“We are disappointed by the decision of the Court and believe that the decision is erroneous,” said Richard Hoskins, chancellor emeritus of the Diocese of Chicago. “We believe that the opinion misunderstands the polity of the Episcopal Church and misapplies the First Amendment. The attorneys representing us in the lawsuit are studying the opinion and will advise the Diocese whether to petition for leave to appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court.”
Okay, they are not happy with an adverse decision. Fair enough.
Apart from the law suit, how is Dio. Chicago going these days?
Good question, Michael. Let’s take a look:
From 2002-2012, the number of parishes and missions in the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago dropped from 133 to 117.
Baptized members dropped from 43,775 to 36,565.
Attendance dropped from 16,280 to to 12,869.
Church school pupils dropped from 7,128 to 4,411.
Baptisms dropped from 797 children and 62 adults to 656 children and 52 adults.
Marriages dropped from 346 to 241.
Funerals held steady at 569 in 2002 and 561 in 2012.
This is about par or slightly better than TEC as a whole — a 31% decline in marriages instead of about 40%. A 21% drop in attendance instead of about 23%, and a membership drop of 16%, which is about consistent with the U.S. church overall. Chicago is probably doing better than most of its peers in the upper midwest, as there is some population growth in the geographic area and a smaller percentage of the diocese is rural.
Did you correct for the fact that Quincy was merged in in the above numbers?
Hi Joe,
These numbers are through the reporting year 2012, which was prior to the “reuniting” of TEC Quincy and Chicago. TEC Quincy had less than 700 members and less than 400 attendees, so they will have negligible impact on the Chicago figures in future reporting years.
Jeff Walton, your comments are extremely [b]hateful and divisive [/b].