U.S. Anglican Ordinariate Surpasses The Episcopal Church USA

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THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Br. Stephen Treat has made an interesting observation over at "The Anglo-Catholic" blog. According to his calculation, even in a worst case scenario, assuming that there would be no further interest in the Anglican Ordinariate in the United States other than what already exists (an assumption that runs against all observations and expectations so far), the average Sunday attendance (ASA) of the emerging Anglican ordinariate already surpasses that of The Episcopal Church U.S.A. ever so slightly. Now let me be perfectly clear. Br. Treat is not claiming the emerging U.S. Ordinariate will be larger than The Episcopal Church, not yet anyway, he's just saying that the estimated ASA is larger. The average national ASA of the emerging U.S. Anglican ordinariate currently ranks at about 69. While the average national ASA of The Episcopal Church U.S.A. currently ranks at about 66. This of course assumes zero growth of the emerging U.S. Anglican ordinariate, and zero interest in ordinariate parishes by Catholics of the general Roman Rite.

Of course the last thirty years of observation of the Anglican Use in the United States tells a different story. Anglican Use parishes have grown, some gradually, some rapidly and one explosively! (The presence of a parochial school helps explain the explosive growth in that one case.) Regardless of the cause, virtually all of the Anglican Use parishes have grown somewhat, and that is in spite of virtual obscurity.

What does this mean? It means that regardless of the rate of growth of the U.S. Anglican Ordinariate, it's size in average Sunday attendance (ASA) will surpass that of The Episcopal Church U.S.A. within a very short period of time, if indeed it hasn't already surpassed it!

The Episcopal Church U.S.A. is the official U.S. branch of the worldwide Protestant Anglican Communion.