Unitarian Universalist Association Membership Statistics For 2014 & 2015 Reveal Continued & Significant Decline. . .
After delaying the inevitable for almost 3 years, the Unitarian Universalist Association has finally gotten around to responsibly updating the UUA's official membership statistics on its Data Services Demographics page to be current for the 2013-2014 "church year". This is the first update of this particular UUA membership statistics web page since 2012. According to the UUA's recently updated official membership statistics, in 2014 the UUA had 1,047 congregations with 158,186 adult members and 49,991 RE enrollment for a total membership of 208,177 UUs in UUA congregations.
The membership statistics for the UUA' s 2013-2014 "church" year reveal a net loss of 3 UUA congregations since 2008, the year in which Rev. Peter Morales was elected as president of the UUA on a platform that promised not only growth of UUism, but a transformation of UUism from "a tiny, declining, fringe religion" into "*The* Religion For Our Time" as per Rev. Morales' campaign slogan which was,
"We *Can* Be *The* Religion For Our Time"*
Adult membership in UUA congregations has dropped to its lowest level since 2005-2006 when it was 158,986 adult members, and RE enrollments are at their lowest level since the 1988-1989 "church" years when they were 50,228.
Since being elected as UUA president on a platform promising growth, President Morales has not only FAILed to create ANY net growth whatsoever, but has lost close to 6000 adult members and, worse for any potential future growth of UUism, he has lost close to 8000 young UUs in terms of the very significant decline in RE enrollments from 57,650 in 2008 to under 50k in 2014.
The membership statistics for the 2014-2015 church year are unlikely to show any improvement, and are rather more likely to show continued decline of The Tiny Declining Fringe Religion™.
As of today, Sunday February 22, 2015, there are only 992 certified UUA congregations according to the UUA's Data Services official list of Certified Congregations.
The list of Non-Certified congregations lists a total of 48 UUA congregations that have yet to re-certify their membership in the UUA. Doing the "no brainer" math makes it abundantly clear that, even if every single one of the 48 congregations that have not yet re-certified their membership in the UUA eventually do so, this will make for a total of 1040 member congregations in the UUA for the 2014-2015 "church" year; a net loss of 7 UUA congregations in one single year. . .
And to think that the UUA Board of Trustees recently evaluated UUA President Rev. Dr. Peter "Beyond Belief" Morales' presidency of the UUA as being "satisfactory". LOL!
* My emphasis
The membership statistics for the UUA' s 2013-2014 "church" year reveal a net loss of 3 UUA congregations since 2008, the year in which Rev. Peter Morales was elected as president of the UUA on a platform that promised not only growth of UUism, but a transformation of UUism from "a tiny, declining, fringe religion" into "*The* Religion For Our Time" as per Rev. Morales' campaign slogan which was,
"We *Can* Be *The* Religion For Our Time"*
Adult membership in UUA congregations has dropped to its lowest level since 2005-2006 when it was 158,986 adult members, and RE enrollments are at their lowest level since the 1988-1989 "church" years when they were 50,228.
Since being elected as UUA president on a platform promising growth, President Morales has not only FAILed to create ANY net growth whatsoever, but has lost close to 6000 adult members and, worse for any potential future growth of UUism, he has lost close to 8000 young UUs in terms of the very significant decline in RE enrollments from 57,650 in 2008 to under 50k in 2014.
The membership statistics for the 2014-2015 church year are unlikely to show any improvement, and are rather more likely to show continued decline of The Tiny Declining Fringe Religion™.
As of today, Sunday February 22, 2015, there are only 992 certified UUA congregations according to the UUA's Data Services official list of Certified Congregations.
The list of Non-Certified congregations lists a total of 48 UUA congregations that have yet to re-certify their membership in the UUA. Doing the "no brainer" math makes it abundantly clear that, even if every single one of the 48 congregations that have not yet re-certified their membership in the UUA eventually do so, this will make for a total of 1040 member congregations in the UUA for the 2014-2015 "church" year; a net loss of 7 UUA congregations in one single year. . .
And to think that the UUA Board of Trustees recently evaluated UUA President Rev. Dr. Peter "Beyond Belief" Morales' presidency of the UUA as being "satisfactory". LOL!
* My emphasis
Comments
"We are not called to be a tiny, declining, fringe religion."
See - http://emersonavenger.blogspot.ca/2008/04/rev-peter-morales-youtube-video.html
I have been having a field day with Rev. Morales' all too apt description of Unitarian Universalism ever since.
Seriously, I just can't see it lasting 2K years...
If they really are a "tiny, declining fringe religion" then perhaps the best thing to do would be ignore them - kind of like ignoring Westboro Baptist when they picket a funeral or whatever. A former member of WBC, Lauren Drain, had made a video about how WBC thrives on media attention and therefore the best thing to do is to starve them of the one thing they wanted most.
Maybe in ignoring their existence, UU will eventually collapse too...if enough people can be made to ignore it. What do you think?