Geoff Woodcroft, Bishop of Rupert’s Land (which includes parts of Manitoba and northwestern Ontario) called the report “dire.”
“We need to take it very seriously,” he said.
According to the report, there has been an almost 3.5 per cent decline annual decline in attendance since 2001 and a 2.5 per cent decline in giving in the diocese.
While that’s a cause for concern, it’s not a “death knell for the church, Woodcroft said, as it can’t account for “the vitality of the ministry being done by Anglicans” across Canada.
Anglicans in Manitoba are responding to their communities and neighbourhoods, together with thriving churches such as St. Margaret’s and St. Benedict’s Table (both in Winnipeg), Woodcroft said, calling the efforts a “credit to those people and those communities.”
As for church leaders, they are “taking (the report) incredibly seriously,” he said.
‘Dire’ report projects near end of Anglican Church in Canada https://t.co/wj84FmOaPz
— Winnipeg Free Press (@WinnipegNews) November 13, 2019