Anglicans were justifiably preoccupied earlier this month with the shock announcement by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby that he is to resign in the wake of the Makin Review that exposed a conspiracy of silence about the abuses of barrister John Smyth.
Annual release of data from the Episcopal Church’s 2023 parochial reports has mostly been overlooked (it was dropped at 6:30 p.m. on the Friday before the Veterans Day holiday weekend) but there is a trove of numbers worth examining. As I noted on the evening of the statistical release, membership continues its uninterrupted decline, down 2.6 percent, while attendance across the same period saw a 10.69 percent rebound from post-pandemic lows.
This is a respite from the calamitous declines of recent years, and the denomination’s data shows that only 35 parishes and missions were shuttered (down from 6,789 in 2022 to 6,754 in 2023).
That said, these numbers should be considered in the context of the past decade. Here are numbers from the denomination’s Table of Statistics:
Baptisms (Children)
2013: 28,509
2022: 15,272
2023: 16,924 (+1,652 or 10.8% since 2022, -11,585 or -41% since 2013)
Baptisms (Adult)
2013: 4,484
2022: 2,147
2023: 3,323 (+1,176 or 55% since 2022, -1,161 or -26% since 2013)
Receptions
2013: 6,970
2022: 4,106
2023: 7,567 (+3,461 or 84% since 2022, +597 or +8.7% since 2013)
Marriages
2013: 10,394
2022: 5,562
2023: 4,886 (-676 or 12% since 2022, -5,508 or -53% since 2013)
Burials:
2013: 29,605
2022: 25,905
2023: 24,878 (-1,027 or 4% since 2022, -4,727 or -16% since 2013)
Open Parishes & Missions
2013: 7,115
2022: 6,789
2023: 6,754 (-35 or half a percent since 2022, -361 or -5.1% since 2013)
The two items I’ll highlight are marriages and receptions: the former shows no rebound at all post-COVID (unlike baptisms, which are at least up from the prior year) and the latter is the only tracked metric showing growth across the past decade (unless we fail to adjust plate-and-pledge numbers for the rate of inflation). There does appear to be a modest but sustained pipeline of people being received into the Episcopal Church. Additionally, note that the number of people buried in Episcopal Church funerals has consistently declined. There is not a great “die-off” accompanying the membership slide, people are walking out the door alive.
(Readers may access the 2013 Table of Statistics here. 2022 is viewable here and the latest 2023 statistics are viewable here.)
Membership loss from 2022-2023 has widely varied: a handful of dioceses (mostly overseas jurisdictions like Haiti, Cuba, Taiwan, and the Dominican Republic) reported a gain in the number of members, while most in the United States continued to decline.
Among the worst are Eastern Michigan (-11.6% in 2023, or -46.1% since 2014) merged this year with Western Michigan (-1.9% in 2023, or -33.4% since 2014) into the new Diocese of the Great Lakes.
The Diocese of Eau Claire (-5.4% in 2023, or -50.4% since 2014) merged this year with Fond du Lac (-3.2% in 2023, or -37.7% since 2014) and Milwaukee (-2.7% in 2023, or -32.2% since 2014) into the new Diocese of Wisconsin.
Midwestern dioceses in general seemed to struggle more than most others, with neighboring Iowa posting a 10.9% decline in 2023 and down 43.6% since 2014.
The Dioceses of Vermont (-10.9% in 2023, or -38.2% since 2014), Maine (-1.6% in 2023, or -29.4% since 2014), and New Hampshire (-11.9% in 2023, or -29.5% since 2014) have begun collaborating with one another to share resources and hold joint conferences, a move that may lead to a future merger. Vermont, especially, is down to 4,045 members and has struggled with finances and a contentious episcopacy in recent years.
Readers may access Episcopal Church Baptized Members by Province and Diocese 2014-2023 here.
