From: Darrell128@aol.com
Date: Mon, 24 Feb 1997 02:14:30 -0500 (EST)

Subject: NR 97020: Correction: CRC Membership Loss Speeds Up: 30,551 Members Lost in 
5-Ye

I have identified two errors in NR#1997-020.

* The first error is in the fourth paragraph which reads as follows: "Nearly
two-thirds of the loss can be traced to churches which are largely composed
of seceders from the Christian Reformed denomination. Of the four major
groups of seceding churches, the largest is the Alliance of Reformed
Churches, whose 43 member congregations total 9259 members.... So far, 24
secession churches with approximately 3900 members have chosen not to
affiliate with any of the organized denominations and most are loosely
associated under the rubric of the Alliance of Reformed Churches...."

The second reference to the Alliance of Reformed Churches is correct. The
first should read "United Reformed Churches."

* The second error is in the second paragraph which reads as follows: "While
many mainline denominations are used to reporting annual declines, until five
years ago the CRC had been quite different. Prior to the beginning of the
secession, the CRC had only experienced two years of decline in its 140-year
history...."

After reviewing all denominational records back to the late 1800's, I have
discovered a third year of decline. While denominational statistics in the
early years of the CRC are incomplete, the decision of the Polkton church to
return to the RCA after having been one of the first four churches to form
the CRC in 1857 may have resulted in a decline. For that reason, please
substitute the word "few" for "two" until such time as I can verify with
certainty that there have been only three years of denominational decline in
CRC history.

Please accept my sincere apologies for these errors.

Regards,
Darrell Todd Maurina




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file: /pub/resources/text/reformed/archive97: nr97-020c.txt
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