A Florida-based congregation of The Episcopal Church is defying the denomination’s overall trend of decline, having recently reached the milestone of 3,000 members.
Church of the Redeemer of Sarasota announced that it surpassed the 3,000-member mark on Feb. 16, when they baptized infants Casey Jane Clegg and Ruby Mae Spears.
The two babies represented the 3,000th and 3,001st members of the congregation, with the parish celebrating the occasion with gold balloons of the two numbers.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.
According to a church press release emailed to The Christian Post on Tuesday, the two baptisms received a standing ovation once completed.
“The hand of God is clearly at work at Redeemer, and we give thanks to God for this incredible milestone,” said Fr. Charleston Wilson, rector of Church of the Redeemer, as quoted in the press release. “Now our focus is on doubling down on making new Christians and making all Christians new.”
Last year, according to the congregation’s press release, Redeemer had 150 people become members; and this year, 47 have become new members.
Regarding an explanation for the growth of his congregation, Wilson stated, “Jesus lies at the center of all we do at Redeemer, and that may be our ‘secret sauce,’ so to speak.”
“I think Redeemer is growing because people who are connected to this parish feel a very deep, personal and real connection to the compassionate Christ — to the Jesus of the Bible,” he added.
Church of the Redeemer’s growth contrasts sharply with the overall Episcopal Church, which, like most other religious groups, has seen considerable decline in recent decades.
In 2010, The Episcopal Church’s membership dipped below 2 million. According to numbers released last November, as of 2023, the denomination had a membership of approximately 1.547 million people.
Although the years-long decline in membership has continued, the latest report also showed that, for the second consecutive year, worship attendance was on the rise, with 2023 seeing around 411,000 average attendance, while 2022 had approximately 373,000 and 2021 had approximately 312,000.
Last year, the Rev. Sean Rowe was installed as the new presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church, succeeding the Rev. Michael Curry, the first African American leader of the denomination.
During his installation service, Rowe preached that churches and dioceses cannot “go it alone,” but they “must acknowledge our mutual interdependence, our need to do ministry together, to share what we have and to sustain one another.”
“We’re not a collection of dioceses and institutions, a collection of the ways of doing things. We are one church, one church in Jesus Christ,” Rowe stated at the time. “This work, the work of proclaiming in word and deed that Jesus’ resurrection and life is the work to which God has called The Episcopal Church, now and always, as one church, together.”
