Episcopal Press and News
1981 'Profile of Episcopalians' Released
Episcopal News Service. July 29, 1982 [82172]
NEW YORK (DPS, July 29) -- Episcopalians rate religion a full eight points higher than does the average American, according to the most recent Gallup study.
Respondents to a recent "Profile of Episcopalians" questionnaire indicated that 94 percent of them said that religion is very or fairly important versus a similar response of 86 percent for the American population.
The 1981 survey was conducted by the Episcopal Church General Convention's State of the Church Committee in preparation for the Sept. 5-15 meeting of the Convention in New Orleans. A similar survey was conducted in 1978.
The 1981 survey asked two specific questions about religious beliefs, namely about the person of Christ and belief about the Bible. Seventy-three percent of Episcopalians say they believe Jesus Christ was God and man, with 9 percent saying he was God and 14 percent answering that he was "a divinely inspired man."
Belief about the Bible has changed sharply since 1978, according to the 1981 survey. The number of Episcopalians who say the Bible is "to be taken literally, word for word," has dropped from 15 percent to 11 percent, and the proportion of members believing that the Bible is the "inspired word of God, but not everything in it should be taken literally, word for word," has increased from 74 percent to 80 percent. Thus, neither those who take the Bible absolutely literally nor those who accept it as a mere book of legends represents majority views in the Episcopal Church.
When the belief of Episcopalians was linked to behavior in the survey, it was found that their "record of attendance" is substantially higher than for the average American. Forty-seven percent of Episcopalians attend Church services weekly as compared with 31 percent of Americans as a whole. More than three in four Episcopalians attend Church at least twice a month.
All but 1 percent of Episcopalians say they pray, with private prayer once a day the most frequent answer. Other prayer occasions listed were public worship (86 percent) and with the family at meals (53 percent).
The proportion of Episcopalians who say they make financial pledges to the Church dropped from 97 percent to 91 percent. The State of the Church Committee noted that this rather sharp drop may be because the question was asked in a slightly different form in 1981. "Under any circumstances," the Committee observed, "the number of members who say they pledge is still very high and may reflect intention as well as actual behavior."
Fifty-three percent of Episcopalians think the tithe -- described in the survey as 10 percent of income for God's work -- is a "good standard," with the strongest support coming from households with income under $20,000 (61 percent). Only 41 percent of households with income of more than $50,000 favor the tithe as a standard. "Widows and divorced persons are more likely than other members to affirm the tithe as a standard," the Committee observed.
The survey revealed that involvement in Church activities was very high in 1981, with the most frequent responses being Episcopal Churchwomen (22 percent); fund-raising (19 percent); vestry (14 percent); altar guild (13 percent); helping human needs (12 percent); acolyte, chalice bearer, lay reader (11 percent); church school teaching (11 percent); and choir and adult education (10 percent).
Episcopalians prefer parishes that have family-oriented activities (49 percent), adult study programs (40 percent), weekday worship (39 percent), youth groups (29 percent), and prayer groups (22 percent).
Activities which are sometimes missing but wanted in parishes include a professional counseling service (14 percent), a senior citizens' program (14 percent), cultural programs (14 percent), a program for single adults (13 percent), and a program for young married couples (13 percent).
More than 30 percent of those responding told of specific ministry and outreach activities beyond their parish in which they were engaged, such as visiting the sick and shut-ins, and doing volunteer work with organizations such as the Red Cross or Cancer Society. Nearly 8 percent of the respondents saw their own occupation as a form of ministry.
Some 58 percent of the adult members of the Episcopal Church were formerly members of another denomination, the Committee reported. The largest proportion came from the United Methodist Church (26 percent), the Roman Catholic Church (19.3 percent), and the Baptist Churches (16.9 percent). Forty-eight percent of adult Episcopalians in 1978 had previously belonged to another church.
Respondents' reasons for affiliating with his or her local parish, in order of frequency, are: type of liturgical worship, the rector, the way faith was presented, the sacramental emphasis, and geographically close. Thus, the style of worship and the characteristics of the rector are the most important reasons Episcopalians give for affiliating with a local church.
