African Methodist Episcopal Church [METH-AME]
See Appendix C: African American Bodies

African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church [METH-AME Zion]
See Appendix C: African American Bodies

Albanian Orthodox Diocese of America [ORTHE-Alban Orth Dio]
Contact person(s): His Grace Bishop Ilia (Katre); Alexei Krindatch
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: Parish (i.e. permanent local place of worship which is lead by ordained priest)
Definition of attendees: Average number of persons (including children) who attend Liturgy (main weekly worship service) on a typical (not festive) Sunday.
Definition of adherents: Total number of persons participating in the life of a parish (congregation): counting adults and children,
regular and occasional attendees, paid stewards and persons who do not contribute financially.
Dual affiliation: No

Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection [METH-A.W.M.C.]
Contact person(s): James Kunselman
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: Groups of persons who meet together for worship
Definition of attendees: Average of Sunday morning attendance
Definition of members: Full membership
Definition of adherents: Those whose names are on the attendance roll
Dual affiliation: No

Alliance of Baptists [BAPT-Alliance Bapt]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Amana Church Society [Amana Ch Soc]
Date of statistics: Dec. 6, 2011
Definition of members: Reported in phone conversation with June Pasco, researcher for the study.

Ambassadors Amish-Mennonite [MENN-Amb Amish-Menn]
See Appendix D: Amish Groups

American Association of Lutheran Churches [LUTH-Luth Ch-Am Asc]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 26,537 members in the Yearbook.

American Baptist Association [BAPT-Amer Bapt Assn]
Contact person(s): Russell P. Baker
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 65,000 members in the Yearbook.

American Baptist Churches in the USA [BAPT-Amer Bapt USA]
Contact person(s): Maureen Morrissey

American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese [ORTHE-Carp Rus Orth]
Contact person(s): Very Rev. Protopresbyter Frank Miloro; Alexei Krindatch
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: Parish (i.e. permanent local place of worship which is lead by ordained priest)
Definition of attendees: Average number of persons (including children) who attend Liturgy (main weekly worship service) on a typical (not festive) Sunday.
Definition of adherents: Total number of persons participating in the life of a parish (congregation): counting adults and children,
regular and occasional attendees, paid stewards and persons who do not contribute financially.
Dual affiliation: No

American Presbyterian Church [PRES-AmPres]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Amish Groups, undifferentiated [MENN-Amish Undif]
See Appendix D: Amish Groups

Anglican Church in North America [ANG/EPIS-Anglican NA]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings
Definition of congregations: Parishes listed on their website, which may include congregations still associated with and reported by the Episcopal Church.
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 100,000 members in the Yearbook.

Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America [ORTHE-Ant Orth of NA]
Contact person(s): Fr. George Kevorkian; Alexei Krindatch
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: Parish (i.e. permanent local place of worship which is lead by ordained priest)
Definition of attendees: Average number of persons (including children) who attend Liturgy (main weekly worship service) on a typical (not festive) Sunday.
Definition of adherents: Total number of persons participating in the life of a parish (congregation): counting adults and children,
regular and occasional attendees, paid stewards and persons who do not contribute financially.
Dual affiliation: No
Apostolic Christian Church of America, Inc. [Ap Chr Ch-Amer]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Apostolic Faith Mission of Portland, OR [PENT-Apos Faith Msn]
Contact person(s): Alicia Parker; Darrel Lee
Date of statistics: December 2, 2011
Definition of adherents: This is an estimate.
Dual affiliation: No

Apostolic Lutheran Church of America [LUTH-Apostolic Luth]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Armenian Apostolic Church of America (Catholicosate of Cilicia) [ORTHO-Armen Ap Cilic]
Contact person(s): Vazken Chougassian; Alexei Krindatch
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: Parish (i.e. permanent local place of worship which is lead by ordained priest)
Definition of attendees: Average number of persons (including children) who attend Liturgy (main weekly worship service) on a typical (not festive) Sunday.
Definition of adherents: Total number of persons participating in the life of a parish (congregation): counting adults and children,
regular and occasional attendees, paid stewards and persons who do not contribute financially.
Dual affiliation: No

