The following comes from Nov. 1 posting on SperoForum.com.
The church that some wags once dubbed ‘the Republican Party at prayer,’ has seen a significant drop in its size. According to statistics compiled by the Episcopal Church of the USA, the Anglican-affiliated denomination dropped 24 percent in its numbers over the last ten years. Baptized membership in declined by 29,679 in 2012 to 2,066,710, according to its October 31 report. Moreover, church statistics showed that average Sunday attendance declined steadily and by 2.6 per cent in 2012, alone. Currently, some 679,923 Episcopalians now attend Sunday services….
By 2012 there was evident a dramatic drop in the domestic Sunday attendance to 640,142: a decline of 206,498 or 24 per cent over ten years. The 2012 totals do not account for the session of the Diocese of South Carolina, which would subtract an estimated 25,000 from the church’s baptized membership and 11,000 from its Sunday attendance.
Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori explained in a 2006 New York Times interview why her church is shrinking:
How many members of the Episcopal Church are there in this country?
About 2.2 million. It used to be larger percentagewise, but 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.
Episcopalians aren’t interested in replenishing their ranks by having children?
No. It’s probably the opposite. We encourage people to pay attention to the stewardship of the earth and not use more than their portion.
To read the entire posting, click here.
It appears that Episcopal bishop Shori is wearing make-up in the photo with this article. I wonder why?
She thinks it enhances her natural beauty?
Why ask such a silly question? Are you opposed to makeup for ALL women or just Presiding Bishop Schori?
I think the point is that she is vain. I don’t believe Mary the mother of Jesus wore make up?
Mary, priests and nuns do not wear make up unless they are on television or singing on a stage (religious songs, of course), so why would any “bishop” wear make up? I think that was Steve’s point.
Thank you, Anne T. Although we have been close at times to having bishops in our communion wearing make-up. . . What’s the point? How does this witness to Christ?
Whoever wrote the lede to this item has been out of touch for a LONG time. It’s been a good half a century since the Episcopal Church was the Republican Party at prayer. Their decline certainly began before the Lambeth Conference of 1930, when they decided that artificial birth control was the will of God—the first Protestant denomnination to do so. And how can anybody forget the incomparable Jim Pike, bishop of California in the silly sixties? Not to mention the Rt. Rev. Vickie Gene Robinson, still bishop of New Hampshire. And… well… it’s a little dated, that’s all.
I believe Gene Robinson, whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, retired from the post a couple of years ago, speaking of dated. And Vickie? Where did you get that one? Trying to slide in an ad hominem insult are we?
Absolutely not. His first name is Vickie. It was widely reported when he came out, but he doesn’t regularly use it, so it is not often used in news reports.
Vicky Jean Robinson is his birth name. Look it up for yourself.
That out-of-touch thing appears to have no limits. Bishop Gene Robinson retired the first part of January and has been living in Washington DC since then.
“The Church of England is “one generation away from extinction”, the former Archbishop of Canterbury has warned” and “We ought to be ashamed of ourselves. We are one generation away from extinction – if we do not invest in young people there is going to be no-one in the future.” are quotes from today UCAN.
There is meaning in this for Catholics, as well. We see the Church has changed (and not necessarily for the better), many of our Catholic schools no longer teach (let alone abide by) doctrine, clergy ignore the Magisterium (somehow they know best) and parents run away from the Church and failing to teach their sons and daughters what the Church means.
These are self-inflicted wounds and it needs to stop.
The Catholic Church is going nowhere.
Yep, no where but HEAVEN.
This new Pope is attracting many souls and who is the Episcopal church attracting but women wanabe bishops who have no faith and no clue and so the isles continue to empty……….
Gee, I wonder where you are going? Why don’t you ask Jesus?
My point, exactly Schneider. The Catholic Church will still be around long after you and I are gone. Jesus said that the gates of Hell will not prevail against it and God knows that the enemy and his minions have tried to destroy it from within and without.
Why is this even news, the Episcopalian’s have been declining for years when you don’t believe in anything and there is no sin or right or wrong as they do well, you die a slow death. The Church of England will cease to be in a few short years, attendance at their services are at 1% and this is the official church of England, while Muslims continue to explode in growth in England as they take over empty churches left by the C of E.
Janek, what you said is very true. It is already happening here in the United States. At lease one Episcopalian church here in California has been turned into a mosque. It had a “woman priest”.
“…Catholics and Mormons have their theological reasons for producing lots of children.” At best this is an thoughtless and mean-spirited comment. At worst, it is bigotry pure and simple. Allow me to translate: “If you are smart like me, you won’t have children. If you are an ignorant lemming, you will have lots of children.” All this from former Roman Catholic Shori.
Well said FTher. That is it in a nutshell!
Mary
Amen padre!
