January 2012

2011 Year in Review: Decline of the Mainline

By Warren Cole Smith with Tim Dalyrimple

(WNS)—In the days when streetcars were an important mode of transportation in urban areas, the best established, wealthiest churches would often plant themselves on the streetcars’ main line, and so came to be called the “mainline churches.”

But for the past half-century, at least, these mainline churches have been in decline – both in terms of number of congregants and in impact on the larger culture. 2011 saw that decline continue. Here are a 2011 mileposts on the main line.

Old Protestant Denominations Continue Decline. The 2011 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, which the National Council of Churches released in February, presents information on 227 church bodies. The Catholic Church remains the largest religious body, with 68.5 million members, followed by the Southern Baptist Convention, with 16.2 million. The most striking figures in the 2011 yearbook are the continued declines among mainline denominations. The five biggest drops in membership were among mainline denominations. The 2011 totals dropped for the United Church of Christ by 2.83 percent, the Episcopal Church by 2.48 percent, the Presbyterian Church (USA) by 2.61 percent, the Lutheran Church (ELCA) by 1.96 percent, and the United Methodist Church by 1 percent. Yet the news gets worse with a longer frame of reference. Membership in the United Methodist Church has declined by over 600,000 members, or over 7 percent, from the 2001 to the 2011 yearbooks. The Presbyterian Church (USA) has lost nearly 800,000 people, or over 20 percent of its membership, in that span.

Long Division. “To say the Presbyterian Church (USA) is deathly ill is not editorializing but acknowledging reality.” So begins a stunning open letter signed by numerous prominent PC (USA) pastors and leaders, including noted figures such as John Ortberg, and Vic Wentz of Peachtree Presbyterian in Atlanta, the largest congregation in the denomination. What has sapped the health of the denomination, the letter states, is not only “unending controversy” on issues like gay ordination but also more fundamental differences on the authority of Scripture, the nature of Christ, and whether salvation can be found in other faiths. The letter invited like-minded pastors and elders to a meeting in August where participants will form a “Fellowship” to bind and serve their congregations in new ways. It is time to acknowledge that the churches within the denomination are “divided already,” says the letter, and to question whether denominations in their current form have outlived their usefulness.

No Obedience Required.  For three decades pro-gay factions within the Presbyterian Church (USA) have pressed for the ordination of homosexual church officers. This year they carried the day, with a majority of presbyteries now voting to amend the PC(USA) Book of Order to permit sexually active gays and lesbians to be ordained.  Prior to the amendment, the Book of Order directed the governing bodies of presbyteries (regional organizations of the denomination) to ordain as deacons, elders, and ministers only those who lived “a life of obedience to Scripture,” whether in single “chastity” or married “fidelity.” Those “persons refusing to repent of any self-acknowledged practice which the confessions call sin” should not be ordained. The newly passed Amendment 10-A removes this language and directs the governing bodies simply to be “guided by Scripture and the confessions in applying standards to individual candidates.” The presbyteries are not compelled to ordain non-celibate homosexuals, but they are no longer forbidden to do so, just as they are no longer forbidden to ordain heterosexuals who are sexually active outside of marriage. The new rule took effect on July 10.

Anglicans Re-forming in North America. The decline of the mainline has also led too rewal in some quarters. Anglicanism has begun a global and local reformation, according to Archbishop Robert Duncan of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). On June 21 he delivered his annual state of the church address, describing the growth and challenges faced by orthodox Anglicans. As a province-in-formation within the worldwide Anglican Communion, ACNA unites 100,000 Anglicans in nearly 1,000 congregations across the United States and Canada. The province represents 11 organizations and 4 former Episcopal dioceses. Duncan serves as both head of the ACNA and bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh. “The North American Anglican Church, chiefly represented by the Episcopal Church, was in a drift away from classic Christian orthodoxy for nearly five decades,” Duncan said. As a result, Anglicans have split into more than 40 different groups since the 1960s. “Around the year 2000,” he explained, “Anglicans began to determine that it was time to bring these fragments together.”