I, like so many others, have been actively monitoring the membership decline of Mainline Protestant denominations. Last year I wrote an article linking to more than 50 posts I wrote on this topic over the prior 15 years.
While I’ve given limited attention to the Episcopal Church (see Another Decade of Major Decline in The Episcopal Church), I remain interested in its year over year decline.
No Report
I was shocked to learn that, for the first time, the Episcopal Church will not be reporting its annual membership for 2024. Instead, they shared that “the official membership count was unavailable and unknown.” This one year absence of data occurred due to confusion that resulted from the most recent change to the annual parochial report that congregations submit to the denomination.
More specifically, in a post authored by the Office of Public Affairs of the Episcopal Church, it was revealed that “the committee experimented with new ways to ask about and count total churchwide membership, and the data collected revealed confusion in how churches understood and reported this topline number.” This remark was immediately followed by a statement explaining that this issue will be resolved so that accurate numbers will be published in future years.
Available Data
While total membership for 2024 will remain unknown, the new format did not preclude capturing data about other aspects of denominational life.
Notable numbers include
- Open parishes and missions: 6,707
- Median age: 60
- Median percent White: 95
- Clergy: 9,717
- Staff: 27,360
- Confirmations: 12,600
- Baptisms: 19,624
So What?
Mainline denominational decline has resulted in fewer denominational staff. While I am not familiar with the particulars of what went wrong that led to the inability of the Episcopal Church to provide an annual membership update for 2024, I am not surprised to learn that a Mainline Protestant church is struggling to update data collection in ways that allow for reporting of ongoing year over year basic numbers alongside the inclusion of new metrics.
I wonder what your local church measures and reports in its annual report now that was not included 10 years ago? And, I wonder what new metrics have been added in your congregation’s annual reporting to your denomination or fellowship. Of the new stats, which do you find to be most meaningful and why?