Quean Lutibelle's Report
on Episcopal Clergy, 1998

The electronic version of the 1998 Episcopal Clerical Directory (NYC: Church Publishing Co., 1998, 800-223-6602) lists 16,811 persons; 324 (1.9%) are identified as dead.

Of the remaining 16,487:

• 314 (1.9%) are bishops;
• 1,985 (12.0%) are deacons
• 14,188 (86.1%) are priests.

Note: In this report, priest refers to all ordained to that order, including bishops but excluding deacons. Clergy refers to persons in all three orders of ordained ministry.

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Click here to see Quean Lutibelle's Report on Women Priests in ECUSA.

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• 5.9% of all priests have been received.
• 63.4% of all received priests have been received from the Roman Catholic Church. Of the others, most came from other branches of the Anglican Communion

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Twenty-nine priests 35 or younger are employed as rectors

Over the last 73 years in which priests now alive have been ordained, the Episcopal Church has ordained priests at a steadily increasing age. The average age of those ordained in 1925 was 24.5. The average age of those ordained in 1997 was 44.9, an increase of 20.4 years in age over the 73 years.

The trend is fairly steady, and does not seem to have been affected by WW2, as I thought it would be.

While older ordinands bring many gifts, for which I am grateful, I am concerned that many young persons have ceased to seek ordination, and in many cases, have ceased to attend church.

If the trend continues its steady pace, in the year 2070 the average age of ordinands will be 65.3!

As my bishop says, "Christianity must change or die."

See my own http://newark.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/grow_die.html

Caveat:

My friend Ted Mollegen cautions, "If you were to look at a 1955 Clerical Directory, wouldn't the average age of those ordained in 1925 be older, because more of the older ones would still be alive to be included in the directory? I would guess that your methodology exaggerates the trend toward older ordinands, which trend is nonetheless still real." He further observes: "In another 10 years or so, ECUSA may go from a 'surplus' of clergy to a shortage."

The average diocesan or bishop coadjutor is 58.4 years old, and was consecrated at an average age of 50.5.

The average age of all retired bishops is 75.6. They were consecrated at an average age of 48.82--over a year and a half earlier than the current diocesans and coadjutors. Retired bishops retired at an average of 63.85. According the the canons, retirement is not mandatory for bishops until age 72.

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500 (3%) of ECUSA priests live outside the U.S.A.

Twenty-two percent of all priests now live and work in the states where they were born.

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• 815 (4.8%) of all priests are themselves children of priests; and two persons listed have both parents who are priests.
• 98 (.58%) of the priests were children of bishops.
• 34 (11%) of 308 bishops are children of priests, and 8 of those are children of other bishops.
• 79 (.47%) of the priests identify one parent as a "Dr."

• 12.8% have never married.
• 87.2% list one or more marriages.
  • 12.0% have had 2 or more marriages.
    
  • 0.6% have had 3 or more marriages.
    
  • 0.018% have had 4 marriages.

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Caveat: these numbers do not reflect total clergy membership of the organizations. Only 5,592 (33%) of the clergy entered any affiliations at all: many who are members skip this item when completing their entry. Some make conscious choices to include or exclude memberships based on how they think the affiliation would affect their chances for employment, since the Clerical Directory is frequently consulted by search committees. The publishers also sometimes limit listings that are "too numerous for our limited space. However, every effort [is] made to include all church related data" [from the "Foreword"].

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For this table, percentages are of all 16,811 entries in the 1998 Clerical Directory

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Privileged Portions of the Hierarchy for Ivy League & Honor Society Graduates

Order	Honor Society Graduates	Ivy League Graduates	Overall
Deacons	3.0%	5.6%	12.1%
Priests	92.3%	92.3%	86.0%
Bishops	4.7%	2.1%	1.9%

The two honor societies tallied were Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi.

Additional honors for clergy include 17 Fulbrights, 7 Woodrow Wilson Fellowships, and 3 Guggenheim Awards. 5,273 (31%) of the clergy name their publications.