Armenian Church of North America (Catholicosate of Etchmiadzin) [ORTHO-Armen Ap Etchm]
Contact person(s): Christopher Zakian; Alexei Krindatch
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: Parish (i.e. permanent local place of worship which is lead by ordained priest)
Definition of attendees: Average number of persons (including children) who attend Liturgy (main weekly worship service) on a typical (not festive) Sunday.
Definition of adherents: Total number of persons participating in the life of a parish (congregation): counting adults and children,
regular and occasional attendees, paid stewards and persons who do not contribute financially.
Dual affiliation: No

Armenian Evangelical Churches (Additional) [CONG-Armen Evang Add'l]
Contact person(s): Richard H. Taylor
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: Those listed on the aeuna.org website that are not part of another denomination.
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: The Armenian Evangelical Union of North America is a union of Armenian Protestant
churches and mission fellowships in three western hemisphere nations. Most of these are full members of other denominations.
This list indicates additional churches and mission fellowships in the United States, not part of another denomination. The
website aeuna.org in December, 2010 listed a total of 29 churches and two mission fellowships. 23 churches and the two
mission fellowships are in the United States. Ten of the churches (IL-1; MA-3; MI-1; NH-1; NY-2; PA-1; RI-1) are members of the
United Church of Christ. One church (NJ) is a member of the Presbyterian Church (USA). One church (CA) is a member of the
Evangelical Presbyterian Church. One church (CA) is a member of the Church of the Nazarene. The remaining ten congregations and two mission fellowships are counted here.

Assemblies of God [PENT-Assemb of God]
Contact person(s): Sherri Doty
Date of statistics: December 31, 2010
Definition of congregations: Officially chartered church
Definition of attendees: Attendance of each weeks services divided by the number of weeks in the year (usually 52). EXCEPTION
CLAUSE: When extreme weather, major epidemic or similar disaster beyond the control of the church causes cancellation or
drastic reduction in attendance, such weeks may be omitted in figuring weekly averages.
Definition of members: All whom local church considers members, regardless of age.
Definition of adherents: Total number of persons who consider a local AG church their home church whether or not they are
enrolled as members. All ages including children are included.
Comments on the RCMS estimating procedure for adherents: NA; we are submitting total adherents.
Dual affiliation: No
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: Data are self-reported by churches and are likely to include some errors.

Assemblies of God International Fellowship [PENT-Assm God Intl F]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church [PRES-As Ref Pres Ch]
Contact person(s): Leland R. Beaudrot
Definition of congregations: Local churches
Definition of attendees: We do not track attendees at this level
Definition of members: Active communicant (full) members
Definition of adherents: We do not track adherents at this level
Comments on the RCMS estimating procedure for adherents: Seems good to me

Association of Free Lutheran Congregations [LUTH-Assoc Free Luth]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 43,360 members in the Yearbook.


Association of Messianic Congregations [MJEW-Assoc Mes Cong]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America [BAPT-Asc Ref Bap Ch Am]
Published directory

Bahá'í [Bahá'í]
Contact person(s): Robert Stockman, Thomas Ralya
Date of statistics: July 2011
Definition of congregations: Bahá'í communities are organized on a parish type system whereby all Bahá'ís located in a civil
jurisdiction are considered members of the same community.
Definition of members: Person joining Bahá'í community
Definition of adherents: Use membership data
Dual affiliation: No.

Beachy Amish-Mennonite Churches [MENN-Beachy Amish-Menn]
See Appendix D: Amish Groups

Berea Amish-Mennonite [MENN-Ber Amish-Menn]
See Appendix D: Amish Groups

Bible Fellowship Church [MENN-Bible Flwshp]
Contact person(s): David Allen; Ronald Kohl
Date of statistics: 2010
Definition of congregations: An incorporated church, or a group going through the process of becoming a particular church within the Bible Fellowship Church.
Definition of attendees: The total number of worshipers each week added up for the year, then divided by the number of weeks per year.
Definition of members: Those who give evidence of personal salvation, have been baptized, and have been accepted as members within a Bible Fellowship Church Congregation.
Dual affiliation: No

Bible Presbyterian Church (General Synod) [PRES-Bible Pres]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Brethren Church (Ashland, Ohio) [BRETH-Brethren (Ash)]
Contact person(s): Paula Strickland
Date of statistics: Dec. 8, 2011
Definition of congregations: Churches
Definition of attendees: Regular attendance, 3 time per month.
Definition of members: Typically no children. Most 15+ included in membership.
Dual affiliation: No

Brethren In Christ Church [BRETH-Breth in Chr]
Contact person(s): Pam Arnold; Warren L. Hoffman
Date of statistics: 2009
Definition of congregations: Officially launched or adopted; recognized by conference, per Manual Document of Government.
Definition of attendees: Tracked instead of membership at some churches.
Definition of members: Members take vows, are baptized in a church, no specific age, but membership is most likely at 16+
years old.
Dual affiliation: Yes. Related to the Mennonite Church, MCC member, attends Mennonite World Conference
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 20,739 members in the Yearbook.

