wfn.org | United Methodists show most diversity in West

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

May 23, 2002   News media contact: Joretta Purdue7(202) 546-87227Washington
10-30-71B{232}

By United Methodist News Service

A statistical snapshot of the United Methodist Church's U.S. members shows a
great deal of geographic diversity in the gender of clergy and the
racial-ethnic heritage of pastors and lay people.

The U.S. portion of the global church divides the country into five
jurisdictions comprising 65 administrative regions called annual
conferences. 

The church's Western Jurisdiction has a greater percentage - 24.3 - of
female clergy than other jurisdictions, but the annual conferences with the
most women pastors are in the East, according to data released by the
denomination's General Council on Finance and Administration in Evanston,
Ill. 

Clergy in the Greater New Jersey Conference are 31.4 percent female. Other
conferences with high percentages of women clergy are New England, 30.5;
Baltimore-Washington, almost 28; Wyoming, which is in New York, 27.9; and
Kansas East, 27.3. 

When only full elders are counted, the conferences with the highest
percentages of females are Greater New Jersey, 26.6; New England, 24.6;
Baltimore-Washington, 24; Northern Illinois, 23.8; and Wyoming, 22.3.

Racial and ethic diversity is greatest among both the clergy and lay members
of the United Methodist Church's Western Jurisdiction, where 18.8 percent of
the clergy members termed themselves members of a racial ethnic group other
than white. Other jurisdictions' reports ranged between almost 12 percent
minority clergy in the Northeastern Jurisdiction and just under 6 percent in
North Central. 

At the end of 2000, the church had almost 8.3 million lay members in the
United States, out of a worldwide membership of 9.85 million. 

With about 94 percent of the churches reporting racial ethnic composition,
the U.S. portion of the denomination was 0.8 percent Asian American; 5.1
percent African American; 0.6 percent Hispanic; 0.2 percent Native American;
0.1 percent Pacific Islander; and 93.2 percent white.

Of the 3,155 clergy members in the Western Jurisdiction reported at the time
of the annual conference business sessions in 2001, 319 are Asian; 97
African American; 92 Hispanic; 76 Pacific Islander; and nine Native
American. The Western Jurisdiction includes Hawaii and Alaska as well as 10
contiguous Western states (not including New Mexico). 

Figures for the same area for calendar year 2000 indicate nearly 13 percent
racial ethnic lay membership. Among the minority members, Asian Americans
account for almost half of the group; African Americans, about one-fourth,
and Pacific Islanders almost one-eighth. Although not every congregation
reports its racial ethnic composition, the numbers available indicate a
total of 48,317 racial ethnic members and 324,373 white members in this, the
least populous, jurisdiction of the denomination. 

Across all five jurisdictions, the California-Pacific Annual Conference has
the greatest percentage of racial ethnic laity, 31.1, and clergy, 34.9,
excluding the Rio Grande Annual Conference and Oklahoma Indian Missionary
Conference, which are almost exclusively Hispanic and Native American,
respectively.

Among lay members, the conferences with the next largest racial-ethnic
percentages were California-Nevada, 22.7; New York, 22.6;
Baltimore-Washington, 21.8; and South Carolina, 20.1. Others with more than
10 percent racial ethnic membership, in descending order, were Mississippi,
Texas, Louisiana, Greater New Jersey, North Georgia, Peninsula-Delaware,
Northern Illinois and Alaska Missionary.

The annual conferences with the highest percentage of racial ethnic clergy
were California-Pacific, 34.9; Baltimore-Washington, 25.3; Greater New
Jersey, 24.8; New York, 24.7; Peninsula-Delaware, 24.6; California-Nevada,
21.6; Northern Illinois, 21.2; South Carolina, 19.4; and Louisiana, 18.7.

This data provides "a helpful tool for annual conference and local church
leadership seeking to understand who makes up the United Methodist Church,"
said Beth Babbitt Borst, director of statistics at GCFA.

More statistics and information are available at www.gcfa.org online.

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United Methodist News Service
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