this current Episcopal growth rate a change from recent declines or is the rhetoric I’ve been hearing overblown?

Yes, it does. The Episcopal church has been declining… makes me wonder seriously, if they got an exodus of relgious liberals from other denominations because of this…post again soon you are stuck on 666 posts
BrianH

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

BrianH:

It is on the National Council of churches website. I would agree that the growth rate of Catholicism is a very respectable.
BrianH

How many of the Catholics exist on paper only, though ? How many have left; or have died; or were on the rolls, but were non-practising; or have joined some other Christian Church - and how soon after those figures were gathered were they collated, and available ? For comparison, the figures in the Annuario Pontificio, which covers the whole world, as far as this is possible, are always about two years out of date; these are the figures in the “Catholic Almanac”.​

For contrast, there were 850,000 Catholics in Scotland as of 1964, according to the New Catholic Encyclopedia of 1967 - ten years ago, there were just under 740,000. More than three quarters of Catholics in England don’t practice - there are about four and a half million. Which is just as well, because we are short of priests. As for Rome itself - Mass attendance is about ten percent.

In the meantime, Muslims are multiplying. ##