 PCUSA membership loss in '03 is highest since church reunited By John H. Adams The Layman Online Monday, June 7, 2004 The Presbyterian Church (USA) lost 46,658 members during 2003 – higher than the projected downturn and the highest percentage loss in more than a quarter of a century. The exodus reduced membership to 2,405,311 as of Dec. 31, 2003 – a loss of 1.85 million members since the PCUSA and its predecessor denominations had a peak membership of 4,254,597 in 1965. It was more bad news statistically and financially for a denomination that has already reduced its headquarters staff in Louisville, Ky., from more than 700 employees to 494 to reduce the costs of its decline. Numerically, 2003 – a year of swirling controversies over widespread defiance of church laws – was the largest loss since the United Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Presbyterian Church U.S. reunited in 1983 to form the PCUSA. It was also the highest percentage loss (1.9 percent) since 1975, when 2.17 percent of the members of the mainline denominations left the fold. Normally, the stated clerk of the denomination reports on the membership changes at the opening of the annual General Assembly. But the Office of the General Assembly issued an advanced report this year without any personal reference to Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, who is running for a third four-year term. Kirkpatrick did issue a separate statement in which he gave his explanation of the 2003 decline and called for prayer and repentance. In that statement, Kirkpatrick suggested that the denomination's major problem is "that we are losing our people to the secular world – to no active church affiliation." But he provided no documentation – such as exit interviews – suggesting that Presbyterians are departing from the PCUSA and simply not going to church. In fact, many Presbyterians are affiliating with other churches without ever requesting formal transfer of their membership. In the last two years, five healthy and growing Confessing Church congregations literally paid exit fees to their presbyteries to affiliate with two other growing Presbyterian bodies, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church in America. The 2003 loss of 46,658 members is the equivalent of dissolving three 300-member congregations every week for an entire year. It also demonstrates an acceleration of losses. In 2002, Kirkpatrick reported a loss of 41,812 members. The previous year's loss was 31,549. At the current shrinkage rate – an average of 49,000 members departures per year since 1965 – the PCUSA will have zero members by the year 2053. The following is the full text of the Office of the General Assembly report on membership and other data. June 7, 2004 The following are some of the more important 2003 statistical facts about the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). This information is provided by the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly. Additional specific information is available in the Minutes of the 215th General Assembly, Part II, Statistics. Total Membership: 2,405,311 Churches: 11,064 Ministers: 21,348 (Female: 4,310 Male: 17,038) Candidates for Ministry: 1,015 Elders: 101,324 (Female: 49,624 Male: 51,700) Deacons: 68,132 (Female: 47,549 Male: 20,538) Baptisms: 45,411 (Children: 35,237 Adult: 10,174) Synods: 16 Presbyteries: 173 Total congregational contributions: $2,001,068,313 Local program, local mission, and capital expense: $2,511,735,242 Validated mission: $123,509,770 Other mission (non-Presbyterian related): $65,716,728 Allocated to investments: $158,665,271 Total per capita apportionments: $42,676,015 (General Assembly, synod, and ecclesiastical operations) For more information, contact Kris Valerius, Manager, OGA Records, Office of the General Assembly, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, KY 40202-1396; phone (888) 728-7228, ext. 5427; email kvaleriu@ctr.pcusa.org. |
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