Bruderhof Communities, Inc. [MENN-Bruderhof Comm]
Contact person(s): Johann Huleatt
Date of statistics: Dec. 1, 2011
Definition of attendees: Daily
Definition of members: Adult Christian Baptism
Dual affiliation: No
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: 100% accurate and up-to-date.

Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Diocese of the USA, Canada and Australia [ORTHE-Bulgar Orth USA]
Contact person(s): Metropolitan Joseph (Blagoev); Alexei Krindatch
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: Parish (i.e. permanent local place of worship which is lead by ordained priest)
Definition of attendees: Average number of persons (including children) who attend Liturgy (main weekly worship service) on a typical (not festive) Sunday.
Definition of adherents: Total number of persons participating in the life of a parish (congregation): counting adults and children,
regular and occasional attendees, paid stewards and persons who do not contribute financially.
Dual affiliation: No

Calvary Chapel Fellowship Churches [Calv Chpl]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Canadian and American Reformed Churches [REF-Can Amer Ref]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Catholic Church [Catholic]
Contact person(s): Clifford Grammich
Date of statistics: 2010
Definition of congregations: Parish churches, mission churches, and some limited locations with regularly scheduled weekend
Masses that may be considered regularly meeting Catholic congregations equivalent to other congregations in this study.
Definition of adherents: Adherents are generally equivalent to the number of baptized Catholic individuals known to each parish or mission church. For the 2010 study, each diocese was asked to provide, by parish or mission, their number of registered households, registered individuals, infant baptisms within the past year, deaths within the past year, and weekly attendance. This was part of an effort to provide a more congregational-based definition comparable to those of other religious bodies in the study. Put another way, the number of adherents is roughly equivalent to those who are known in some way to each parish or mission.
Comments on the accuracy of the statistics: Altogether, this work enumerated nearly 59 million Catholics known in some way to
each parish or mission in the United States. This number is substantially below two common measures of the Catholic
population in the United States.
First, as indicated in the introduction of this work, survey statistics indicate that more than 75 million persons in the United States
may identify themselves as Catholic. Yet a large proportion of this population rarely or never attends religious services. As
earlier noted, the General Social Survey of the National Opinion Research Center for 2010 indicates that 25.2 percent of the
population claims to be Catholic, but only 20.2 percent of the population claims both to be Catholic and to attend religious
services at least once yearly, and that only 15.4 percent of the population claims both to be Catholic and to attend religious
services more than once yearly. Multiplying these percentages by the U.S. population in 2010 of more than 308 million indicates
that there are nearly 78 million Catholics in the United States, but only 62 million who attend religious services at least once
yearly, and less than 48 million who attend more than once yearly.
Put another way, the count presented in this work of persons known to parishes or missions, nearly 59 million, is reasonably
close to the population of 62 million that both claims to be Catholic and to attend religious services at least once yearly.
Second, The Official Catholic Directory (OCD) for 2010 indicated a Catholic (both Latin and Eastern) population of 65,836,730 in
the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Yet there is reason to believe that the means used to generate the OCD number varies by diocese, with some dioceses relying on survey estimates of the Catholic population rather than parish-level statistics.
Variations in reporting and accuracy by diocese were also evident in the data received for this work. We received attendance statistics for less than half of the churches.We received registration statistics and baptism and death statistics for most churches, but many did not provide all these statistics, while some provided more than we requested. Accuracy will very likely vary the amount of time and care each parish and diocese puts into gathering and reporting statistics-and the time and care appears to vary substantially.
The adherent statistics as reported do reflect in most locations the number of Catholics calculated through a method developed
by the Catholic Research Forum based upon Canon Law and assum[ing] the definition of a Catholic as someone who is linked
with the Catholic community through baptism and Catholic burial.
The basis of the methodology is the computation of: 1) the percentage of babies born who receive Catholic baptism; 2) the
percentage of people who die who receive Catholic funerals; and 3) an average of the baptism and funeral statistics. For
more on this method, see Michael Cieslak, Being Creative: Diverse Approaches to Estimating Catholics, paper presented
to the annual meeting of the Religious Research Association, St. Louis, Missouri, October 1995. For more on varying methods
for enumerating Catholic populations and their implications, see Clifford Grammich, How Many Catholics? A Comparison of
Methods for Estimating Catholic Populations, paper presented to the annual meeting of the Religious Research Association,
Louisville, Kentucky, October 2008.

