Ask not for whom the bell tolls.  It tolls for TEC.

Not one diocese comes close to getting 1% of population into the pews.  Some approach 1/10th of a percent.

I find these charts confusing and even misleading, because it sure looks as if the only diocese out of the four dioceses that have left TEC (so far) that shows a massive drop in its ASA for 2008 is San Joaquin, with a reported 80% drop.  But the figures given here for Pittsburgh, Ft. Worth, and Quincy show only modest drops.  And that makes me wonder about the reliability of the rest of the data.

But even with that caveat, the fact that immediately stands out, and may perhaps have prompted Kendall to post these stats, is that SC is the only diocese in all of TEC that managed to grow faster than the general population.  The only one!!  That speaks volumes, both about the exemplary leadership and strong culture in SC, and the dismal state of TEC everywhere else.  It’s like a large Fortune 500 corporation with many subdivisions, that only had one profitable unit out of all its 100 business units.  And continuing the analogy, if there were such a lousy corporation, who in the world would ever invest in its stock??

Anyway, BRAVO, South Carolina!  Stellar performance in a very bad market.

David Handy+

NRA - Ft Worth and Quincy didn’t leave until late in 2008, so their ASA counts for most of 2008.  In 2009, we should see large drops in ASA for these dioceses.

YBIC,
Phil Snyder

The world of pediatric endocrinology uses a term that would be helpful here - growth velocity.  It presumes there is a normative velocity (speed)  of growth, and that it is possible to calculate current velocity by measuring amount of growth between two given points in time.  Judging from this data, growth velocity has fallen off the chart.