Will the Episcopal Church Survive?

Now I got into my own blog site and figured out how to write something else. What's on my mind? I've been thinking quite a bit lately about The Episcopal Church, the church in which I have been ordained for almost 49 years, as somewhat of a "sinking ship" I am not depressed about it. It just seems that gradually we have evolved into something different; a church that is decreasing in numbers with small churches getting smaller and big churches getting bigger. In rural states like Kansas, where I live, the number of full time positions for clergy have gradually decreased to the point where many rural churches rely on part time clergy who have non church jobs. This might not be bad, but it does raise a serious question about the future for full time seminary trained priests.


Some of my friends in parish minsitry tell me that they wonder if they will have a job in 20 years? That's a reasonable question, I think, given the fact that many of the bigger churches have life cycles along with the difficulty of attracting a sizable number of young people.


The rise of the big non-denominational churches has hurt all mainline churches, except perhaps the Roman Catholic Church. Urban center city churches are also are experiencing a great deal of difficulty.


On top of that, Bishops and their diocesan staffs have grown to the point that funds necessary for parish development and evangelism are being siphoned off by diocesan assessments, as numbers of congregants and the funds they provide are and have been stabilizing or diminishing. As Loren Mean wrote more than a decade ago, the water table is rising above the necks of churches and the money is simply not there to both maintain, evangelize, and support large diocesan staffs.


The obvious answers are church growth and increased financial stewardship. But this does not come easily for Episcopalians. For one thing, our way of doing worship is contrary to American Protestantism. We are, after all, inheritors of the liturgies of both the ancient church and, more recently, the Church of England. This wonderful, beautiful, liturgical candenced way of speaking to God is simply not in the genes of most American Protestants. Having been raised in an evangelical United Methodist Church, I remember wistfully the simply service of prayer and Word with sermons lasting at least 40 minutes. Fortunately, we had a good preacher in the pulpit. It is this with which most American Protestants have genetically experienced worship.


I'm not calling for a wholesale "Americanization" of our way of doing liturgy. I am merely suggesting that it may be a problem.



In preparation for my June mission trip to Kenya, I have studied Anglican worship in an African setting. Some African Anglicans have maintained the shape of the liturgy while adapting to both local African customs and emergencing Pentecostalism. These churches are growing. I think the American Church will be reluctant and even suspicious of moving in this direction, but it will be interesting to see the African Church in liturgical action.


I can't solve this today. I can't solve it tomorrow. And it one sense, as a retired priest of almost ten years, it is presumptious of me to even suggests solutions. But I am concerned. I do fret about it. And I do care...a lot.