Episcopal Diocese of Maryland sees increase in the number of new people attending church

[Episcopal News Service] Earlier this year Maryland Bishop Carrie Schofield-Broadbent began to hear reports of a growing number of new people coming to churches across the diocese, so she brought it up at the mid-April service when diocesan clergy renew their ministry vows.

“She asked, ‘How many of you are experiencing growth?’, and over half the hands in the room went up,” the Rev. Catherine Thompson, rector of All Saints’ in Frederick, Maryland, told Episcopal News Service. In response, Schofield-Broadbent said it was important to note that what the diocese was experiencing “is a narrative that you don’t often hear in The Episcopal Church today.”

The latest statistics about membership and attendance in The Episcopal Church, which were released in November 2024, show a decline in the average Sunday attendance of 35% from 2014 to 2023, a period that also reflects significant losses during the pandemic years. Numbers for 2023, however, show an increase in attendance of 10.2% from the year before.

In its February 2025 Religion Landscape Study, the Pew Research Center reports that since 2020, the percentage of U.S. adults who say they attend religious services monthly has hovered in the low 30s each year. The latest study puts that at 33%.

Thompson said that in the two-and-a-half years she has been at All Saints, the average Sunday attendance has grown from 138 people to just under 200. And beyond that, many of the newcomers are in their 20s and 30s. “I’ve baptized several 20-year-olds,” she said, “and one of them regularly brings a group of friends that changes every week.”

When she asked them why they chose to start attending, newcomers had several things in common – they were looking for a church home, they wanted to be part of a community that was inclusive of all people, they welcomed the formality of the liturgy and they had watched services online before they stepped through the church door.

“We should see online services as an evangelistic tool,” she said, not just as a way for existing parishioners to participate when away.

Many also described wanting a place where they can grow in their spiritual life, she said.

The experience of the Rev. Todd Bruce at St. David’s in Baltimore is similar to Thompson’s. He also has been rector of his church for two-and-a-half years, and attendance has almost doubled, he told ENS, adding that he arrived after a period of conflict in the parish which likely depressed attendance somewhat.

Newcomers tell him they first came because they were seeking a faith community, and specifically one that is inclusive, and they welcomed the very traditional liturgy at St. David’s. While he doesn’t ask them, he is sure, given their comments, that many of them have watched online before attending in person. They represent a range of ages, from young gay couples to older people. But beyond everything else, “They’re looking to make meaning out of their lives. They don’t know where to start,” he said, but they think they might find it in church.

Both Thompson and Bruce described to ENS the intentional way they work to welcome new people and help them become part of the church. Bruce said he has asked parishioners to refrain from talking to him right after Sunday services so he can talk to new people instead. “I tell them, you have my cell number, you can text me any time or stop by the office any day of the week. My focus is going to be people who don’t have that connection with me and the parish.”

He added, “If they do come to talk to me, I redirect them to talking to new people so they can be part of welcoming them.”

Thompson said, “If Jesus came to build community, to build relationships among people,” it means that those in church always need to be attentive to the people around them. She has trained members on how to look for folks they don’t know and to greet them in a way that creates a personal connection but doesn’t offend a longtime member who someone might not already know.

She credits work with the College for Congregational Development, a comprehensive training program that originated in the Diocese of Olympia and in which the Diocese of Maryland participates, in helping her hone four elements of growth – invite, greet, orient and incorporate – that she uses to help people feel welcome and become an active and thriving part of the congregation’s life.

Both Thompson and Bruce said it takes a team of people to make those connections with newcomers, as well as consistency from clergy in reaching out to them. Bruce added that at a former parish in another diocese, he would quiz his staff every week on the names of newcomers, because knowing people by name is so important.

Sometimes existing church members fear growth, he said, because they worry they will lose the feeling of closeness they have to their church friends. “But if they are spiritually healthy people, after a year [of growth] they say, ‘No, this is better. I have more friends.’”

The Rev. Dina van Klaveren, the diocese’s canon for stewardship and development, told ENS that Bruce and his senior warden earlier this year talked about their church’s growth during a monthly call for clergy and wardens. And to help even more churches explore ways to welcome and greet newcomers, Thompson was asked to lead a Sept. 16 webinar that was open to diocesan clergy and lay leaders who were committed “to welcoming those who walk through the doors of the church, especially for worship.”

The number of new people in the diocese is “something beautiful that is growing,” van Klaveren said, but she and Schofield-Broadbent are aware that it’s not happening in every church.

As she watched clergy in churches with lots of newcomers raise their hands during meetings with the bishop, she knew that others likely were thinking, “I’m working so hard. I’m so tired. Why aren’t we growing?”

Events like the monthly calls with clergy and wardens, and the webinar Thompson led, are providing ways those churches can learn from places that are seeing new people, she said. The diocese is working to provide even more ways that “information, insights and wisdom” can be shared between churches, she said, with the hope that it will help every church find ways to grow.

— Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.