WASHINGTON, D.C. (WordNews.
org) Oct. 25, 2011–Church membership in the U.S.-based Episcopal Church has dropped below 2 million for the first time in decades, according to the Institute on Religion and Democracy.
The denomination said it has 1,951,907 members in 2010, down from 2,006,343 in 2009. The church has been losing members by a rate of 2 to 3 percent a year.
IRD noted that the Episcopal Church is a branch of the fast-growing 80 million member worldwide Anglican Communion. But the Episcopal Church, the third largest family of Christian churches globally, has seen the number of parishes closing by more than 100 last year. Attendance has dropped from 682,963 to 657,831 in the past year. Fifty-four percent of all U.S. Episcopal Churches suffered attendance loss over the prior year. Over the last decade, attendance was down 23 percent.
The denomination, which once claimed over 3.5 million members as recently as the mid-1960s, has lost over 40 percent of membership even while the U.S. population grew by over 50 percent, IRD said.
“The drop below 2 million members is noteworthy, but the precipitous drop in attendance is even more dramatic, boding poorly for the Episcopal Church’s future. Almost one-quarter of Episcopalians who were in the pews in 2000 have vanished,”
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