It is interesting to see that honor society graduates and ivy league graduates have a better than average share of the orders of Bishop and Priest; but they have a very much lower than average share of rector positions. Does a strong intellect turn off our parishes? Does an intellectual priest more likely seek to serve in another venue?

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One asterisk indicates "an Ivy League" school.
Two asterisks indicate one of the "Big Ten" schools.

Also, 254 hold degrees from Oxford University, 95 from Cambridge University, 21 from Heidelberg University, and 9 from the Sorbonne.

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Of the 16,811 persons in The Clerical Directory, 2,156 have never married.

The table below shows the percent of "Never Married" and the percent of "Married" for each of the categories indicated:

It seems clear that, in old-fashioned parlance, "marriage is an asset." It doesn't much matter any more how often a priest marries. As data above show, serial polygamy occurs frequently, with no loss of status or position; but being single, once the norm of all priesthood, now means that one is less likely to be a rector and more likely to be non-parochial or marginally deployed. One is only half as likely to be dean of a cathedral if unmarried, and only one-fourth as likely to be a rector of one of the 207 parrishes of 1,000+ members.

Marriage increases almost four times the chances of a priest to become a bishop:

These advantages hold for the married even though those who have never married apppear to have been better educated.

Several groups are represented in larger concentration among the unmarried:

The most disturbing evidence I noted relates to the shorter longevity of clergy who have never married:

Note: In their current assignment (such as that of a rector), the married and unmarried have stayed for the same average length of time, but the unmarried have a lower average age, show up in dramatically smaller proportions among the retired, and show up in a larger share of those who have died recently enough to remain for one more time in the Clerical Directory. I don't know what to make of these facts. Is this another piece of evidence of AIDS in the Body of Christ?

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I have not computed averages of congregations overseen by vicars, priests-in-charge....., but those congregations are included in "All Congregations." To compute "All congregations," I divided the total number of confirmed communicants (1,592,653) by the total number of parishes (7,395) -- as reported in the 1998 Episcopal Church Annual. and I will continue to add new information to this report.

It seems like the same ole patriarchy to me.

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In the 1998 Episcopal Church Annual, 207 congregations claim 1,000+ members, down 13 (5.9%) from a year ago.

• The congregations in order of size
• The congregations in order of the age of the incumbent dean or rector

To be continued.......

Are there questions which you want me to ask of the data? If so, share them with me at lcrew@newark.rutgers.edu

The most important number is the number 'one,' namely the next person you to whom you will convey God's love.

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In 1970 ECUSA ordained 355, in 2000 about 215 -- down by 39.4%! The number for 2000 may increase because of delayed reporting.

Thanks very much to Dr. Matthew Price of Church Publishing for providing the data on which these three graphs are based. All data reported is for priests, but the dates are for their diaconal ordinations. That is why you will see some female ordinations before 1974, the year the first 11 women were ordained as priests in Philadelphia.

I asked Richard Tombaugh, director of the General Board of Examining Chaplains, for data regarding persons on track towards ordination. Tom Rightmyer, Tombaugh's predecessor at GBOEC, estimates that 90% of all who take the GOEs are later ordained as priests. Tombaugh responded (September 2002): "The Blue book report for the years 1997-2000 indicates that there were between 191-200 candidates taking the GOE in each of those three years. In 2001 there were 260. In 2002 there were 293. This year the seminaries have indicated there will be 252. In addition we estimate about 40 additional persons who are not currently third-year students in an Episcopal Seminary."

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--Quean Lutibelle/Louie

• Report on the Episcopal Church in the United States, 2002 from the Office of Congregational Development of the Episcopal Church
• Quean Lutibelle's Profile of the 2003 House of Deputies
• Quean Lutibelle's Profile of the 2000 House of Deputies
• Quean Lutibelle's Profile of the 1997 House of Deputies
• Quean Lutibelle's Profile of the House of Bishops in 2000
• Quean Lutibelle's Profile of the House of Bishops in 2003
• Quean Lutibelle's 1997 Profile of the House of Bishops
• Louie Crew's Anglican Pages, http://newark.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/rel.html.

• Write to lcrew@newark.rutgers.edu
  
  
  
  
  
  

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