Unitarian Universalist Association Membership Statistics For 2017 & 2018 Are Open To Question. . .
It seems that the Unitarian Universalist Association has finally got around to adding official membership statistics for 2017 & 2018 to its UUA Statistics, 1961-2016 page, but couldn't be bothered to change 1961-2016 to 1961-2018. . .
Just one more sign of UUA incompetence, if not sheer laziness.
It looks like the UUA may be misrepresenting how many congregations remain within what used to be called the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, until the UUA realized that it was quite steadily losing congregations and decided to drop the word "congregations" from its name. . .
The UUA officially claims to have 1035 congregations today, but the UUA's official list of '2018 Certified Congregations by Region / District' says:
Total certified congregations, including those with no financial contribution: 981
The UUA habitually adds Non-Certified Congregations to its official membership statistics to boost the numbers, even though many if not most Non-Certified Congregations are arguably no longer member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association.
The UUA's official list of '2018 Non-Certified Congregations by Region / District' says:
Total Congregations: 53
If one adds the 53 Non-Certified Congregations to the 981 Certified Congregations one arrives at a grand total of 1034 UUA congregations, not 135. A minor quibble, and it is possible that the UUA gained 1 new congregation after the 2018 "census" of congregations. The fact remains however that the UUA has only 981 *certified* congregations, and that the 53 non-certified congregations may well have broken away from the UUA years ago, if they even continue to exist at all. . .
I call bullshit on the Unitarian Universalist Association's claim to have 135 UUA congregations in 2018. It probably has less than 1000 congregations, as per its list of certified UUA congregations, and I will add that many of the certified congregations are tiny, and barely viable as U*U "churches", The First UU Church of Milford (Milford, MA) is listed as a Certified UUA congregation even though it has 0 adult members, 0 RE enrollments, and 0 attendance on any given Sunday.
Just one more sign of UUA incompetence, if not sheer laziness.
It looks like the UUA may be misrepresenting how many congregations remain within what used to be called the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, until the UUA realized that it was quite steadily losing congregations and decided to drop the word "congregations" from its name. . .
The UUA officially claims to have 1035 congregations today, but the UUA's official list of '2018 Certified Congregations by Region / District' says:
Total certified congregations, including those with no financial contribution: 981
The UUA habitually adds Non-Certified Congregations to its official membership statistics to boost the numbers, even though many if not most Non-Certified Congregations are arguably no longer member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association.
The UUA's official list of '2018 Non-Certified Congregations by Region / District' says:
Total Congregations: 53
If one adds the 53 Non-Certified Congregations to the 981 Certified Congregations one arrives at a grand total of 1034 UUA congregations, not 135. A minor quibble, and it is possible that the UUA gained 1 new congregation after the 2018 "census" of congregations. The fact remains however that the UUA has only 981 *certified* congregations, and that the 53 non-certified congregations may well have broken away from the UUA years ago, if they even continue to exist at all. . .
I call bullshit on the Unitarian Universalist Association's claim to have 135 UUA congregations in 2018. It probably has less than 1000 congregations, as per its list of certified UUA congregations, and I will add that many of the certified congregations are tiny, and barely viable as U*U "churches", The First UU Church of Milford (Milford, MA) is listed as a Certified UUA congregation even though it has 0 adult members, 0 RE enrollments, and 0 attendance on any given Sunday.
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