A Gallup survey, reported in Religion in America, 1979-1980, said that the key issues facing the Church were abortion, interfaith marriage, prejudice in voting, and the place of the homosexual in American society.
The State of the Church Committee reported that no more than 1 percent of Episcopalians in the 1981 survey were concerned about these issues. In order of frequency, Episcopalians listed the following themes as the important issues facing the Church: concern over young people, vitality of the Church, making the Church more relevant to life, social issues, and survival of the local Church.
In 1981 Episcopalians said what they liked the most about their parish was the warmth and friendliness of the members (44 percent), the rector (29 percent), and the worship, liturgy and ceremony (16 percent). In response to a question about their dislikes, they listed some characteristics of the rector (9 percent); unfriendly, cliquish people (9 percent), and the unsatisfying nature of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer (6 percent).
Respondents were provided with the opportunity to assess the national Episcopal Church on various statements, with some of the results as follows:
- The proportion of persons who consider Christian education to be of high quality in the Episcopal Church has fallen from 58 percent to 44 percent in the past three years;
- Forty-one percent of Episcopalians support closer relations with the Roman Catholic Church;
- Thirty-two percent of the members want more time devoted to evangelism (up from 25 percent in 1978);
- Increased cooperation with Protestant churches received the support of 61 percent of Episcopalians in the survey;
- Elderly persons do not receive enough attention from the Church, according to 40 percent of the members of the Episcopal Church;
- Twenty-six percent of Episcopalians believe members should support the national Church program more;
- A majority of the 1981 respondents (54.3 percent) agreed that the 1979 Book of Common Prayer "provides excellent worship services" (as they had in 1978). Twenty-five respondents disagreed with the statement and 20 percent expressed no strong opinion either way;
- Forty percent of Episcopalians say youth do not receive enough attention in the Church;
- Communication between the national Church and the people is not seen as good: only 19 percent of the respondents say it is good.
- Some 25 percent of the members of the Episcopal Church (up from 20 percent in 1978) want more emphasis on social issues, with members in the Northeast and Western regions more likely to agree with that emphasis.
The proportion of Episcopalians who have heard of Venture in Mission -- the fund-raising, renewal program of the dioceses and national Church -- has increased sharply, from 23 percent to 52 percent in three years. The Committee notes, however, that the campaign had only a small impact on regular giving.
In the area of demographics, the survey reveals that there are more females (54 percent) than males (46 percent); that Episcopal parishes are 96 percent white (U.S. population is 88 percent white), 3 percent black, and less than 1 percent Oriental; that 7 percent of Episcopalians are single, 77 percent are married, 5 percent divorced and 11 percent widowed; that 51 percent of Episcopalians live in towns from 2,500 to 50,000 in size, with only 7 percent living in cities from one-half to one million population; that 56 percent of Episcopalians are over 50 years of age and only 6 percent are between 18 and 29; that 57 percent of Episcopal Church members have completed college and 31 percent have completed graduate or professional training; that almost half of the membership is involved in professional or business work, 7 percent are in sales or clerical work, and 25 percent are retired; that 71 percent of Episcopalians had income over $20,000.
In undertaking the survey, the Committee on the State of the Church requested a random sample of 750 parish clergy (10 percent of those who served congregations) to send the Committee their parish lists, which brought forth 246 usable lists containing approximately 65,000 names. A sample of 2,000 persons was randomly selected with an appropriate proportion (based on distribution of members) chosen from each of the eight U.S. provinces.
Completed questionnaires (44 percent of the sample) were returned anonymously by mail to the Computing Center of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. A card identifying the respondent was to be mailed to the Committee's New York office. This enabled the Committee to follow up on non-respondents.
A sub-sample of 200 of the non-respondents was randomly selected according to the membership proportion of each province, with 120 telephone calls to them completed. Fifty said their questionnaires were in the mail or would be, and 70 persons answered the questionnaire on the telephone. These answers were combined with the earlier mail responses for a total sample of 964. Samples of about 1,000 respondents, similarly selected, in major opinion poll and research organizations for the entire U.S. population have a tolerance within four percentage points of 95 percent of of the time, the Committee said.