Central Yearly Meeting of Friends [FRND-Central Yr Mtg]
Contact person(s): Richard H. Taylor
Date of statistics: August 2011
Definition of congregations: Churches and church extension
Definition of attendees: Average Attendance
Definition of members: Members
Comments on the RCMS estimating procedure for adherents: This provides for children. However, since average attendance
surpasses membership, many adherents are probably not included.
Dual affiliation: No
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: Current

Christian and Missionary Alliance [Chr & Miss Al]
Contact person(s): Julianne Connon
Date of statistics: December 31, 2010
Definition of congregations: These are churches that are accredited, affiliated, and developing churches with the C&MA. This does not include church plants.
Definition of attendees: The average number of people that attend the main worship services.
Definition of members: Members are adults who have completed a membership class, confessed Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and signed the C&MA application of membership.
Definition of adherents: Adherents are members and non-members who regularly attend the churchs worship services and consider the church to be their church. This includes children, youth, and adults.
Dual affiliation: Unkown. We do have churches that we consider to be affiliated but we have no way of knowing if they are affiliated with any other organizations. They are required to do an Annual Report just like our other churches.
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: The totals of membership, total inclusive membership, and attendance change all the time based on information we receive throughout the year from our churches and districts. These numbers do not necessarily
match our published numbers.

Christian Brethren [Christian Brethren]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 86,000 members in the Yearbook.

Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) [CHR-Chr Ch (Disc)]
Contact person(s): Howard Bowers
Date of statistics: December 31, 2010
Definition of congregations: Number of congregation officially recognized as of December 31, 2010.
Definition of attendees: Average attendance (per week) reported by congregations. Those congregations that have not reported in the past three reporting cycles are not estimated. Those that have reported within the last three reporting cycles are estimated
at the last reported level.
Definition of members: Persons who are baptized and considered members by the local congregation.
Definition of adherents: No definition. There is no estimate made of the congregations non-member participants either child or adult.
Comments on the RCMS estimating procedure for adherents: The procedure seems like a viable method for estimating the adherents.
Dual affiliation: Yes. About 1% of our congregation have dual affiliation. That is usually with the American Baptist, Church of the Brethern, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ and United Methodist.
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: Reports rely upon a key responder. In most cases the key responder is the pastor who
may have a vested interest in the figures reported.

Christian Churches and Churches of Christ [CHR-Chr Chs & Chs Cr]
Contact person(s): Larry Collins
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: Data compiled from the
2011 Directory of the Ministry.

Christian Methodist Episcopal Church [METH-C.M.E.]
See Appendix C: African American Bodies

Christian Reformed Church in North America [REF-Christian Ref]
Contact person(s): Nancy Haynes

Christian Union [Christian Un]
Contact person(s): Jim Eschenbrenner
Definition of congregations: Local gathering recognized by district officials.
Definition of members: Christian Union does not have a history of collecting data from churches.
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 4,500 members in the Yearbook.

Church of Christ (Holiness), U.S.A [Ch of Chr (Hol)]
Contact person(s): Joseph Campbell; Sheila Bingham
Date of statistics: July 2010
Definition of congregations: Each local church is counted as a congregation
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 10,460 members in the Yearbook.

