Episcopal Church moves to sell headquarters as membership shrinks, Anglican split deepens

The Episcopal Church is hoping to sell or lease its headquarters in New York City amid attendance decline and a schism in the broader Anglican Communion.

The church announced June 17 that a New York-based real estate firm will begin marketing its 12-story, multimillion-dollar Church Center for sale or lease. While the denomination counted many of America’s founders among its members and was once associated with the American elite, it has been losing members for decades.

The Episcopal Church, the American counterpart of the Church of England, had 1.5 million members in 2023, less than half its 3.6 million members in 1966. The church said it did not release 2024 membership data because a new methodology “revealed confusion” about how churches were counting congregants.

“We’ve done a detailed analysis about the best use of the building, with consultants and architects,” said Chris Lacovara, the church’s chief financial officer. “We occupy a fraction of the Church Center space now, and the conclusion is that we don’t need to own and occupy a building in midtown Manhattan.”

The church also noted it has considered moving its headquarters since 1970, and many members who work for the Church Center live around the U.S. or in Europe. The Episcopal Church and affiliated organizations occupy less than half the building’s space, Lacovara said.

Like many other mainline denominations in the U.S., the Episcopal Church has an aging membership.

Ryan Burge, professor of practice at the John C. Danforth Center at Washington University, wrote on his Substack in January that “Episcopalians are old. In fact, two-thirds of their adult members have celebrated their 60th birthday. In contrast, just 6% are under the age of 30. Put simply: for every young adult Episcopalian in the pews this Sunday, there will be about 10 retirees.”

While analysts such as Burge note the future of the Episcopal Church looks grim if the trend continues, some Episcopal leaders remain hopeful, denying the church is doomed.

Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe said at the Episcopal Parish Network’s annual conference in March that describing the church’s decline as the final word was “a lie from the pit of hell.”

Membership decline is not unique to Episcopalians, as mainline Protestants have fallen from 18% of U.S. adults in 2007 to 11% today, according to 2023-24 Pew Research data.

The Anglican tradition suffered a significant rupture in October, when the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), which claims to represent a majority of the Anglican Communion’s 85 million members, rejected the authority of the Church of England and called for a reordering of the communion. The church had named Sarah Mullally – who had previously voiced support for blessing same-sex marriages – as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury earlier that month.

GAFCON was formed in 2008 in response to what its members viewed as a drift toward liberalism and away from orthodoxy in the Anglican Communion. It has since recognized the Anglican Church in North America, a conservative body formed by congregants who broke from the Episcopal Church in 2009 after an openly gay man was elected bishop of New Hampshire.

The Episcopal Church did not respond to The Lion’s request for comment.