CHARLOTTE, N.C. (RNS) — The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church is tired of hearing that his church is doomed.
The denomination has lost about half of its baptized membership since the 1960s, declining to about 1.5 million adherents today, and still faces shrinking congregations and aging demographics. But the church is not ready to give up.
“I believe that — as a final word and as a final story — is a lie from the pit of hell,” a feisty Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe told church leaders in the opening session of Episcopal Parish Network’s annual conference on Wednesday (March 4) in a Sheraton Hotel in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina. “That is not the teaching of Jesus.”…