The Episcopal Church has released new statistics on attendance and church membership showing overall membership to be down 1.4 percent and average Sunday attendance down 2.6 percent. But some areas are experiencing growth, based on recent parochial reports:
Among the facts:
– In 2012, membership in the Episcopal Church is 2,066,710 with 1,894,181 in the domestic (50 U.S. states) dioceses and 172,529 in the non-domestic (non U.S. states) dioceses.
– Thirty-three domestic dioceses showed growth in membership in the past year: Alaska; Arkansas; Atlanta; California; Central Florida; Chicago; Colorado; East Tennessee; El Camino Real; Florida; Fond du Lac; Hawaii; Idaho; Iowa; Kansas; Maryland; Mississippi; Missouri; Montana; Navajoland; North Carolina; North Dakota; Northern California; Oklahoma; Pittsburgh; San Joaquin; Tennessee; Texas; Upper South Carolina; Washington; West Tennessee; Western Massachusetts; Western New York.
– In the non-domestic dioceses, growth in membership was marked in three dioceses: Ecuador-Litoral, Puerto Rico, Venezuela.
Thirteen dioceses experienced growth in average Sunday attendance. Some of the gains were rather small, but Chicago (340), Nevada (165) and Southeast Florida (103) experienced triple digit growth.
Membership and average Sunday attendance fell in all eight of the church’s domestic provinces, while both numbers inched up by .3 percent in Province IX, which includes dioceses in Central and South America and the Caribbean.