Episcopalians Moving South and West
Episcopal News Service. November 26, 1980 [80423]
New York -- The Episcopal Church is moving. Two generations ago its center of population was in Bethlehem, Pa. In 1970 its people had moved south and west to center in Louisville, Ky.
A recent survey of churches, baptized members and communicants, reveals that the center of Episcopal Church population has edged southward halfway to Nashville, Tenn. The frequently expressed view that there are more Episcopalians in the Northeast region than elsewhere in the United States is apparently no longer supported by statistics.
There are now approximately the same number of U. S. citizens living west of the Mississippi River as in the east. As the population of the country has moved westward and southward, the Church has tagged along, though somewhat behind the general exodus.
Much of the move in the Episcopal Church has been to the Sun Belt in the southwestern and western states, as the age of the population has increased. A county by county comparison of Episcopalians shows that the Church losses over the past ten years have occurred mainly in metropolitan areas.
The data for this study has been assembled as part of an ecumenical study being made by the Roman Catholic Glenmary Research Center in cooperation with the National Council of Churches.
Part of this study will provide the Episcopal Church's Committee on the State of the Church with a demographic handbook prior to the meeting of the triennial General Convention in New Orleans in the fall of 1982. The study has been delayed because of legal action involving the 1980 U.S. Census figures.