Church of Christ, Scientist [Ch Cr, Scientst]
Contact person(s): Debbi Lawrence
Date of statistics: Dec. 15, 2011
Definition of congregations: Includes Authorized branches Churches of Christ, Scientist, and Christian Science Societies, formed in accordance with the Church Manual of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, MA (c1895).
Definition of members: Membership numbers in The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, MA are not public. Article VIII, Section 28 of the Church Manual Numbering the People, states the following directive in regards to releasing membership numbers:
Christian Scientists shall not report for publication the number of the members of The Mother Church, nor that of the branch
churches. According to the Scripture they shall turn away from personality and numbering the people.
Dual affiliation: No
Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) [CGOD-Ch God (Ander)]
Contact person(s): Robert Edwards

Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) [PENT-Ch God (Cleve)]
Contact person(s): Sharon Adkins; Julian Robinson; Lynn Stone
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Church of God (Seventh Day) [Ch God (7th Day)]
Contact person(s): Whaid Rose
Date of statistics: Dec. 31, 2010
Definition of congregations: Those listed in our Directory of Ministers & Churches, which is updated monthly.
Dual affiliation: Unknown
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: I have been working for over 2 years on a membership update, and have found many
errors, areas where we do not have all the data imputed into our data base. I have often needed long time members to submit
copies of membership certificates. We are hoping accuracy will increase in the next 2 years as this project continues.
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 11,000 members in the Yearbook.

Church of God by Faith, Inc. [PENT-Ch of God by Faith]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 35,000 members in the Yearbook.

Church of God General Conference [Ch of God Gen Conf]
Contact person(s): David Krogh
Date of statistics: Dec. 31, 2010
Definition of congregations: A group of people who meet weekly for worship that have applied for and been granted membership in our association of churches by the Board of Directors.
Definition of members: Baptized and active in the church by attending at least 13 Sundays per year and make periodic financial
contributions.
Comments on the RCMS estimating procedure for adherents: Your procedure is acceptable.
Dual affiliation: No
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: A statistical form is mailed to each church requesting information for the previous year. This form must be returned in order for a church to have delegate representation at our annual summer Conference. When a
church does not return the form, information from the previous year is used as an estimate for the current year.

Church of God in Christ [PENT-COGIC]
See Appendix C: African American Bodies

Church of God in Christ, Mennonite [MENN-CG in Cr (Menn)]
Contact person(s): Dale Koehn

Church of God of Prophecy [PENT-Ch of God Proph]
Contact person(s): Shaun McKinley
Date of statistics: August 2010
Definition of congregations: An organized local church, does not include churches that are designated as mission status due to
being newly planted.
Definition of attendees: Not reported
Definition of members: Number of members reported by local churches as having accepted our membership covenant.
Does not include regular attendees who have not accepted church membership covenant.
Definition of adherents: To be estimated using the RCMS standard formula.
Comments on the RCMS estimating procedure for adherents: Acceptable
Dual affiliation: No
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: Reporting is mandatory but not heavily enforced. We do strive to maintain accurate records but cannot verify the accuracy of the report.

Church of God of the Apostolic Faith, Inc. [PENT-Ch God Apos Fth]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Church of God, Mountain Assembly, Inc. [PENT-Ch God Mtn Asm]
Contact person(s): James Kilgore
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 7,000 members in the Yearbook.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [LDS-L-D Saints]
Contact person(s): Cliff Higbee; Glen Buckner
Date of statistics: Year-end 2010
Definition of congregations: Total wards and branches in the United States
Definition of adherents: Total members, including children of record, in the United States
Dual affiliation: No

Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith, Inc. [PENT-Ch Lord Jesus Apos]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Church of the Brethren [BRETH-Ch of Brethren]
Contact person(s): Jean Clements

Church of the Lutheran Brethren of America [LUTH-Ch of Luth Br]
Contact person(s): Barb Walswick

Church of the Lutheran Confession [LUTH-Ch Luth Conf]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 6,175 members in the Yearbook.

Church of the Nazarene [Ch of Nazarene]
Contact person(s): Dale Jones
Date of statistics: September 30, 2010
Definition of congregations: All organized churches plus those not yet organized reporting statistics.
Definition of attendees: Average weekly attendance at worship services during the prior year. This usually includes children and workers in nurseries or other specialized ministries conducted at the same time as the worship service. When multiple services are held, the totals from all services would typically be included.
Definition of members: Full members received into local congregations. All members of the Church of the Nazarene are members of a local congregation.
Definition of adherents: The larger of full and associate members, responsibility list (those involved in Sunday School or other
discipleship ministries), average weekly attendance in discipleship activities, or average weekly worship attendance.
Dual affiliation: No
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: High participation rates (over 98% annually) and double-checked by district personnel.

