According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s figures, Vermont has grown in population from 608,827 in 2000 to 621,760 in 2009. This represents a population growth of approximately 2.1%.
According to Episcopal Church statistics, the Diocese of Vermont went from Average Sunday Attendance (or ASA) of 3,280 in 1998 to 2,765 in 2008. This represents an ASA decline of about 16% over this ten year period.
A pictorial chart of some Vermont diocesan statistics may be found here.
Your chart does not come up
Once again, Kendall continues his divisive and inflammatory rhetoric!!!
Vermont had the rather typical 2002 through 2008 TEC experience with Members declining by 14.8 percent and ASA declining by 15.8 percent, but did fairly well with Plate & Pledge increasing less than one percent shy of inflation. Overall I ranked the diocese at 39 out of 95 considered. But the future looks rather dismal. In 2008 there were 108 Infant Baptisms and 185 Burials. Also in 2008, 81 percent (38 of 47) of its churches had Plate & Pledge of less than $150 thousand which means that each “rich” church had four “poor” churches to help. Also in 2008, 34 of its 47 churches had ASA of 70 or less (the TEC median would have predicted 23 or 24). And 12 of these 34 churches had ASA of 20 or less. One can only see further decline and closures. Statmann
Golly, do ya think maybe they should all unite with their next-door neighbors in the Diocese of New Hampshire? But of course, they’re not in good shape either.
#1-
TEC is currently doing a peer review of the chart.
http://www.standfirminfaith.com/?/sf/page/25582
# 2 Forgive me, but it looks to me that Kendall is simply presenting statistics. One could choose to be offended by it. Much like the Gospel. But in reality, the truth shall set you free.
Statmann (#3),
Thanks for contributing more data from your vast storehouse of details about the miserable state of TEC. So let’s see, you say 38 out of the mere 47 churches in this little diocese have Plate & Pledge under $150K, and 12 of those 47 have an ASA of 20 or less. Hmmm, their prospects do indeed seem as bleak as…well, a Vermont winter.
And the ASA for the whole diocese was just 2,765 in 2008? Man, even in a sparsely-populated state like Vermont, there must be numerous RC parishes with more people showing up on Sunday than in the whole TEC diocese.
David Handy+
Droopy Dog (#6)
Sarah was writing with tounge firmly in cheek. All to often, conservatives are accused of being inflammatory when they are simply stating facts that the liberals don’t like.
On a second issue, why does any diocese have less than 5000 ASA? Dioceses with less that 5,000 ASA should be combined or the diocese split up among surrounding dioceses so that all have ASA > 5k. There is no need for a bishop with such a small diocese – particularly with today’s ability to travel and teleconference. Fewer bishops means lower costs and less carbon footprint for HoB meetings!
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
Sorry, Sarah. Thanks for the correction, Phil.
So how ’bout those Braves? 🙂
Re: #8 Phil:
+Mary Adelia McLeod of Vermont had the practical sense to realize even in during her episcopate (pre +Thomas Ely) that Vermont and New Hampshire should share diocesan administration physical plant and expenses, if not actually become one diocese. I don’t know what +Douglas Theuner of NH thought of that idea at the time. If my memory serves, he seemed to be pre-occupied with getting out of responsible office and into retirement in advance of the wave promoting +Gene Robinson that was rapidly building as it closed in on the shore.
If you go to this link
http://12.0.101.92/Charts.aspx
You can create plots for any of the dioceses.
I agree with the thought that there should be some thinking about a minimum size for a diocese.