STATISTICS REVEAL ECUSA’S STEEP DECLINE

AS IF TO REINFORCE THE SORRY STATE OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH, Dr. David Sumner, journalist, author, and Episcopal Church historian, did some research on ECUSA’s latest figures and came up with the following information. He wrote Virtuosity to say that ECUSA has experienced a 36 percent decline in membership between 1966–2001, while at the same time ECUSA experienced a 63 percent increase in the number of ordained clergy. The number of members per clergy has declined from 343 in 1966 to 133 in 2001. More than 500 parishes have left ECUSA or been closed between 1985 and 2001.

"I don’t know how anyone can dispute these statistics. They all came from the Episcopal Church Annuals." Dr. Sumner’s book, A History of the Episcopal Church, has figures in the appendix, which is based on figures in the church’s official Redbook. (Virtuosity has a few copies of this book and is glad to make them available to readers who are historically inclined for a donation to the cause.)

It should be apparent, on any reading of the situation, that nearly 40 years of theological innovation, the watering down of doctrine, re-writing the Prayer Book, and adopting bizarre sexual behaviors is not working. It is creating more pain than ever, polarizing Episcopalians—and Anglicans worldwide—into various camps, all in the name of a false inclusion and bastardized diversity that is gospel-denying and spiritually suicidal.

ANOTHER NAIL IN THE COFFIN OF REVISIONISM

ONE MORE NAIL IN THE COFFIN OF REVISIONISM took place this week when it was announced that revisionist bishop Richard Schimpfky (El Camino Real) was finally given a financial package to go. He agreed to resign after years of dissension.

Under his leadership, the diocese declined from 30,000 to 12,000 when he first took office in 1990—another example (like Grew) that revisionism has no gospel, and in the end, even their own people turn on them, because the writing on the wall looks remarkably like Mene, mene, tekel upharsin.

ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY RECOMMENDS STUDYING ATHEISM

A DISTURBING STORY OUT OF LONDON says the Archbishop of Canterbury wants students to study atheism. Keen to counter the inadequacies of religious education, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, reportedly wants school students to have a grounding in atheistic concepts.

According to a report in Annanova and The Telegraph, Williams has recommended Philip Pullman’s best-selling trilogy titled His Dark Materials for school pupils. The archbishop feels that Pullman’s magnum opus—which ends with the death of God—would help to counter the inadequacies of some religious education. (Full story in the digest.)

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I AM POSTING A NUMBER OF STORIES ON THE EVENTS THAT TOOK PLACE IN OHIO, AND THE WIDER IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION.

There are the usual Virtuosity columnists and a number of other stories, including a fine article by Dr. Peter Moore, president of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry.

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All blessings,

David W. Virtue, DD