If I were an Episcopal Bishop this would be my Diocesan Address today
by David Virtue, VOL:
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
If you have not been reading our church and diocesan statistics, you should.
The Episcopal Church is rapidly declining at both the national and diocesan level.
We have now dipped below 300,000 in average weekly attendance, and if things continue as they are, we will not have much of a church by 2040. (In 2019 the ASA was just over 547,107, today it is under 300,000.)
Covid was a huge negative, but things were going south before Covid and Covid just pushed us over the edge. We have simply not recovered from Covid in any meaningful sense.
Our diocese has lost more than 40% AWA (average weekly attendance) over the last decade and is sinking.
We have more than a dozen parishes without priests, and we must resort to aging, second career priests to fill the parish gaps. These clergy are not geared to church growth; they are just holding down the fort with few discernible skills to make the parishes grow. A significant number of parishes are simply treading water with little or no outreach into the community. Many will become mission parishes in the very near future.
And let me say I have no interest in taking them over just to see them further deteriorate and I am forced to sell the parish to some saloon owner who has little interest in the church and its mission.
Writing out checks to needy ministries is all well and good, but it is not putting butts in the seats. Our churches are rapidly emptying. Later this year, we will have to put our diocesan headquarters on the market. This should help cash flow, but that is not the answer to our long-term survival.
Most of you are seeing about one third of your congregants showing up weekly. Yes, I know you see spikes at Easter and Christmas, but those are artificial gains and are not reflective of the true situation in your parish.
I am aware that a small handful of you are doing well financially, at least for the moment, but I can assure you that will not last. Endowments do not last forever. The average age of an Episcopalian is over 68 and many will start to move to warmer climes, move into long term care facilities or simply die. In time, your columbaria will count more occupied niches than the number of backsides in the pews.
But all is not completely lost.
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
