How's that policy of promoting inclusiveness working out for you?

Episcopal Church announces that its membership level is the lowest in 70 years.

New statistics from the Episcopal Church show the group's loss of more than 200,000 members and 300 parishes between 2006 and 2010, bringing membership to its lowest since the 1930s.


In an Oct. 22 blog entry, commentator David Virtue noted that if the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion continues to lose active members at the present rate, then “in 26 years there will no longer be anyone attending an Episcopal church.”

Virtue made his prediction based on figures showing five years of consistent decline in average Sunday worship attendance, as well as total membership and number of parishes, in the Episcopal Church.

The official “Episcopal Domestic Fast Facts Trends 2006-2010” document showed a 16 percent decline in members since 2000.

The denomination has lost an average of 25,798 Sunday worshipers each year since 2006, bringing the total of U.S. Episcopal worshipers on a given Sunday to 657,831 in 2010. Overall, the Sunday attendance rate in Episcopal communities has declined by 23 percent since 2000.

With a total membership of 1,951,907 in 2010, the Episcopal Church has reached its lowest rate of membership since the 1930s. According to the Association of Religion Data Archives, the mainline Protestant denomination last reported having less than 2 million members in 1939.

Episcopalianism peaked numerically in 1959 with more than 3.4 million members. Since 1968, however, it has lost over one third of its membership.

That is an absolute decline.  The relative decline is absolutely staggering in the face of the quadrupling of the United States population during the Twentieth Century.

But, of course, according to the lady who runs the Episcopal Church in the United States, the decline is a design feature of Episcopalianism.  According to the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori :

Episcopalians tend to be better-educated and tend to reproduce at lower rates than some other denominations. Roman Catholics and Mormons both have theological reasons for producing lots of children… . We encourage people to pay attention to the stewardship of the earth and not use more than their portion.

So, in post-modern parlace, "be fruitful and multiply" means joining the voluntary human extinction movement.

If you too want to see your church become extinct, by all means ordain women and make homosexuality a lifestyle option for your clergy.