Episcopal Church in crisis: CEN 4.03.09 p 6.

An internal committee of the Episcopal Church’s General Convention has released a report warning that the church is in crisis and faced with long term decline.

The 20-page report from the Committee on the State of the Church published in the “Blue Book”-the report prepared for the July 8-17 General Convention in Anaheim, California—found a church wracked with conflict, and one whose aging members were dying off and not being replaced

The findings of the committee, appointed by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and President of the House of Deputies Bonnie Anderson, contradict the two leaders’ assurances that all was well. Speaking to the Columbus Dispatch last October following the secession of the dioceses of San Joaquin and Pittsburgh, Bishop Jefferts Schori said, “I think we’re well past the worst of the crisis.”

The report acknowledged past criticism the Committee seemed “unwilling to recognize the presence of a major source of internal controversy” within the Episcopal Church. “The metaphor most often used was that we ‘failed to acknowledge the elephant in the room’, referring to what many viewed as the momentous decision by the 74th General Convention to consent to the consecration of the Bishop of New Hampshire.”

In the years following the consecration of Gene Robinson “tensions” appeared to have risen dramatically within congregations. A 2005 survey found that 37 percent of congregations were in some degree of conflict and had lost members as a result of the Robinson consecration.

A 2008 survey found that 64 percent of congregations were now in some degree of conflict. “Overall, 47 percent of Episcopal congregations had serious conflict over this issue, 40 percent indicated that some people left and 18 percent indicated that some people withheld funds,” the committee report states.

Those congregations in conflict had also lost the most members, with the “the rate of decline in Average Sunday Attendance from 2003-2007 among congregations with serious conflict over the ordination of gay clergy was 35 percent higher than congregations with no conflict over the issue.”

The church’s finances were also trending downwards. While income growth had kept pace with inflation over the past seven years, the number of congregations reporting financial difficulties was “alarming.” A “very substantial fraction of our congregations-two-thirds-reported that in 2008 they experienced some level of financial difficulty. Eight percent report ‘serious’ difficulty, 17 percent report ‘some’ difficulty, and another 42 percent describe their financial circumstances as ‘tight, but we manage’.”

Claims by the church’s progressive wing that new members would swarm into the church in the wake of the Robinson consecration had not been borne out. The report noted that The Episcopal Church has an average 19,000 more deaths than births each year, which was comparable to the loss of a diocese every 12 months.

“Despite these trends of decline, about 50 percent of ‘cradle Episcopalians’ are being retained. Detailed analysis of our survey data suggests that The Episcopal Church does make up for some of its losses through ‘transfers in’-although not nearly at the same rate as in the historic past,” the report stated, with only one domestic US diocese, South Carolina, reporting growth in active members and communicants in good standing between 2003 and 2007.