Father Love,
I remember when prior to Vatican II, an ex-Catholic was a rare species let alone a feminist ex-Catholic heretic “bishop”. What happened, where are all of those promised fruits of “New Evangelization”?
As far as I can tell, the only non immigrant Catholic parishes growning in America are the Traditional ones.
At Our Lady Help of Christians in Garden Grove, I witness new YOUNG FAMILIES almost every week, and I only attend the 12:30 PM Mass!
May God have mercy on an amoral America!
Viva Cristo Rey!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founding Director
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
The demographic math for liberal, Modernist, “tolerant” Protestant denominations is simple:
abortion + contraception + homosexuality (inherently sterile) + “biological solution” = extinction
No children, no future. No sound doctrine, few adherents, no converts, no vocations to ministry; demographic suicide.
Catholic bishops had better take a long, hard look at their own Church and dioceses; the Catholic Church is not immune from the above “equation”, the math works the same for any church or religion.
4M
Well said
World history in the last centruy has shown that an ecomomy develops its birthrates fall. North America and Europe have had the biggest drop in births, and now Brazil is rapidly moving towards a birthrate barely above replacement. India is seeing a falling birthrate except in its poorest province. China is revisiting its one child policy. Falling birthrates in the US is natural, it costs far more to raise and educate a child than it did 50 years ago, and save enough for retirement, too. The good old days of “indiscriminate breeding” are gone for good. The exception is natural family planning couples, who produce far more children due to a flawed method.
Humanae Vitae was blown by a bad decision that was counter to the Cardinal’s Commission recommendation to Pope Paul VI. The Church is still paying for that mistake with plummeting Mass counts and one and two child families for reasons above, and a serious credibility problem in the developed world.
And that church, Good Cause, was ran by a “woman priest”.
Priestess is the correct term;
God had always a serious dislike for those. He hates them with a passion. He had the priestesses of ball beheaded.
Western Schnieder, I hope you do not mind me correcting you, but the pagan god of the Old Testament was “Baal” (B-a-a-l), but it is pronounced “ball”.
Anne, did you see the news this week that the Vatican unveiled a mural of a woman celebrating eucharist in the catechombs in Rome?
And who said she was the one celebrating the Eucharist?
The term Eucharist comes from the Greek by way of Latin, and it means “thanksgiving.” It is used in three ways: first, to refer to the Real Presence of Christ; second, to refer to Christ’s continuing action as High Priest (He “gave thanks” at the Last Supper, which began the consecration of the bread and wine); and third, to refer to the Sacrament of Holy Communion itself.
Many people refer to the Mass as “the Eucharist,” but such a use is incorrect. The Mass is made up of two parts: the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The Mass is more than simply the Sacrament of Holy Communion. (By Scott P. Richert)
No, they didn’t. They “unveiled” a mural of a woman. No evidence she was a priestess, at all. Also, the mural is not some new discovery. It was just recently cleaned and restored. But that’s what comes of reading tabloids.
‘She’ could have been a really stunning looking man who couldn’t – for whatever reason we cannot judge – grow a decent beard. Sheesh! Considering how difficult it can be these days to discern the obvious, who in Heaven do we think we are determining the ‘gender’ of a painting that old?
My goodness!
“Good old days of indiscriminate breeding?” Ewww. Major yuck, GC. Spoken like someone who has no clue as to the cross and joy involved in childrearing.
But despite the grotesqueries of your wording, the Catholic Faith is not a numbers game. You know this. As for credibility in the developed world, try credibility with sticking to Catholic teaching, full and entire. How about honoring God and the true nature of man??
Ewww. I still can’t get over that post.
Then again, if I were a cattle baron, I might just hire to manage the studs. Want to get the biggest bang for the buck, after all, and make sure that only the finest heifers get bred.
Ewwww.
Thanks Ann, for giving that crack the answer it deserved. The opposite of “indiscriminate breeding” is pretty obvious, and the proper first reaction to eugenics is “ewwww”, even if the following ones are disbelief, frustration, and anger.
I speculate that children probably irk, and make good cause uneasy – but then they do the modern world, as well – a great pity for all.
God protected the Church, through Pope Paul and through Humanae Vitae, in a most critical way.
Brian, you are absolutely correct in what you say regarding Humanae Vitae. Methinks you’re spot on with ‘good cause’ as well.
In another post, he/she described little children as cramming the pews in mass, describing as much as a sign of the failure of NFP. If that’s not hating God’s nature – man + woman = child – I don’t know what is.
Reminds me of a coworker one time who literally got grossed out because my family actually ate the eggs produced by our own chickens.
good cause, it sounds to me like you may suffer from infantiaphobia. Another possibility is that you are agorophobic. Or could it be that you are post-abortive?
Phobia- a persistent, abnormal, or illogical fear of something.
good cause, where is it written that God in the Old Testament or Jesus in the New Testament said that you should only have children if you could afford them?
