Largest U.S. Presbyterian group continues to lose members, down over 4%

The Presbyterian Church (USA) reported one other large departure of membership and congregations in 2022 because the nation’s largest Protestant denomination adopted controversial positions on Israel final yr and stated it will rely “nonbinary” and “genderqueer” members individually.

The denomination misplaced 53,105 members — virtually 2,000 greater than it did in 2021, leaving the mainline Protestant church with 1,140,665 members, down greater than 342,000 in seven years.

The lack of 4.4% of its membership in a yr averages out to greater than 1,000 departures per week.

The Louisville, Kentucky-based denomination stated Monday 108 church buildings disaffiliated, dropping the variety of congregations to eight,704, a shedding of 747 church buildings since 2016.

The denomination stays overwhelmingly White, with 89.08% of members — 816,359 individuals — recognized in that class. Black members quantity 41,024, or 4.5% of membership. Just over 58% of members are age 56 and above, the statistical report revealed.

After asserting in October they’d rely “nonbinary/genderqueer” members in a separate membership itemizing, the 2022 statistical report stated 1,317 members self-identified in that class, or 0.15% of the whole membership.

The group’s chief govt blamed the pandemic for the decline in membership.

“We are not surprised by the numbers we are seeing. While the pandemic may be over, the impact on church membership is still being felt,” the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II stated in an announcement.

A 1983 merger between the mainly southern U.S.-based Presbyterian Church within the United States and the extra nationally based mostly United Presbyterian Church within the United States of America created the PCUSA denomination.

The new group began out with roughly 3 million members however misplaced almost two-thirds of that quantity as its governing physique, the General Assembly, adopted more and more radical positions. 

Last July, delegates voted to declare Israel’s therapy of Palestinians within the West Bank and Gaza Strip as assembly “the international legal definition of apartheid.”

A separate measure known as on delegates so as to add May 15 as “Palestinian Nakba Remembrance Day” to the PCUSA calendar. “Nakba,” that means catastrophe or disaster, is a time period utilized by Palestinians to explain the 1948 declaration of independence by the State of Israel.