There’s been some speculation on this very blog about what the CEC is running these days in terms of numbers. Well, here is the official word from the CEC.
From the Patriarch’s Council report:
Each Primate delivered their report on the state of the church in their jurisdiction. Last year the ICCEC had 37 Dioceses, 1021 Clergy, 1270 Churches and about 70,000 average Sunday attendance. The vast majority of the ICCEC’s growth has been in the global south; with Brazil continuing to grow at an exceptionally rapid rate.
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February 27, 2011 at 6:38 pm
papaz
Let’s crunch the numbers, shall we?
37 dioceses with 1021 clergy adds up to roughly 27.5 clergy per diocese.
37 dioceses with 1270 churches adds up to roughly 34.3 churches per diocese.
1021 clergy with 1270 churches adds up to roughly .8 clergy per church.
1270 churches with 70,000 average Sunday attendance adds up to roughly an average Sunday attendance of 55.1 per church.
If most of this growth has been in the “global south”, esp. Brazil, essentially, the church in North America is in pretty poor shape.
What happened to the Philippines? Or Africa?
In the Philippines, in Africa, and in Brazil, the CEC was essentially a re-branding of pre–existing church bodies, and did not represent new mission plants.
These numbers do not indicate a viable church. What unique mission does the CEC claim to justify their existence as a denomination? This is the key question the CEC leadership needs to address — and address soon.
March 2, 2011 at 2:50 pm
anon4cec
The average numbers get worse when one subtracts out the result-skewing Cathedral Churches that have 8 – 10 clergy apiece and 200 – 300 average attendance. I’m too lazy to run the numbers … I’ll leave that as an exercise for the reader.
I still hold to previous estimates that there are no more than 3000 CEC members in the USA. Even given the 70k number worldwide (which is 10% of the estimates from a decade ago), having Americans lead the ICCEC is clearly having the tail wag the whole dog.
The Brazilians are still following their successful pre-CEC model of church-planting, but I don’t see that this has been duplicated anywhere else. The CEC in the USA probably doesn’t have the critical mass, nor does it have a population heavily influenced by Roman Catholicism. The best thing for the CEC would be for the current American leadership to move on and have the CEC be rebranded by Brazilian immigrants as a South American church. Then it might begin to display a purpose and viability.
March 15, 2011 at 4:15 am
jamesrgrace
Both Africa & the Philippines are included in the “Global South” designation.
November 25, 2011 at 9:51 pm
cecvanguard
If I’m not mistaken, overall church attendance in the U.S. is down as a whole. While not defending the numbers, they are not indicative of anything more than a trend towards less active church participation.
While I can see papaz’s point in his not fully understanding the “unique mission” of the CEC, I do not believe he is correct in saying the leadership needs to address this, especially to him. I could be wrong, but his position of not being a member of such a group lessens the seriousness of his assertion that the leadership of the CEC should address anything. To me, this is like the head of Apple saying the head of Windows needs to do something. Why would they care? Additionally, why does a church have to be “unique” for it to exist? Last time I checked, the CEC was about being an ancient church embracing the “three streams”, which certainly isn’t unique, but neither are 99% of the other churches as well.
Furthermore, if the numbers are true and the CEC is falling apart, as most of the readers of this blog seem to pray for daily, why not seek to help them rather than throw stones? Oh, you say you are helping with your “the CEC leadership needs to address…” statement? Rubbish. You’re condescension and arrogance is as apparent as your lack of real concern. You left the CEC and really could care less what happens to it just as long as it fails.