Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Ordinariate Watch: Episcopal Church: Declining Numbers and the Anglican Ordinariate


David Virtue of Virtue Online has been crunching numbers, trying to confirm claims of The Episcopal Church to having 2.3 million members. Virtue believes that many on the rolls are dead, have left the church or attend only a couple of times a year.

While membership is a valid statistic, the real question focuses upon how many people are actually attending services. What is the "average Sunday attendance (ASA)?"

The Episcopal Church (TEC) claims to have 6,825 parishes active in the United States. Of that number, Virtue's staff discovered that over 2, 000 of those parishes have a demographic with the majority at age 60 plus. In addition, more than 2,200 parishes (around one third) have an average Sunday attendance (ASA) of 40 people of less. Another 2,300 parishes are between 41 and 100 people. To read more, click here.

An evangelical awakening?! Sounds like wishful thinking.

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