The figures below show what has happened to our United Church since 1988. In 20 years (and under only eight moderators) the Church has lost 338,829 members! Why this immense loss took place and how nothing has so far been able to stop it will probably be the subject of more than one doctoral thesis as Protestant scholars wake up to what is happening.
Of course other Protestant churches in Canada have been similarly afflicted, as have ones in the United States and parts of Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America. We seem fated to go through mainline Protestant losses on a hitherto unimaginable scale.
Can we celebrate the 85th Anniversary of the United Church’s founding this coming June without praying for some resurrection miracle? After all we’ve been going backwards steadily for 20 years.
In 1998 the American Professor of History, Thomas Reeves, wrote a book entitled The Empty Church: The Suicide of Liberal Christianity. Here is what he said on page 175:
The “submission of liberal Protestantism to a secular gospel rests upon a failure to accept the essentials of the Christian faith. The first and most critical step in halting the slide of the mainline churches is the restoration of their commitment to orthodox theology. Everything else depends on that.”
1988 - 1990………………………………………….34,536
(Moderator: Sang Chul Lee)
1990 - 1992………………………………………….43,648
(Moderator: Walter Farquharson)
1992 - 1994………………………………………….31,513
(Moderator: Stan McKay)
1994 - 1997………………………………………….41,018
(Moderator: Marion Best)
1997 - 2000………………………………………….44,646
(Moderator: Bill Phipps)
2000 - 2003………………………………………….44,171
(Moderator: Marion Pardy)
2003-2006……………………………………………51,564
(Moderator: Peter Short)
2006 - 2009………………………………………….47,751
(Moderator: David Guiliano)
TOTAL………………………………………………..338,829