Presbyterians Are Seeking to Reverse Losses

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) appears ready to turn the corner on one of the largest membership losses in the history of Christianity, according to a new three-year study of the church.

The Rev. John Mulder, president of Louisville Presbyterian Seminary and one of the directors of the study, said a group of people are emerging within the church to find a middle ground between the battle lines set up by strident liberals and conservatives.

“What we’re seeing in the ‘90s is this mobilization of the moderate middle,” Mulder said. “I would look toward the middle or the late ‘90s as the point the Presbyterian Church would begin to reverse some of the losses, or at least stabilize.”

The Presbyterian Church, which reached a high of about 4.4 million in the mid-’60s, lost more than 43,000 members last year to fall to below 2.9 million.

At the recent General Assembly meeting here, Stated Clerk James E. Andrews, the denomination’s chief executive, indicated the effort is starting to pay off.

Declaring “ours is a vital denomination,” he reported increases in adult and infant baptisms. He also said professions of faith increased after years of steady decline, “a preliminary indication that our steady loss of membership can be reversed.”

Newly elected Moderator Price Henderson Gwynn III of Charlotte, N.C., said the denomination could grow to 5 million members by the year 2000 as long as it stops the internal bickering.

“If we shoot ourselves in the foot because of internecine warfare or denominational myopia, we are going to have to answer for it,” he said.

The study entitled “Presbyterians in the 20th Century: A Case Study of American Protestantism,” involved 55 different research projects done by 65 researchers, Mulder said. The first volume of a projected seven-volume series on the study was released last month.