Serious decline in Canadian churches--includes Jehovah's Witnesses

by Kenneson 9 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Kenneson

  
  Check out the article entitled "Plummeting attendance shows Canadian church faces 'extinction' " at

  http://www.eni.ch/articles/display.shtml?05-0938

  Jehovah's Witnesses, too, have shown a decline in membership. See the end of the article.
• 

  unique1

  Awesome. I guess everyone is getting tired of being lied to.
• 

  Satanus

  Hahaha! I'm so glad to be canadian. Bring your nonbelievers, atheists, naturists, homos that wanna get married, peacenics, druggies (soft drugs only, please). We need some statues for liberties along our borders.

  S

  Edited to add an apology for my patriotic outburst. We canadians are usually much more demure.
• 

  GetBusyLiving

  :Hahaha! I'm so glad to be canadian. Bring your nonbelievers, atheists, naturists, homos that wanna get married, peacenics, druggies (soft drugs only, please). We need some statues for liberties along our borders.

  Satanus old buddy, I couldnt have said it better myself!

  GBL
• 

  I quit!

  I wonder if it may be more of a swing than a decline like what is going on here in california. The non-denominational churches such as Calvary Chapel and The Vinyard (mega churches) seem to be expanding. Also I think the Catholics are doing ok here. One of my neighbors is a Methodist and she told me the old ones at her church are dying out and they aren't attracting any new members yet other churches around here are growing. The ones that seem to be doing better are ones that have a lot for people to do particularly things for young people to do. Everytime I have seen one of these articles they never mention the churches that are growing and there are a lot of them in my area.
• 

  skyman

  NOW for the rest of the world
• 

  Scully

  
  
  Plummeting attendance shows Canadian church faces 'extinction' Ferdy Baglo
  Vancouver, Canada (ENI). Canada's churches are suffering such a serious decline in membership that some denominations face disappearance, a report presented to the Anglican Church of Canada's House of Bishops released by Can West News Service shows.

  Keith McKerracher, a retired marketing expert who serves as an advisor to the church, published the data which shows that between 1961 and 2001, Anglican numbers plunged from 1.36 million to 642 000, a decline of 53 per cent. He said the Anglican church is losing 13 000 members each year and, at this rate, "is facing extinction by the middle of this century".

  McKerracher reported that membership in the United Church of Canada fell from 1.04 million to 638 000 during the same period - a loss of 39 per cent. And during the same period, the Presbyterian Church in Canada membership dropped 35 per cent, Baptist seven per cent and Lutheran four per cent. He said Roman Catholic membership figures are not available. 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 institutionalised religion is not central to peoples' lives as is individualised religion."

  The group calling itself Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance says on its Web site http://www.religioustolerance.org/can_rel.htm, "Small non-Christian faith groups are increasing in number and popularity. The percentage of Atheists, Agnostics, Humanists, secularists, and persons of no religious adherence is increasing rapidly. Many Canadians identify themselves as adherents of a specific religion, religious group or denomination, but no longer attend services."

  Other voices point to the decline in the birth rate among the Anglicans' traditional constituency - white Anglo-Americans and Anglo-Canadians - as one of the root causes of the drop in membership numbers.

  Oussoren said the downward shift 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 per cent; the Mennonites 7.9 per cent; Pentecostals 15.3," he said.

  ---

  I would wager that the 2001 census is a far more accurate reflection of JW statistics than the WTS's annual report.
• 

  Satanus

  The percentage of Atheists, Agnostics, Humanists, secularists, and persons of no religious adherence is increasing rapidly.

  It must be the guerilla missionary tactics of those evangelical atheists bearing fruit.

  S
• 

  Mary

  Actually, the real reason there's such a decline in church attendance up here is cause it's too damn cold to go out anywhere Sunday mornings.
• 

  willyloman

  News you won't read in "Watching the World" (and not just because they've cut back on it starting in January):

  Oussoren said the downward shift 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 per cent; the Mennonites 7.9 per cent; Pentecostals 15.3," he said.