A DECADE OF SCHISM;
A DECADE OF DECLINE IN THE ANGLICAN DIOCESE OF SOUTH CAROLINA
The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina was formed in 2012 at the moment when the majority of the clergy and laity of the historic Diocese of South Carolina left the Episcopal Church, the Diocese of South Carolina and the Anglican Communion and set up a new Christian denomination. The remaining minority stayed with the Church and the Communion and continued on as the historic Diocese of South Carolina. We now have a decade of membership STATISTICS published by the ADSC. What do they tell us about the membership trends in the ADSC since the schism?
The three most useful sets of figures for parish life are "Baptized Membership," "Communicants," and "Average Sunday Attendance." The first counts every baptized person with any association with the parish. It is not indicative of the actual life of the church since most baptized members do not attend or participate in church regularly (note the difference below between Baptized Members and Average Sunday Attendance). "Communicants" is the more reliable metric since it counts all the people who take Communion at least once a year (making them "active"). "Average Sunday Attendance" counts the average number of people attending church on any given Sunday of the year. Even though it would include people who were just visiting, it is still a useful measure of the vitality of a parish.
Here are the ADSC's figures for each of the ten years since the schism of 2012:
BAPTIZED MEMBERS
2013 - 23,181
2014 - 22,953
2015 - 22,149
2016 - 21,953
2017 - 20,602
2018 - 20,763
2019 - 20,195
2020 - 19,597
2021 - 19,712
2022 - 18,130
Thus, in the decade of 2013-2022, ADSC lost 5,051 baptized members, or a drop of 22%.
COMMUNICANTS
2013 - 17,798
2014 - 16,361
2015 - 15,556
2016 - 14,694
2017 - 13,291
2018 - 12,126
2019 - 11,457
2020 - 11,337
2021 - 12,651
2022 - 11,673
Thus, in the decade, ADSC lost 6,125 communicants, or 34%. In other words, ADSC has lost a third of its active members since the schism.
AVERAGE SUNDAY ATTENDANCE
2013 - 9,292
2014 - 9,325
2015 - 9,085
2016 - 9,014
2017 - 8,905
2018 - 8,875
2019 - 8,980
2020 - 8,215 (Jan.-Mar. only)
2021 - 5,379
2022 - 8,353
So, in the ten years of 2013-2022, ADSC's ASA declined 989, or 10%.
OBSERVATIONS on these statistics.
---Churches began shutting down in March of 2020 in the COVID pandemic. Most reopened after several months but worshipers were slow to return to the Sunday services. It was only in 2023 that most church attendance and programs began to return generally to where they were before the pandemic. Some have not reached there yet. Thus, any quantification of parish life in 2020, 2021, and 2022 should be considered lightly.
---Nevertheless, these figures show clear and definite trends of decline in the decade and relentless yearly falling, with a few exceptions.
---ADSC had the most serious decline in numbers of active members, down a third in the decade, falling from 17,798 to 11,673. We can only speculate on the reasons why so many active parishioners fled from the ADSC parishes.
---There is a big difference between the numbers of Baptized Members and Communicants. In 2022, a third of the baptized members did not take Communion once in the year. The ratio in 2013, at the start of the decade, was less than a third in difference between Baptized and Communicant (23,181 to 17,798). This suggests a trend in which baptized members of ADSC are becoming less engaged in their parishes.
---If there is a bright light in these dismal numbers, it is in Sunday attendance. It fell only 10% in the decade, from 9,292 ASA to 8,353 ASA. This may indicate that numbers of visitors made up some of the membership and communicant losses although it was not enough to counterbalance the declines. On any given Sunday, there are now significantly fewer people in the pews of the typical ADSC parish as compared to a decade ago.
---What does the future hold for ADSC? One can only wonder considering the rather precipitous drop in this diocese in the first decade of its existence. An institution that loses a third of its membership in just ten years is an institution in trouble. What about attracting new people? A church founded on discrimination against homosexuals and women will scarcely be attractive to the majority of the people, even in conservative South Carolina. It is highly doubtful that young South Carolinians will be flocking to this new church. Indeed, the immediate problem in ADSC is in retaining members rather than attracting new ones.
---What the future holds for ADSC, only God knows. What we know here and now is the quantified participation in ADSC in the decade since the schism. The trends should set off alarm bells among the leadership of the ADSC. Perhaps their little experiment in rebellion was not such a good idea after all. At least it raises questions about whether this was God's will.
---It is highly ironic that before the schism, the diocesan leaders made a major appeal to the faithful that leaving TEC would lead to church growth. Bishop Lawrence said repeatedly before the schism that the Episcopal Church was a comatose patient on life support, implying that "orthodox" religion would lead to vigorous new life in churches. This could only come after separation from the dying patient. Well, in lower South Carolina, anyway, the Episcopal Church is far from dead and instead it is the anti-Episcopal camp that is now sick and bleeding profusely. If the ADSC does not turn around its crashing membership trends, it faces a very bleak future indeed.
