Episcopal Pulpits will Lose 2000 Priests in next Six Years
by David Virtue, VOL:
The Episcopal Church will see a drop of more than 2,000 full time parish priests in the next six years, as the retirement numbers increase geometrically, with no increase (but a likely decrease) of ordinands going into the ministry, Church statistics reveal.
This translates into the number of full time priests being reduced by 65% – 75% of total congregations in the denomination. These numbers are from 2014 the last year reported in some cases. Indications are that the situation is probably worse now in 2016. The average age of an Episcopal priest is 59 (or the mean – half older, half younger) there is a tsunami of retirements headed their way in the next 5-10 years with no possible way of filling pulpits with new ordinands.
A researcher looking at the Church’s archives after reading Mary Ann Mueller’s extensive article on the crisis in American Episcopal seminaries that showed 70% of TEC’s 11 seminaries with fewer than 100 students, crunched the numbers, showing that of the 11 approved and accredited seminaries (one apparently closing in 2017) only 9 exist, if one leaves out Yale and Bishop Kemper. Kemper is basically an online diploma mill. Mueller’s story can be accessed here.
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