ATTENDANCE in the US Episcopal Church fell by 35 per cent between 2020 and 2021, but there was only a three-per-cent decline in overall membership; and overall giving was up, the 2021 Parochial Report released last week reveals.
The report is the Church’s oldest, most continuous gathering of data, reporting on every congregation in its nine provinces and thus providing insight into the state of the whole Church. The 2021 statistics “continue to reflect the hardships faced by Episcopal congregations, which varied widely in the number of Sundays they were able to worship in person”, it concluded.
The figures reflect the impact of Covid-19 and broadly match the findings of a five-year research project of 38 Christian denominational groups, led by the Hartford institute for Religion Research.
In its study, Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations: Innovation amidst and beyond Covid-19, Hartford found that, owing to the pandemic, 54 per cent of churches surveyed had completely discontinued fellowship events, and the reality of continued variants and hospitalisations was keeping congregational life from returning to normal. Both remote and in-person worship were offered by 80 per cent of congregations.
The Episcopal Church has 1,520,388 active baptised members in 6294 parishes. Total average attendance for Sunday worship (ASA) fell from 458,179 in 2019 to 292,851 in 2021. In 2020, 13 per cent of churches are recorded as having a 10-per-cent growth rate; this figure dropped to six per cent in 2021. Decline in numbers was recorded by 61 per cent of churches in 2020, and by 88 per cent in 2021.
Just one per cent of congregations had an ASA of 300 or more in 2021; 90 per cent had an ASA of less than 100, and the median ASA fell from 50 in 2020 to 21 in 2021.
Despite the fall in attendance, giving was up. The average pledge in 2021 was $3,360; the total pledge and plate income of $1,335,654,413 represents a rise of 3.33 per cent from the previous year, in which giving was down by 4.31 per cent.
Average attendance fell across the provinces. The percentage drop was highest in North Texas, at 67.5 per cent, and Oregon at 56.2 per cent. It was lowest in Tennessee at 0.4 per cent, and Eau Claire at 2.2 per cent, which reflected the comparative sizes of the dioceses.
The Hartford researchers found that two-thirds of congregations generally felt that they would emerge stronger than before. The principal investigator, Scott Thumma, said that this “implies these faith communities are a resilient bunch”.
“The last twenty months have tried churches and clergy in new and challenging ways. From public health safety and the use of technology to pressing socio- political challenges like racial injustice, political polarisation, and climate change, churches and their leaders are certainly wrestling with a lot of compounding and intersecting issues.”
The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Revd Michael Curry, said: “I empathise with the feelings of concern many may feel after reading this data, and yet it is important to remember that the institutional Church as we know it has not been the form that Christianity has always taken.
“The essence and core of the Church is not its outward form, which would always change over time. The essence and core is Jesus Christ — his Spirit, his teachings, his manner of life, his way of love — and the movement he founded cannot be stopped.
“We need our church leaders, both ordained and lay, to embrace this moment of reinvention, and the folks I see rising up are going to bring us into a profoundly different age.”