March 8, 2001 | Read Time: 2 minutes
By STEPHEN G. GREENE
At a time when government is turning to religious institutions for greater help
in tackling deep-rooted social problems, membership in Christian churches in the United States has remained stable, while contributions from members have risen modestly, according to a new survey.
The National Council of Churches reports in its latest Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches that 151,161,906 Americans were members of 62 Christian denominations in 1999. That figure, up less than 1 percent from the previous year, was still well below the peak of 159,471,758 members in 1996.
Together, those members gave nearly $27-billion to their churches in 1999 — an increase of $750-million (or 2.9 percent) from the previous year. Each member gave an average of $549, compared with $499 in 1996.
Some $4.2-billion, or 16 percent of the total amount contributed, was given to help the needy, whether within a church’s local community or overseas. That share, while well below the 21-percent figure such donations have attained as recently as 1994, was up 1 percentage point, from 15 percent in 1998.
The yearbook analyzes membership and financial data from Christian denominations in the United States and Canada, and includes information on their governance. Most of the churches provided data for fiscal 1999, although some gave information from 2000 or from 1998 or earlier.
A decline in membership at several traditional “mainline” Protestant denominations — the United Methodist Church, for example, and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which are often seen as socially and theologically progressive — appears to have slowed in 1999.
Growth was still fairly robust, by contrast, at two churches considered socially and theologically conservative: the Assemblies of God (up 1.9 percent) and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (up 1.78 percent).
The Roman Catholic Church — by far America’s largest denomination, with 62.4 million members — gained a net of 373,000 members in 1999, for a growth rate of 0.6 percent over 1998.
In Canada, membership in 28 Christian denominations in 1999 totaled 18,960,572. Contributions totaled $630-million, of which $129-million (20 percent) went to help the needy.
Copies of the 2001 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches are available for $40 each (including shipping) from the National Council of Churches, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, N.Y. 10115; (888) 870-2031; fax (212) 870-2817; yearbook@ncccusa.org. For more information, see the National Council of Churches Web site at http://www.ncccusa.org.
