Who Is Winning the Catholic Versus Episcopal Church Convert Race?

The Episcopal Church was pretty outspoken they were going after Catholics this year and others. They started a Nationwide Convert campaign that was not so subtly aimed at Catholics.

So here are some early returns how we Catholics are doing for 2010. Where can I find the Episcopal numbers?

Let is turn our attention to the Episcopal Bishop Kirk Smith of Arizona. I am not trying to start a fight with the good Episcopalians of Arizona who are good people. Heck I link a very faithful one on here at times. But he is one of several that made some remarks aimed at Catholics this year. I have not forgot that. So that is why I am using him as a example.

The Arizona Episcopal Bishop Kirk Smith said recently: (among many other things read the whole thing)
In every congregation I visit, the number of people I receive from the Roman Church is almost as great as those new Episcopalians I confirm. During my visitation last week I received six people. That in just one week. In my entire five years as bishop, I know of only two people who have left the Episcopal Church to become Roman Catholics. The migration is clearly in our direction.

Now no doubt the Episcopal Church gets some Catholics. I mean esteemed head of the The Episcopal Church is a former baptized Catholic. The esteemed theologian Matthew Fox is a former Catholic and is no doubt blessing his local Church with the Techno Cosmic Mass.

Now the Episcopal Church has under the obligation of their Canon law complied the numbers on their flock. These numbers are the latest from 2008. You can see the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona numbers here from 1998 to 2008 as to membership.

But what about these converts that Bishop Smith is talking about. Well according to this he received 56 people into his Diocese in 2008. In 2007 he received 59. In 2006 he received 66 and finally in 2005 he received 71. Now of course we do not have the numbers from 2009. However it is striking as the TEC goes on a more liberal course year by year we are seeing a decline in converts in this Diocese.

Now as I mentioned Arizona has received a ton of migration this decade. A lot of it Catholic!! With all these supposed Catholics converting should we not be seeing a increase in conversions to the TEC in Arizona?

Now in Arizona there is not just one Catholic Diocese. It has Diocese of Gallup (which strangely takes in parts of Arizona and parts of New Mexico), the Diocese of Phoenix, and the Diocese of Tucson.

There is very new program called Catholics come home. We have some data from 2009 that shows things in the Diocese of Phoenix.

"Six months after the CatholicsComeHome.org media campaign ended, a comprehensive analysis was conducted, which revealed the average increase in Mass attendance (returned Catholics, new converts) was 12 percent, even though population growth in the Diocese of Phoenix was flat during that period. This equates to an increase of as many as 92,000 souls who came home!"

Ryan HanningDirector of Adult Evangelization, Diocese of Phoenix
Based on these 2009 statistics calculated by the Controller’s Office at the Diocese of Phoenix, with the guidance of statisticians from Arizona State University, it appears that for every $1.63 invested in television media, Catholics Come Home was able to help a soul back to their home in the Catholic Church.

Much more on the above here. We can see from this article 700 new Catholics were received in the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix alone in 2009. Now that number should be far far bigger in my estimation. Still a impressive number and it appears things are on the upswing there.

The Diocese of Gallup is one of the smallest Diocese and takes in just a part of Arizona as well as a part of New Mexico. According to this they took in 128 people. Now I don't now how many folks of those are from Arizona. But these is not bad for a Diocese that whose past Bishop well sadly sort of went out of his mind and was talking about seeing little people. (A Tragic sad update but perhaps joyous on this later today perhaps). and who is now just getting back to stable Episcopal leadership.

So with all respect to Bishop Smith of the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona it seems he is got beat out by a man that told 911 operators that gentle little people, about 3 to 4 feet tall, and wearing Halloween masks were in his house. I am sure morale was a tad low over that among the faithful. However it does appear people have less problems with Bishops that talk about "little people" than a Bishop that has a history of criticizing Catholic Bishops that stand up For marriage.

The Bishop of the Diocese of Tuscan reported in his Feb 22 2009 memo that 484 person are coming into the Church in his Diocese. Again that number can grow but not bad.

To all these numbers it should be recalled that the Church has to deal with various past marriage issues as to all people that wish to enter. Something the TEC does not have to do. We are also an Church that is still recovering from the Clergy Sex abuse scandal that was all over the front pages for a solid two years.

Now all is not roses in the Catholic Church. There are problems. Problems in some Dioceses and not in others.

Still I have a feeling that the new direction the TEC is going is not going to help them and not help the Body of Christ as a whole. Also a fun fact. In all those TEC states I gave as to Arizona at each link you can see the results for all the other Dioceses.

The TEC Diocese of South Carolina which now appears to be under attack by the TEC itself is one of the few that showed substantial growth and not substantial decline!!! Why is that? Maybe because it is one of the pillars of Orthodoxy in the TEC perhaps?