Because I am concerned a number of you will whiz by this entry, please complete the following blanks:
The median Episcopal congregation had _______ persons in worship in 2007 according to the annual Parochial Report.
_____ % of Episcopal congregations have facilities that seat more than 300 people.
The answers are in the report; give your own answers before you look.
How does one read this and not be absolutely overwhelmed with the realization that the Episcopal Church is a dying church? There is almost no good news here (pun not unintended). In every respect–age of parishioners, lack of growth, lack of mission, conflict, finances, and on and on–this paints a vivid picture of a church in quantitative and qualitative free fall. Sobering, not only for our denomination, but also a cautionary example for any church which loses sight of its purpose to spread the Gospel.
Not an unexpected picture considering that the leadership of the church has been trying to dismantle the core concepts of Christianity for 60+ years. Now add the massive attention to litigation and protection of the institution for use by special interest groups and the whole thing threatens to sink into nothiness.
More tragic than the bad news is the cluelessness when it comes to a response in the [i] Blue Book [/i] “State of the Church” response.
They say they have hopeful signs, but all they can site are how Episcopalians took part in work trips to the Gulf Coast. Frankly, people of every (an no) church took part in those efforts. And how is that reversing the trends in the report?
When it comes to recommendations, the primary is to see about giving female clergy who are ordained in mid-life a bigger pension check. OK. And this impacts the negative trends how?
I’m interested to see that clergy self-report that “Teaching people about the faith and the Bible” is one of the activities to which they devote the most time. I have not observed that actually to be the case in more than a few instances.
“When it comes to recommendations, the primary is to see about giving female clergy who are ordained in mid-life a bigger pension check. ” Impact negative – IMHO – rewarding them with bigger checks cost money….. I fail to see why a woman, who starts a career (and it is a career these days) should expect special compensation for not putting in her time……If a survey were done of the female clergy who were ordained in mid-life, I imagine you will find that the majority are financially secure without their clergy income, i.e. husbands who have provided very well, earlier careers that have secured their ability to take the lower paying job, and financial independence from clergy retirement benefits…..career – job…..remember when we used to call it “a calling”…..
#5, The CPF benefit is calculated with an equation including years of credited full-time service and the highest average compensation for six of eight consecutive years. A second calcuation is then added based on service and a fixed base amount (this creates a figure that advantages somewhat those who have worked many years but at the lower ranges of the compensation spectrum. In my years with NNECA I’ve heard concerns expressed from numerous groups about “pension equity.” This sometimes comes from folks who have relatively shorter ministry “careers,” who may have been ordained at midlife and who may, say, have spent accumulated savings to pay for seminary. This sometimes comes from folks who may have had non-traditional careers–say, as “intentional interim rectors,” or who may have had significant breaks in service due to missionary service, perhaps, or to family, childrearing responsibilities. Some have raised pension issues by saying that the reason they were not ordained earlier, and thus able to have had a longer career, had to do with the fact, through the 1970’s, that women were not able to be ordained, or, due to other pre-existing discriminatory patterns–having to do perhaps with race, or sexual orientation.
All this though is a thicket and something even of a hornet’s nest. Thus far the Pension Trustees have been reluctant to fiddle much with the basic calculation, recognizing that it is very easy to begin a slide down a slippery slope, not so easy to stop the slide once it’s begun. I hope their generally prudential approach will continue.
Bruce Robison
Let me provide an answer to that “thicket”. It is the answer given to deacons who dare to wonder why “deacons don’t get some compensation for their ministry?”
[b]You knew what you were getting into, when you got into it[/b]
I hope this brief summary whets some people’s appetites to take a look at the full, detailed report. Kark Hadaway is a fair and skilled researcher, with many years of experience at analyzing church gowth and decline (first for the Southern Baptists, and then for TEC). But this summary of a few highlights tends to gloss over the worst problems, and it doesn’t provide any historical perspective by including comparisons to figures from previous years and decades, which is necessary to show trends.
Here are a few of the more significant stats that jumped out at me.
If the median ASA is just 69 (down sharply from a few decades ago), and the median number of “active” members is 168, then only 41% of supposedly active members bother to show up each Sunday. That’s a pretty minimalist standard for “active” membership.
Over half (an astoundingly high 53%) of TEC congregations were started before 1901, whereas only a pitiful [b] 4% [/b] (that’s right, just 4%) of TEC’s congregations have been started since 1990! That dearth of new churches is devastating to the growth potentil of TEC, since many empirical studies have proven that new church plants are FAR more likely to grow than long established ones.
