It’s been half mockingly but half seriously remarked that the last surviving U.S. Episcopalian is likely now among us. In the 1960s The Episcopal Church’s membership peaked at 3.6 million. It’s now down to a mostly ageing 1.6 million, declining fast. Like the Unitarian Church, it’ll likely endure as an institution almost indefinitely thanks to considerable financial assets, even without many people. But its demise, with other Mainline Protestant denominations, has been dramatic. Although never huge in numbers, the Episcopal Church across centuries served as America’s religious finishing school, educating our leaders, and providing liturgies for our national life.
The Episcopal Church is part of the global Anglican Communion, a spiritual fraternity of many national churches that descend from the Church of England, which itself is fast shrinking. A recent poll of Church of England clergy found most saying Britain is no longer a Christian nation. While their church remains the official state church, fewer than half of the British now identify as Christian. The Church of England’s average worship number on a typical Sunday is only about half a million. Its pageantry shines during British public rites, such as funerals, weddings, and coronations. But its direct impact on most British people is sadly minimal.
Anglicanism is vibrant in Africa, where most of Anglicanism’s 70-80 million adherents now live, especially in Nigeria. But everywhere in the white majority Anglosphere, Anglicanism is in steep decline, from North America and Britain to Australia and New Zealand. This decline, absent direct divine intervention, is likely irreversible in majority European societies.
Read it all.
(JE) Mark Tooley–Beautiful Anglican Mists
It’s been half mockingly but half seriously remarked that the last surviving U.S. Episcopalian is likely now among us. In the 1960s The Episcopal Church’s membership peaked at 3.6 million. It’s now down to a mostly ageing 1.6 million, declining fast. Like the Unitarian Church, it’ll likely endure as an institution almost indefinitely thanks to considerable financial assets, even without many people. But its demise, with other Mainline Protestant denominations, has been dramatic. Although never huge in numbers, the Episcopal Church across centuries served as America’s religious finishing school, educating our leaders, and providing liturgies for our national life.
The Episcopal Church is part of the global Anglican Communion, a spiritual fraternity of many national churches that descend from the Church of England, which itself is fast shrinking. A recent poll of Church of England clergy found most saying Britain is no longer a Christian nation. While their church remains the official state church, fewer than half of the British now identify as Christian. The Church of England’s average worship number on a typical Sunday is only about half a million. Its pageantry shines during British public rites, such as funerals, weddings, and coronations. But its direct impact on most British people is sadly minimal.
Anglicanism is vibrant in Africa, where most of Anglicanism’s 70-80 million adherents now live, especially in Nigeria. But everywhere in the white majority Anglosphere, Anglicanism is in steep decline, from North America and Britain to Australia and New Zealand. This decline, absent direct divine intervention, is likely irreversible in majority European societies.
Read it all.