NEW MEMBERSHIP STATISTICS

OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

The Episcopal Church has just released its latest statistics, including the year 2020. The reliability of these figures is obviously dubious since every church suspended regular in-person services in March of 2020. A footnote in the tables indicates the information for "the year" actually covers 1 January to 1 March of 2020. So, the info for "the year" 2020 is  not really for the year 2020.

Find the new data here .

The parts of the Episcopal Church in the United States (some of TEC is in other countries) took a sharp loss in active membership between 2019 and 2020, from 1,637,945 to 1,576,702, a fall of 61,243. That is a percentage decline of 3.74%. The year before, 2018-19, the drop had been 38,404, or 2.29%.

As for the Diocese of South Carolina, it lost membership for the first time since the schism of 2012. Active baptized members declined from 7,763 in 2019 to 7,467 in 2020. Average Sunday Attendance fell from 2,809 in 2019 to 2,654 in 2020 (Jan. and Feb.).

There is no denying the Episcopal Church is losing members. It reached a high in 1967 when it counted twice as many members as it has today. 

However, it just does not make good sense to try to find specific data for church membership, attendance, giving, and services for the calendar year 2020 when the pandemic closed down and severely limited church life for more than three quarters of the year.

Indeed, we are going to have to find new metrics to measure public interaction with the church. What we think of as traditional "church" has not returned, even now in late 2021; and no one can be sure it will ever return. So what's the value of using old metrics of traditional church in an age where church itself is being redefined? We will have to find new ways of measuring the public strength of the church, not just of the Episcopal Church, but every denomination. The old statistical tables the church has put out for years are hardly relevant any more. What will take their place is the question at hand. In fact, defining the whole experience of "church" is the question at hand in late 2021 and for the foreseeable future.