Ordination issues in USA – from Church Times

 The article below reports the significant issues currently facing the Episcopal Church.  

For those who do not have access to the UK Church Times, here are the salient points:

“In 2010, there were 325 newly ordained priests,
compared with 225 in 2022. Clergy retirement numbers have remained steady at
about 400 a year, and half of the remaining clergy are within ten years of retirement. 

In 2022 there were 622 vacancies and just 87 clergy identified
as seeking a new post. In the south-east of the US, just eight clergy were
searching among 123 vacancies.

56 per cent of serving clergy in the Episcopal Church today
were in bi-vocational or multi-vocational ministry.” 

As a comparison, in 2001 the ACC ordained 65 priests
and 73 deacons.  In 2019 (before Covid!) the ACC ordained 59 Priests and
64 Deacons. Nationally we do not have data on vacancies and those
seeking new posts.

https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2023/25-august/news/world/us-episcopal-church-heads-for-crisis-in-number-of-ordinands