Membership and attendance continued to decline in the Episcopal Church, according to results from the 2018 parochial reports that each congregation is supposed to file yearly. Plate and pledge income was roughly flat compared to 2017.
It is clear that our membership losses continue to be consistent and chronic. There has thus far been no leveling off. The numbers also suggest that we are losing fewer people to dioceses departing than we are to people exiting their local Episcopal church.
Philip Jenkins, author of Laying Down the Sword: Why We Can’t Ignore the Bible’s Violent Verses, faces statistical reality and offers a theory to explain it.
