GROWTH AND DECLINE IN SOUTH CAROLINA
The issue of the growth and decline in the schismatic dioceses and parishes has been raised anew in the recent article by Jeremy Bonner and David Goodhaw in The Living Church magazine, "The Growth and Decline of the Anglican Church in North America." Find the article here .
While strangely omitting South Carolina, the authors point out that all of the other four dioceses that voted to leave the Episcopal Church (Pitt, Quincy, San Joaquin, Ft. Worth) have lost members since their schisms. They speculate that this is probably because the parishes involved were already on a downward trajectory in membership before the schisms.
This prompts us to reexamine the statistics of South Carolina. Is it true that the parishes and missions of the Diocese of South Carolina that voted to leave TEC were already losing members before the schisms? Let us go back to the official parochial reports.
First, let us consider the numbers of communicants for the coollective 50 parishes and missions in SC that went along with the schism of 2012. Here are their numbers:
2005---17,981
2008---19,338
2011---21,993
2014---16,361
2015---15,556
2016---13,877
2018---12,126
2019---11,457
Right away, we see that there was a steady upward trajectory before the schism. 2011 was the last full year before the schism of October 2012. We see that from 2005 to 2011, communicant numbers in the 50 local churches that went along with the schism increased by 4,012, or 22%. Now, notice what happened after the schism of 2012. The new diocese lost communicants steadily every year. In fact, between 2011 and 2019, the new diocese lost 10,049 communicants, or -47% (these figures do not include the local churches that remained in the Episcopal diocese). In other words, the churches that make up the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina today collectively have slightly more than half as many communicants as they had before the schism of 2012.
Now, let us look at the communicant numbers of large parishes that were among the 50 local churches that voted to leave TEC:
ST. HELENA'S, Beaufort
2005---1,200
2011---1,737
2014---964
2019---827
Thus, before the schism, from 2005 to 2011, St. Helena's gained 537 communicants, or 45%. After the schism of 2012, it lost 910 communicants, or -52%.
ST. MICHAEL'S, Charleston
2005---1,349
2011---1,847
2014---1,015
2019---926
Thus, St. Michael's gained 498 communicants between 2005 and 2011, or 37%. After the schism, it lost 921 communicants, or -50%.
ST. PHILIP'S, Charleston
2005---1,289
2011---2,677
2014---2,135
2019---1,370
Thus, St. Philip's gained 1,388 communicants from 2005 to 2011. It was the largest parish in the diocese on the eve of the schism. After the break, it lost 1,307 communicants, or -49%.
HOLY CROSS, Sullivans Island
2005---936
2011---2,540
2014---1,000
2019---1,271
Holy Cross gained 1,604 communicants (171%) in the few years before the schism. Since the break, it has lost 1,269 communicants, or -50%.
OLD ST. ANDREW'S, Charleston
2005---567
2011---962
2014---509
2019---406
OSA gained 395 communicants from 2005 to 2011. In the aftermath of the schism, it dropped 556, or -58%.
PRINCE GEORGE WINYAH, Georgetown
2005---329
2011---450
2014---625
2019---451
Thus, in the few years before the schism, Prince George gained 121 communicants, or 37%. As of the last figure, in 2019, it was back to its pre-schism level.
CHURCH OF THE CROSS, Bluffton
2005---1,260
2011---1,701
2014---1,520
2019---1,631
Church of the Cross gained 441 communicants from 2005 to 2011. Since the schism, it has remained relatively stable.
"Communicant" is the most useful category for considering church membership. It refers to a person who receives communion at least once a year. "Members" and "Baptized members" are not useful figures as they count everyone ever associated with the church regardless of attendance. For instance, the ADSC listed 20,195 "Baptized Members" in 2019 and 11,457 "Confirmed Communicants." One of these numbers is far off base, and it is most likely the former. Churches usually do not have nearly twice as many baptized members as communicants. It is safe to assume the real membership of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina at around 12,000. This would make it about half the size of the pre-schism diocese when Mark Lawrence became bishop in 2008.
In conclusion, the collection of the 50 local churches in South Carolina that purportedly broke from the Episcopal Church in 2012 had enjoyed a rapid growth in membership during the years before the schism of 2012. This was certainly true of all the big parishes of the low country. After the schism, most of the large parishes fell into a downward spiral in communicant numbers. Seven years after the schism of 2012, some large churches as St. Helena's, St. Michael's, St. Philip's, and Holy Cross reported about half of their pre-schism communicant numbers. In short, numerous major parishes that went along with the schism had enjoyed booming membership before the schism and collapsing numbers after the schism. This is from the official statistics published by the dioceses.
The theory that the schismatic churches' loss of membership after their schisms was the continuation of a long term downward trajectory is not true of the churches of South Carolina. Their drastic loss of membership was strictly a phenomenon of their schisms.
