Heidi Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 National Council of Churches’ 2011 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches http://www.ncccusa.org/news/110210yearbook2011.html I didn't realize how big the Catholic church was in the US. It would be interesting to see a world-wide count as well (of all churches). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skadi Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 I'm not sure it's realistic to say this or that church "grew" by 1% or thereabouts, since that doesn't keep up with the population growth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heidi Posted February 21, 2011 Author Share Posted February 21, 2011 I'm not sure it's realistic to say this or that church "grew" by 1% or thereabouts, since that doesn't keep up with the population growth. Yeah, I know. Who knows how each church counts growth or decline. It doesn't sound like they all use one form of counting, they just submit their numbers... I guess. Still, I thought it was interesting. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 (edited) My understanding is that the Roman Catholic church claims as a "member" anyone who's been baptized Catholic (and hasn't been excommunicated). If this is true then I'm Catholic, even though I haven't been to a mass since I was in high school and I'm a member of another denomination. Along the same lines, I remember a debate at another (protestant) church we used to attend about how they should figure membership; should they keep on the rolls anyone who had become a member once and hadn't officially transferred elsewhere, even if they hadn't attended in years? What I'm getting at is that these figures appear to be self-reported by the churches, and each denomination (and even individual churches within denominations) has its own way of determining what constitutes a "member." Edited February 21, 2011 by kokotg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skadi Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Definitely! You might also want to download this PDF that talks about how Americans who identify as Christian dropped from 86% in 1990 to 76% in 2008 (losing roughly one percent per year). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OLG Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 My understanding is that the Roman Catholic church claims as a "member" anyone who's been baptized Catholic (and hasn't been excommunicated)." The RC church takes a 'head count' each year, at least in the US and they also have the number of registered parish familys both of which are reported to the bishops annually. Interesting statistics though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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