By Jeffrey Walton, Juicy Ecumenism.
Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is leaving office this month after a tumultuous nine years in office that saw significant conflict and numerical decline in the oldline church.
Statistics released this week by the denomination’s Office of Diocesan and Congregational Ministries indicate that Jefferts Schori is leaving her successor, Presiding Bishop-elect Michael Curry, with decline that is steepening rather than tapering off.
The church’s domestic U.S. membership dropped 2.7 percent from a reported 1,866,758 members in 2013 to 1,817,004 in 2014, a loss of 49,794 persons. Attendance took an even steeper hit, with the average number of Sunday worshipers dropping from 623,691 in 2013 to 600,411 in 2014, a decline of 23,280 persons in the pews, down 3.7 percent.
The numbers are significantly worse than 2013, when the church reported a 1.4 percent decline in membership and 2.6 percent decline in average Sunday attendance.
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Satan celebrates.
Let’s see – – you take a holy tree and cut off the Godly roots of scripture and then you are surprised that the leaves wither and fall off? Shame on you for being ignorant of the natural and supernatural process. A denomination that cuts itself off from the authority of scripture is like a tree that has its roots cut off. The tree will die.
The Episcopal Church, like the PCUSA, has abandoned Scripture as its authority for faith and practice. True Christians are fleeing its apostate regime.
Five dioceses have separated from the Episcopal Church.
Moreover, most of the Anglican Communion is appalled by its positions. The Anglican Communion may split.
Jesus said:
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.” (John 15:5-6)
That may be fate of the Episcopal Church if it continues on its present path.