wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Membership losses pushing Canadian churches to brink of

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #9044 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05650
Dec. 6, 2005

Researcher says membership losses pushing
Canadian churches to brink of 'extinction'
  
Report says many identify themselves as adherents
of religious groups, but have quit attending services

by Ferdy Baglo
Ecumenical News International  

VANVOUVER - Canada's churches are suffering such a serious decline in
membership that some denominations could disappear, according to a report to
the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC), released
recently by Can West News Service. 
  
	Keith McKerracher, a retired marketing expert who advises the church,
published data showing that, between 1961 and 2001, Anglican membership
plunged from 1.36 million to 642,000 - a decline of 53 per cent. McKerracher
said the ACC is losing 13,000 members a year and "is facing extinction by the
middle of this century."  
  
	McKerracher also reported that membership in the United Church of
Canada (UCC) fell from 1.04 million to 638,000 over the same period, a loss
of 39 per cent. And membership in the Presbyterian Church of Canada declined
by 35 per cent, the Baptist church 7 per cent, and the Lutheran church, 4 per
cent. Roman Catholic membership figures were not available, he said.  
   
	The Rev. Harry Oussoren, executive minister of the UCC Support to
Local Ministries, told Ecumenical News International: "Generally, not only
across Canada but the entire Western world, we're aware of a trend that says
that institutionalized religion is not central to peoples' lives, as is
individualized religion."  
  
	A group that calls itself Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
says on its Web site - www.religioustolerance.org/can_rel.htm -  that "small
non-Christian faith groups are increasing in number and popularity." It says
percentages of self-professed atheists, agnostics, humanists, secularists and
people of no religious adherence are increasing rapidly, and many Canadians
"identify themselves as adherents of a specific religion, religious group or
denomination, but no longer attend services."  
  
	Others have pointed to a decline in birth rates among the Anglicans'
traditional constituency - white Anglo-Americans and Anglo-Canadians - as a
root cause of the membership drop.  
  
	According to Oussoren, the drop in support of institutions is also
marked among the more traditional, conservative religious groups: "For
example, in the 2001 census the Jehovah's Witnesses are showing a loss of 8.1
percent, the Mennonites 7.9 percent, Pentecostals 15.3 percent," he said.

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