Church of the United Brethren in Christ [Un Breth in Cr]
Contact person(s): Cathy Reich
Date of statistics: December 8, 2011
Definition of congregations: Every congregation in the USA which agrees to sign a covenant.
Definition of attendees: The number of attendees at the major weekend services, combined.
Definition of members: The congregation keeps a listing of all adults who become full members.
Definition of adherents: I could recommend adherents to be same number as attendees at 85% to account for visitors, etc.
Dual affiliation: No
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: We have submitted all figures and data as reported to us. There were some not reported at all, therefore no figures given.

Churches of Christ [CHR-Chs of Christ]
Contact person(s): Carl Royster

Churches of Christ in Christian Union [Ch Christ Chr Union]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 10,645 members in the Yearbook.

Churches of God, General Conference [CGOD-Ches God-Gen Con]
Contact person(s): Candice Shoemaker

Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches [REF-Comm Ref Evan]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Community of Christ [LDS-Comm of Christ]
Contact person(s): Christi Duke

Congregational Christian Churches, Additional (not part of any national CCC body) [CONG-Cong Chr Add'l]
Contact person(s): Richard H. Taylor
Date of statistics: Dec. 31, 2010
Definition of congregations: Churches are a local continuing body of believers which is a congregation of the universal Church of
Christ. (Report on the Commission on the Study of the Congregational Christian Churches, 1956)
Definition of members: Total membership
Comments on the RCMS estimating procedure for adherents: This is consistent with past reports.
Dual affiliation: Yes. These churches are affiliated with Associations and Conferences of the United Church of Christ, but are not
part of any national Congregational Christian body.
The Constitution of the United Church of Christ provides that local Conferences and Associations may remain in fellowship
with Congregational Christian Churches not part of the United Church of Christ. Their statistics are to be kept separately. As of
December 31, 2010, twenty-one of the Conferences of the United Church Conferences took advantage of this clause for
95 congregations. These are included in two categories:
Schedule I churches (which have not voted or have voted to abstain from voting on whether to join the United Church) and
Schedule II churches (which have voted not to be a part of the United Church). Of the 95 congregations, 28 have a primary
national relationship with the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches or the Conservative
Congregational Christian Conference, and are not reported here. An additional four congregations are inactive (having a
legal existance, but not holding regular worship services) are also not shown here. This leaves the 63 congregations shown
here. Of the reported churches one is dually aligned to the American Baptist Churches and one to the Evangelical
Covenant Church. One is federated to an American Baptist Church and another one is federated to a United Methodist
Church.
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: Most are current or very recent reports. One church did not report membership. About
ten churches (notably in IN, IA, and PA) reported very old data.

Congregational Holiness Church [PENT-Cong Hol Ch]
Contact person(s): Lynn Carnes

Congregational Methodist Church [METH-Cong Meth]
Contact person(s): Janet Woods
Date of statistics: December 31, 2010
Definition of congregations: Number of churches who meet each week for worship.
Definition of attendees: Average morning worship (separate from Sunday School) is reported annually to their annual conferences and to our head General Conference.
Definition of members: Age 16+, Full Member; Below 16, Junior Member
Dual affiliation: No
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: Not all of our churches report so these figures are based solely on the number who did
report; 149 of 178 churches reported.

Conservative Baptist Association of America [BAPT-Consrv Bapt]
Published Directory
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 200,000 members in the Yearbook.

Conservative Congregational Christian Conference [CONG-Consrv Cong Chr]
Contact person(s): Richard H. Taylor
Date of statistics: Dec. 31, 2010
Definition of congregations: Member churches or churches in development
Definition of attendees: AM attendance
Definition of members: Church membership
Comments on the RCMS estimating procedure for adherents: This has been the normal format for reported Conservative
Conference data. However, the strong average attendance in most congregations suggests many adult adherents not included
in these numbers.
Dual affiliation: Yes. Limited. United Church of Christ; National Association of Congregational Christian Churches.
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: 223 of 293 reported full member churches are current year membership reports. Seventy churches (23.8%) are picked up from previous years reports.
Average attendance for two congregations was estimated using the national denominational percentage of members. No
membership or attendance figures provided for churches in development.

Conservative Judaism [JUD-Conserv]
See Appendix H: Jewish Groups

Conservative Lutheran Association [LUTH-Cons Luth Assn]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 1,338 members in the Yearbook.

