In a recent parochial report released by the Episcopal Church, statistics showed a continuation of the decline in membership that the Church has been facing over the past decade.
The report found that the average Sunday church worship attendance was 518,000 in 2019, a decline from 531,000 in 2018. Additionally, the number of members baptized nationally declined from 1.67 million to 1.63 million. While these statistics do not represent extremely large changes for the church, they are significant when taken in context over the past 10 years. A 2009 report by the Episcopal Church indicates a nearly 25 percent decrease in regular worship attendees from 724,000 to 518,000 in 2019.
In contrast to the decreasing attendance numbers, the Episcopal Church has seen an increase in financial resources. The average pledge amount in 2019 was $3,087, and the total income was $2.44 billion, up $0.09 from 2018. Deputy executive officer of the Episcopal Church's General Convention, Rev. Dr. Molly James, found confidence in these numbers, assuring that the data "tells an important part of the story of who we are as Episcopalians, and going forward Parochial Report data will also help us tell the story of the remarkable ways the Church has adapted to the difficult circumstances in which we find ourselves."
That being said, the overall net increase in financial resources was not overtly significant. While income for the church did increase, so did the costs that the church accrued. The costs of the Episcopal church increased by approximately $24 million from 2018 to 2019.
Unlike Rev. Dr. James, the Anglican program director for the Institute on Religion and Democracy, Jeffery Walton, was not as optimistic about the Episcopal Church's situation. As he explained in an article on the IRD blog site, "Episcopalians continue to die 'a death of a thousand cuts'."
