Episcopal Church Still Skidding Downhill

Sep 23, 2017 by

by Jeffrey Walton, Juicy Ecumenism:

Updated statistics made available today by the Episcopal Church General Convention Office show a denomination continuing a sustained decline in 2016 to 1,745,156 domestic members. The U.S.-based denomination shed 34,179 members, a decline of 1.9 percent, while attendance losses were relatively limited compared to previous years, declining 9,327, down 1.6 percent. A net 37 parishes closed, bringing the denominational total to 6,473 congregations.

[…]  Among those congregations facing precipitous decline in Budde’s diocese is the congregation of retired Bishop Gene Robinson, who famously contributed to the Episcopal Church schism with his consecration as an openly partnered gay man to be Bishop of New Hampshire. Robinson has served several years now as “Bishop-in-residence” at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., where he relocated as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. Robinson’s parish will, as part of a property redevelopment, feature an eponymous chapel that he has proposed be a pilgrimage site for youth who identify as LGBT.

St. Thomas has declined precipitously in the past five years, shrinking from 350 to 140 members (-60%) and from a weekly attendance of 150 down to 75 (-50%). The congregation’s priest-in-charge, Alex Dyer, cited the ongoing construction of a new church sanctuary and a major purge of the parish membership rolls as contributing factors to the congregation’s diminished size. Asked about the decline in attendance, Dyer commented via Twitter “ASA is one measure. @StThomasDC is one of the most best parishes I have served. Check back in 5 years and the story will be different.”

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