Conservative Mennonite Conference [MENN-Cons Menn Conf]
Contact person(s): Delores Yoder
Date of statistics: September 2010
Definition of congregations: Established, organized churches church plants are not included.
Definition of attendees: includes children, counted each Sunday by local churches.
Definition of members: Most churches have an official membership roll that tracks additions and subtractions
Definition of adherents: Those who attend regularly, but have not formally committed themselves through membership.
Dual affiliation: Yes. Maple Grove Mennonite, Hartville, Ohio; Lowville Mennonite and Pine Grove Mennonite, New York, and
Faith Community, El Dorado, Arkansas share their affiliation with Mennonite Church USA
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: Each September we send out a letter with our current information asking the churches to update their information. These are used for our data. These figures are adjusted to represent 100%.

Conservative Yearly Meetings of Friends [FRND-Consrv Yr Mtgs]
Contact person(s): Richard H. Taylor
Date of statistics: Iowa and Ohio: 2010; North Carolina: 2011
Definition of congregations: Meetings, churches, and worship groups.
Definition of attendees: N/A
Definition of members: Members.
Definition of adherents: N/A
Comments on the RCMS estimating procedure for adherents: This has been the normal format for reporting Quaker data.
However, some Conservative meetings may include younger children in their membership figures. While this would contradict
the use of this formula, its use is counter-balanced by another fact. Since nearly a quarter of reported Conservative meetings do
not report any membership the adherents must be significantly higher than reported members. This formula does maintain
consistency of reporting and perhaps balances out two contradictory tendencies.
Dual affiliation: Yes. Four local meetings in North Carolina (with 286 members) are dually aligned to a Friends General Conference Fellowship.
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: Member data is collected by Yearly Meetings and varies in the items collected. Nine of 40 local meetings (22.5%) are worship groups, preparatory meetings, etc. that do not report members and are shown with zero
members. Often key members of these groups belong to other local meetings. Other times these groups are not fully organized.
See Appendix F: Friends

Convention of Original Free Will Baptists [BAPT-Orig Free Will Bapt]
Contact person(s): Buddy Sasser
Date of statistics: Dec. 7, 2011
Definition of congregations: By church name
Definition of attendees: Sunday morning attendance
Definition of members: Full members
Definition of adherents: All attenders
Dual affiliation: No

Converge Worldwide/Baptist General Conference
[BAPT-Converge/BGC]
Contact person(s): Peg Windmiller
Date of statistics: 2010
Definition of congregations: Any church or church plant recognized by one of the 11 Converge Worldwide/BGC Regions of the US
Definition of attendees: Average Sunday Attendance
Definition of adherents: Estimated using attendance * 1.2
Dual affiliation: Yes. About 25 are affiliated with Vision 360

Coptic Orthodox Church [ORTHO-Coptic Orth Ch]
Contact person(s): His Grace Bishop David; Alexei Krindatch
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: : Parish (i.e. permanent local place of worship which is lead by ordained priest)
Definition of attendees: Average number of persons (including children) who attend Liturgy (main weekly worship service) on a typical (not festive) Sunday.
Definition of adherents: Total number of persons participating in the life of a parish (congregation): counting adults and children,
regular and occasional attendees, paid stewards and persons who do not contribute financially
Dual affiliation: No

Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church [PRES-Cov Ref Pres]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 300 members in the Yearbook.

Cumberland Presbyterian Church [PRES-Cumber Presb]
Contact person(s): Michael Sharpe
Date of statistics: Dec. 31, 2010
Definition of congregations: Consists of professing Christians, together with their baptized children, who covenant with each
other to meet regularly to worship God and study the Word of God, join together in a common witness to the gospel, and
engage in good works to which Christians are called, and who have adopted a certain form of government.
Definition of attendees: Not available
Definition of members: Persons who have confessed Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, entered into the church covenant, and
received the sacrament of baptism.
Dual affiliation: Yes. We have 12 congregations that are union congregations with the Presbyterian Church USA. These
congregations hold dual membership in each denomination, usually reporting stats (1/2 to each denomination).
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: See reporting form sent to each congregation yearly.

Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America [PRES-Cum Pres Am]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 15,142 members in the Yearbook.