Only 4% of TEC congregations would describe their worship style as [i] “contemporary.” [/i] That surprisingly low figure tends to be confirmed by the fact that only 7% utilize drums regularly in worship, when one of the hallmarks of contemporary Christian music is a driving beat and lots of percussion.
Sadly, 27% of TEC members are over age 65 (versus just 13% of the American population or twice the national average), whereas virtually the opposite is true of the key demographic segment age 18-34. Only 12% of TEC’s members are 18-34, whereas 23% of the US falls in that crucial young adult age range (thus, TEC attracts only half the share of young adults in the general population). That heavily graying makeup of TEC membership is a sure recipe for further decline. That is, the dearth of young adults and the fact that those over age 65 greatly outnumber them by over a 2 to 1 margin is an ominous sign that TEC’s long, steady decline is likely to accelerate in the future.
Finally, like my friend Fr. Tim Fountain above, what is perhaps most distressing about the whole situation is the appalling lack of urgent concern on the part of TEC’s leaders about this grave and dangerous state of affairs. If TEC were a Fortune 500 corporation, and its marketshare, profits, and stock value were in such a disastrous downward spiral, the board of directors would’ve replaced the top executive ranks long ago and instituted some radical changes to try to reverse the decline.
But in TEC, the leaders are generally acting like it’s “business as usuall.” No alarm bells are going off. After all, TEC and the other oldline (ex-mainline) denominations have been in steady decline for 40 years (after peaking in 1966). They’re accustomed to it now, and all attempts at a quick fix have failed.
I’m glad to be virtually out of TEC. By next Sunday (when the paperwork is all done) I’ll be part of the ACNA. Others may feel called to stay on board the ship while it sinks, but I’m not one of them.
David Handy+
[i] Private communication removed by elf. [/i]
I guess I will be one who will stay, help bail and patch; and with god’s help I believe we will find a way to restore the TEC and bring parishioners back to the pews. I am aware of no better alternative.
All best wishes to David and others who have chosen to join the ACNA or one of its parts. God has not yet called me away from the ministry of the Episcopal into which I was ordained by Bishop Harry Lee Doll of Maryland 43 years ago today. (Deacon June 21, 1966, Priest June 14, 1967). Today I celebrated the Eucharist and preached to a congregation of 35 at St. George’s West Asheville. About 2/3 of those present were 60+ but the church recently reworked the church seating and the spirit is good. We now sit in three groups of pews two facing each other across an open space and one centered on the midline of the church facing the altar. The choir is behind the altar facing the congregation. The congregation has always been active in the community and continues to be so. The Rev. Canon Gus Boone is recovering from health issues and the interim is at CREDO.
[blockquote]Only 4% of TEC congregations would describe their worship style as “contemporary.†That surprisingly low figure tends to be confirmed by the fact that only 7% utilize drums regularly in worship, when one of the hallmarks of contemporary Christian music is a driving beat and lots of percussion.[/blockquote]
So it’s not all bad news . . .
Dr. Witt (#12),
LOL, friend.
My lament above shouldn’t be interpreted as indicating that I’m a fan of all CCM (Contemporary Christian Music), or at the expense of the rich musical heritage that is one of the glories of traditional Anglicanism. But the 4% figure was shockingly low.
Mitchell and Tom,
There was no criticism implied in my previous post concerning those who feel called to stay in TEC and bear faithful witness there. That is a noble calling, and an honorable choice. But though I feel both sadness and relief at making the change at last (for I detached and left TEC emotionally several years ago), I admit that right now it’s the relief that’s predominant. I’ve done most of my grieving already.
David Handy+
#11 TomRightmyer –
Thank you for the update about St. George’s – West Asheville. I was a member of St. George’s when I made my Cursillo (Fall of 1983, IIRC) and I remember my days there will fondness and gratitude to the parish family for being so welcoming when I moved to Asheville from out of state. I pray the parish will continue to be a blessing to other newcomers.
Although I have one foot in ACNA and one still mired in TEC, I question David’s metric on contemporary worship as one bellwhether of denominational health. If the leadership of TEC was engaged in mission rather than pansexuality, the contemporary worship issue would be a local metric…..use it where needed but don’t treat it as a cure-all. I point to the Roman Church as my example: leadership engaged for 2000 years with tradition intact using minor corrections to the steered course to maintain fidelity and numbers of members and the path toward salvation.