Home Visits by Church Officials to Solicit Contributions; Is this unusual?

[Anonymous]

You are in a cult.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in a Presbyterian church. Home visits for pledging were the norm. Kids were also given little boxes of envelopes for every Sunday in the year and told to put a nickel or a quarter in each envelope every Sunday. The idea was to get children accustomed to supporting the church.

The last thirty years of my life have been in Episcopal Churches. The home visits are new. My church does not do it. I believe it is an outcome of two factors, the first being the the Episcopal church is a dying church. In the 1960s, the membership reached 3.4M. Last week it was announced that, for the first time, Episcopal church membership has dropped below 2M.

Because ECUSA is rapidly losing members, it has to finance its operations and many charming but empty churches somehow. That would be you.

Second, Bishop Schori has taken a very aggressive litigious position against churches, parishes, diocese and members that have wanted to break away from the national Episcopal Church of the USA (ECUSA). Litigation costs lots of money. She has ordered that unused or small congregations sell off properties in order to pay for that litigation. http://search.aol.com/aol/search?s_it=webmail-searchbox&q=schiori%20orders%20properties%20sold%20pay%20litigation.

In short, ECUSA is losing regular, steady tithing parishioners who have departed for more evangelical or bible-oriented churches so has a membership crisis at the same time it has a financial crisis. That's also why National Cathedral sends you all those glossy materials. It, too, is in tough financial straits.

[Anonymous]

I have attended Methodist and Presbyterian churches and have NEVER heard of this.