wfn.org | "Findings" from NCCCUSA's 1999 Yearbook

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227
E-mail: news@ncccusa.org; Web: www.ncccusa.org

 "FINDINGS" FROM THE 
1999 YEARBOOK OF AMERICAN AND CANADIAN CHURCHES

By Carol J. Fouke, National Council of Churches 
Communication Department

 NEW YORK, March 5 ---- It is the rare work day that I don't 
open the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches at least half 
a dozen times to check a directory listing or retrieve data on 
church membership and finances.

My colleagues and I rely heavily on the Yearbook, especially 
as we field questions from the many journalists, pastors, 
students and others who phone the National Council of Churches, 
situated at the crossroads of U.S. ecumenical life.  

The 1999 Yearbook promises to be our most-used edition ever, 
its 408 pages chock full of useful and fascinating facts, figures 
and detailed listings.  Significantly, all this detail 
illustrates the main theme of the 1999 Yearbook's two trends 
pieces, one by the Yearbook's editor and the other by The New 
York Times' Gustav Niebuhr: American religious life is 
staggeringly diverse.  It is a theme befitting the NCC's 67th, and 
last, Yearbook of the 20th century.

"The century which began in the United States as a much 
heralded `Christian Century' appears at its conclusion to have 
been the `Century of Religious Pluralism,'" comments the 
Yearbook's editor, the Rev. Dr. Eileen W. Lindner.  A church 
historian and Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) minister, she is the 
NCC's Associate General Secretary for Christian Unity.

 Not only is the North American population increasingly 
interfaith, but Christianity itself continues to become more 
diverse, Dr. Lindner observes.

* FACT:  The 1999 Yearbook counts 157,503,033 members in 184 
church bodies in the United States and 6,157,804 members in 90 
church bodies in Canada.

While not a complete census, the Yearbook is the most 
complete available summary of denominational membership.

 Mr. Niebuhr, Senior Religion Correspondent for The New York 
Times, picks up that theme in his snapshot of American religious 
life at century's end.  

The United States is a "fundamentally religious nation," he 
says, with poll after poll showing a "basic religious 
outlook.unchanged since the 1960s, despite the intervening years 
of social upheaval and traumatic political events."  
Nevertheless, "a general distrust of or alienation from sources 
of authority" has eroded people's loyalty to religious 
institutions.  That plus a "heightened sense of spiritual 
individualism among Americans, one that places the satisfaction 
of personal needs above maintaining traditional loyalties," 
presents a major challenge for the churches, Mr. Niebuhr says.

 He goes on to explore people's increasing loyalty to their 
local parish at the expense of the regional or national church, 
which "also opens the door to a certain religious 
entrepreneurism."  A case in point: "the megachurch."  Mr. 
Niebuhr also explores North America's growing religious and 
cultural pluralism.  For example, "No major American city is 
without its Islamic center now, a fact that is as true of the 
Bible belt as it is of the coasts."

* FACT: The 1999 Yearbook points to a panoply of sources on 
American religious pluralism.  Consult practically any page in 
the book, especially the new "Sources in Religion-Related 
Research" chapter.

 Data in the chapter "Trends in Seminary Enrollment" 
illustrate North America's growing cultural pluralism. 

* FACT: Participation in theological education continues a more 
than 20-year trend of diversification.  The proportion of women, 
African Americans and Hispanics in U.S. and Canadian seminaries 
has tripled over the past 25 years.  
 
In fall 1997, in 229 member schools of the Association of 
Theological Schools in the U.S. and Canada, women constituted 
33.10 percent of total enrollment, up from 10.2 percent in 1972; 
African Americans, 8.87 percent (3.2 percent in 1972), and 
Hispanics, 2.94 percent (0.8 percent in 1972).  Pacific/Asian 
American enrollments reached 6.96 percent in 1997 - due in part, 
Dr. Lindner said, to seminaries' "distance learning" outreach.

 1999 Yearbook data, laid alongside that from earlier 
editions, "permit a cautious confirmation of the trend of slower 
rates both of decline among churches perceived as liberal and of 
increase among the churches perceived as conservative," Dr. 
Lindner notes in her "Trends and Developments" essay.  For 
example, two mainline bellwethers, the United Church of Christ 
and her own Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), held their losses to 
under 1 percent of inclusive membership.

 Here are the latest membership tallies supplied the Yearbook 
by the United States' "top 20" church bodies:

INCLUSIVE MEMBERSHIPS "TOP 20" U.S. CHURCH BODIES

Church Body                         1999 Yearbook
Roman Catholic Church              61,207,914 ('96)
Southern Baptist Convention        15,891,514 ('97)
United Methodist Church             8,496,047 ('96)
Natl Baptist Conv. USA, Inc.        8,200,000 ('92)
Church of God in Christ             5,499,875 ('91)
Ev Luth. Church in America          5,185,055 ('97)
Latter-Day Saints/Mormons           4,923,100 ('97)
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)        3,610,753 ('97)
Nat'l Baptist Conv. of Amer Inc.    3,500,000 ('87)
African Meth Episcopal Church       3,500,000 ('91)
Lutheran Ch-Missouri Synod          2,603,036 ('97)
Nat'l Missnry Bap. Conv. of Amer    2,500,000 ('92)
Progressive Nat'l Baptist Conv. Inc.2,500,000 ('95)
Assemblies of God                   2,494,574 ('97)
The Episcopal Church                2,364,559 ('96)
The Orthodox Church in America      2,000,000 ('95)
Greek Orthodox Archdi. of Amer      1,954,500 ('98)
Churches of Christ                  1,800,000 ('97)
American Baptist Churches U.S.A.    1,503,267 (`97)
United Church of Christ             1,438,181 ('97)

Source: 1999 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches

 The National Council of Churches' 35 Protestant, Orthodox 
and Episcopal member church bodies report a combined inclusive 
membership of 51,291,755 in nearly 140,000 congregations, 
according to the 1999 Yearbook (down from 51,500,943 in 34 member 
communions the previous year.  The 34 reported a net loss of 
221,188 members, or 0.43 percent, between Yearbooks).

 The American Diocese of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian 
Church, with 12,000 members in 60 congregations, became the NCC's 
35th member communion in November 1998 - after the 1999 Yearbook 
had gone to press. 

 In the area of financial statistics, overall giving totals 
remain fairly constant for the year reported.  A very modest 
increase in per capita giving is nearly offset by the overall net 
decline in membership of the 58 U.S. denominations reporting.

* FACT: In 1997, full (or confirmed) members in 58 U.S. 
denominations gave on average $557.05 per capita to their local 
congregation, of which 15 percent, or $84.80, was for 
"benevolences" - that is, money forwarded by the congregation for 
community, national and international mission and for 
denominational support.  In 1972, 20 percent, or $22.09, went for 
benevolences of an average $110.29 per capita.

 "In the 1970s," commented Dr. Lindner, "it was clear that 
monies kept home were for the congregation's organizational 
maintenance.  Since the 1980s, that has been less clear.  There 
has been a real burgeoning of congregationally based ministries - 
with homeless and hungry people, elderly people, and so forth.  
Meeting local demands has meant proportionately less money to 
send away."

 The 1999 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches is 
published by Abingdon Press, Nashville, Tenn., and available for 
U.S.$35 (including shipping) through the NCC's Friendship Press 
(212-870-2496) and at local bookstores across the United States 
and Canada.

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