When you consider that the Anglican church (Episcopal) was the first Christian church to allow divorce, birth control, abortion, female ministers, and homosexual unions, is there no wonder why this institution is dying? Basically, everyone who cuts himself off from the Catholic Church will sooner or later wither away. The Catholic Church IS the Mystical Body of Christ. Our Lord said, APART FROMM ME, YOU CAN DO NOTHING! A famous author wrote several years ago that Protestantism leads to atheism. Looking at what has happened in western culture the past fifty years, this is the reality, since atheism and anti-God beliefs are taking control on the United States , Canada, and most of Europe. If Catholicism continues to imitate Protestant ideas and doctrine, the same fate awaits Her. Our Blessed Lord said the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church, but the Catholic Church too can become very small so only a remnant remains.
Interesting how she has to snipe orthodox Christians and Mormons because her tiny, leftist church is dying.
Amen brother!
If you don’t have and live by the Truth you will die out. Dead branches cannot produce good fruit.
The same fate awaits the ‘spirit’ of Vatican II nuChurch. No truth, no morals, no tradition, no doctrine equals a swift demise.
To the degree that the liberal/progressive element within the Catholic Church represents the “spirit” of VII, I agree and I also hope for its quick demise; however, the gates of He// will NOT prevail against it. We have that from a very good source.
May God deliver us from the schadenfreude to which we are so thoroughly susceptible.
Episcopalians may be well-educated. But that doesn’t keep one from making stupid or immoral decisions that results in destroying a community through a birth- dearth.
Good Cause 11/20/2013:” Humanae Vitae was blown by a bad decision that was counter to the Cardinal’s Commission recommendation to Pope Paul VI. The Church is still paying for that mistake with plummeting Mass counts…” So, the Pope at that time, Paul VI (you cant get any more ‘spirit of Vatican II’ than Paul VI) should have followed a commission. GC? Really? And what about Casti Connubii (1930), which Humanae Vitae (1968) in essence recapitulates? So there is not “set doctrine” on contraception? Really? Have you read either encyclical, Good Cause?
“Fr. Karl” is spot-on. Ms. Shori is simply idiotic. She should teach is some Eastern liberal college, given her views on families, populations control, the importance of the “Earth” and other things. One thing that she is not, however, is a legitimate member of the clergy. She and her other lady friends like to play dress-up, but that is all it is. Of course, for the Anglicans, that is all it can ever be, given the views of the Church, best stated by Pope Leo XIII in “Apostolicae Curae.” This is why there can never be any “cross-communion” with the Anglicans. Too bad that you are moving away from the Catholic Church, “Good Cause.” “Humanae Vitae” was the saving event of Pope Paul VI’s papacy. Its only failure is in the decades long refusal of most bishops and clergy to recognize and enforce its powerful message. In fact, look no further than “Humanae Vitae” to see the power of the Holy Ghost at work through the Papacy, even with as unlikely a vessel as Paul VI. Not easy to deal with, certainly, but directed by the Third Person of the Trinity, absolutely. But, fear not, “Good Cause,” the Episcopalians don’t recognize the validity of “Humanae Vitae,” so kindred spirits can be found there (and they admit anyone to their version of the “priesthood”).
Episcopalians are fleeing their church but NOT their faith in Christ. They are finding the Catholic Church (again (what is the largest Christian Group in the US? Answer: the Catholic Church. What is the second largest group in the US? Fallen away Catholics – who are returning.) on account of a blatant disregard for the Moral and Natural Law. Episcopalians have “gutted” their ability to speak with authority by embracing deviance: HOMO-SEXUALITY.
Good Cause, the Editor chose to leave out my first post as he/she probably thought it was not clear enough or too harsh, so my one at 11:24 am today really makes no sense. Nevertheless, Good Cause, If I remember correctly, you once said that Natural Family Planning destroyed your parent’s marriage. If that were true, it is not the plan that is flawed but people who are flawed and quite often lack discipline. I do not know what happened with your parents and do not need to know, but would you rather have had your mother take the Birth Control Pill, that is a carcinogen (cancer causing) and also an abortifacient (aborts) at times, and get cancer than your parents having had you children or tried to discipline themselves to limit the number of children they had with by natural means that takes some discipline? Regarding my post that made no sense, the Episcopalian church in Californis ran by the “woman priest” I mentioned is now a mosque.
This was never a Church, but a heresy based on love for impurity and oppression of others. Its end was bound to be a sad one.
It might be a picture of St. Priscilla who was married to St. Aquila. both of whom traveled with St. Paul. She was not a priestess, and there is no indication that any of the women in the mural were serving at an altar as a priestess.
I accidentally put my post above at 8:42 pm in the wrong place. It is meant to be in answer to YFC’s question to me yesterday at 1:58 pm. Sorry for the mix up.