Membership
The membership of the Reformed Mennonite Church has been mostly declining since the death of founder John Herr in 1850.
The 1890 U.S. Census reported a membership of 1,655 in 34 congregations. By 1948, these figures had fallen to 733 and 24, respectively, and in 1958, the Church had only 616 members. By 1987, membership had further declined to 257 and in May 2000, it reached 171. A similar decline occurred in Ontario, which in 1948 had 6 congregations with 217 members. In May 2000, this figure stood at 131.
As of 2000, the single largest congregations were in North Easthope and Stevensville, Ontario, with 73 and 58 members, respectively. Congregations in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee were considerably smaller.
Current estimates place total membership in the Reformed Mennonite Church at less than 300 serviced by no more than 10 churches.
Milton S. Hershey's mother was a Reformed Mennonite. Robert Bear, a Pennsylvania farmer who was excommunicated in 1964 and again in 1972 has since been actively and publicly attacking the church.
Read more about this topic: Reformed Mennonite
Famous quotes containing the word membership:
“The two real political parties in America are the Winners and the Losers. The people don’t acknowledge this. They claim membership in two imaginary parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, instead.”
—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (b. 1922)