Overseas Episcopalians Show Increase
Episcopal News Service. July 26, 1979 [79238]
New York -- The baptized membership of the overseas dioceses of the Episcopal Church has increased 140 percent in the last ten years, according to the Rev. Samuel Van Culin, Executive for National and World Mission of the Episcopal Church Center staff.
Father Van Culin's figures are taken from a recent report prepared by the Mission Information and Education Office.
The report shows that there are 224,221 baptized Episcopalians in the 19 overseas missionary dioceses of the Episcopal Church. The same jurisdictions had a total membership of 159,980 in 1969.
Father Van Culin attributes this growth to the emphasis put on evangelism in many of the jurisdictions. "Instead of sitting and waiting, many Christians overseas are on the move in spreading the Gospel," he said.
The 19 dioceses are located in the Third World: 14 in Latin America, 4 in Asia, and 1 in Africa.
According to the report, the overseas diocese with the largest number of Episcopalians is Haiti with 78,380 members, followed by Northern Philippines with 40, 584. The smallest diocese is El Salvador with 463 baptized members.
There are 18 bishops and 372 priests serving in overseas dioceses who are native born, while the number of American missionaries in these jurisdictions is only 24.
During the last two years, 67 men have been ordained to the ministry. So far, there are no women who have been ordained priests or deacons in overseas dioceses.
The ratio of baptized members to clergy is 602, almost three times as many as in the United States.
The overseas Episcopalians are members of 618 parishes and missions. The communicant strength is 89,982, according to the report.
All the 19 missionary dioceses are under the leadership of a resident bishop, with the exception of Nicaragua which is temporarily under the Bishop of El Salvador.
The Colorado General Convention in Denver in September may be the last one in which the whole family will be together since Puerto Rico is requesting extra provincial status, in order to become part of another Anglican jurisdiction in the Caribbean. Several other dioceses are in conversations with neighboring jurisdictions for the purpose of forming geographical units within the Anglican Communion.
In the 93 U.S. dioceses of the Episcopal Church there are 2,815,359 baptized members for a worldwide total of 3,039,580 Episcopalians.