On the Episcopal Church

The following is from The Rt. Rev. Stacy F. Sauls

My Brothers and Sisters,

New facts and figures about membership in the Episcopal Church have been posted on the Research page: www.episcopalchurch.org/research.  Additional documents are being posted today.

The following are points for your consideration:

- Membership in the Episcopal Church is 2,125,012, with 1,951,907 in the domestic dioceses and 173,105 in the non-domestic dioceses.

- Sixteen domestic dioceses showed growth in the past year: Alabama, Arkansas, Atlanta, Central Gulf Coast, East Carolina, Iowa, Kentucky, Montana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Navajoland, North Dakota, Northwest Texas, Oklahoma, Pittsburgh, Wyoming.

- In the non-domestic dioceses, growth was marked in eight dioceses: Churches in Europe, Dominican Republic, Ecuador-Central, Haiti, Honduras, Micronesia, Puerto Rico, Taiwan.

- The ASA chart shows a total of 697,831 domestically and 20,418 non-domestic.

In Episcopal Domestic Fast Facts: 2010

- There are 6,794 domestic parishes and missions

- The largest active membership is St Martin’s, Houston with 8,406.

- Number of congregations with 10 of less members: 127

- Percentage of congregations with 200 members or less: 58 per cent

- Percentage of congregations with 500 members or more: 15 per cent

- Average pledge is $2346

I believe this is a moment for us, a time to strengthen our commitment.

A release will be issued on this, in which I am quoted:

“These statistics reveal something very important about the challenges we face as a Church,” observed Bishop Stacy Sauls, Chief Operating Officer.  “One of those is that we cannot allow statistics like this to make us anxious about our survival.  Earthly survival is not much a value of the Gospel.  Striving for the kingdom and righteous of God is.  Concentrating on the latter is likely to yield more abundant life than the former (Mt. 6:31-33). Another is that we cannot continue to pretend we are the Church of the establishment entitled to the power, prestige, and privilege that comes with that.  Right now, I think the cross calls us to die to those trappings of our old establishment life, and that means turning our attention single mindedly to God’s mission and our participation in it, which means that we are going to have to restructure and reform ourselves accordingly.  Churches that turn inward will die.  Churches that turn outward will not only live, but thrive.  The numbers call us to strengthen our commitment to turn outward.”

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Stacy F. Sauls.

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I don't know much about this Bp. Sauls, but I will be doing my homework.  We are in need of different leadership and new way of carrying out the Great Commission.  John Beeler, please be kind.  :)