Elim Fellowship [PENT-Elim]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Enterprise Baptists Association [BAPT-Enterprise Bapt Assoc]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Episcopal Church [ANG/EPIS-Episcopal]
Contact person(s): Kirk Hadaway

Eritrean Orthodox [ORTHO-Eritrean Orth]
Contact person(s): Rev. Fr. Michael Yohannes; Alexei Krindatch
Date of statistics: December 2011
Definition of congregations: Parish (i.e. permanent local place of worship which is lead by ordained priest)
Definition of attendees: Average number of persons (including children) who attend Liturgy (main weekly worship service) on a typical (not festive) Sunday.
Definition of adherents: Total number of persons participating in the life of a parish (congregation): counting adults and children,
regular and occasional attendees, paid stewards and persons who do not contribute financially.
Dual affiliation: No
Ethiopian Orthodox [ORTHO-Ethiopian Orth]
Contact person(s): His Grace Bishop Melchizedek; Alexei Krindatch
Date of statistics: December 2011
Definition of congregations: Parish (i.e. permanent local place of worship which is lead by ordained priest)
Dual affiliation: No

Evangelical Association of Reformed, and Congregational Christian Churches [Evan Assoc RCC]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Evangelical Church [Evan Ch]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 12,430 members in the Yearbook.

Evangelical Congregational Church [Evan Cong Ch]
Contact person(s): Brenda Long

Evangelical Covenant Church [Evan Cov Ch]
Contact person(s): David Olson; Fredrik Wall
Date of statistics: 2010
Definition of congregations: Worship group; officially affiliated and self-supporting with pastor.
Definition of members: Received as members via official process of Local Church; some include children, some don't. On average, children 13+ can be members.
Definition of adherents: Regular participants in the life of the church.
Comments on the RCMS estimating procedure for adherents: Our analysis of churches in our denomination suggests that there is a multiplication factor of 1.3 to get to a best estimate of adherents. The analysis is based on research done by Dave Olson.
Dual affiliation: No
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: To find our statistical data for attendance we have determined that the month of
November is the most accurate month in order to see over or underestimate attendance because of holidays, etc. We are
sampling 5 weekends and take out high and low data and do an average of the remaining three. We still do a manual control of
the outcome and communicate back to churches and our local conferences should the data not seem to be representative
based on prior years numbers. Membership data is collected as a yearend number from another statistical report sent to our
churches.

Evangelical Free Church of America [Evan Free Ch]
Contact person(s): Lisa Theurer

Evangelical Friends Church International [FRND-Evan Fr Ch Intl]
Contact person(s): Richard H. Taylor
Date of statistics: Data from four regions is from their 2010 meetings.
Southwest data is from December 2005. Alaska details were estimated from incomplete 2007 data. Information on Hispanic congregations has been enhanced through the use of the Hispanic Friends website www.institutualma.org/directorio/ in 2011.
Definition of congregations: Meetings, churches, and worship groups.
Definition of attendees: Sunday AM.
Definition of members: Members
Definition of adherents: N/A
Comments on the RCMS estimating procedure for adherents: This has been the normal way for reporting Friends data. However, some churches do include minor children in their membership. Nevertheless, with Evangelical Friends attendance so outstripping membership, it is clear that this formula undercounts Evangelical Friends total adherents.
Dual affiliation: Yes. One Kansas church reported with 443 members is dually aligned to the Friends United Meeting.
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: Member data is collected by the Regions and Yearly Meetings and varies in content. 40 local churches out of 306 total (13.1%) are mission points, new starts, worship groups, etc. that do not report members and are shown with zero members. Often key members of these groups belong to other local meetings. Other times these groups are
not fully organized.
See Appendix F: Friends

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America [LUTH-E.L.C.A.]
Contact person(s): Deborah Myers
Date of statistics: August 30, 2011
Definition of congregations: Those that have incorporated and have been received onto the roster of the Synod (territory) in which they are located.
Definition of attendees: The number of people worshiping weekly at all regularly held worship services: i.e. Sunday, Saturday and a mid-week service if it is held throughout the year (not just during Lent).
Definition of members: The ELCA begins communion for 5th graders.
Confirmation takes place a few years after communion.
Definition of adherents: The ELCA counts all baptized members when determining its membership. Confirmed members would
be a subset of baptized. Confirmed members is: 3,444,021 and baptized is: 4,543,037.
Dual affiliation: No
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: We rely on our congregations to file reports annually to obtain the data. Not all congregations file. For those that do not file, their data is carried over from the last year filed on record and is included in our numbers.

Evangelical Lutheran Synod [LUTH-Evan Luth Syn]
Contact person(s): Elsa Ferkenstad
Date of statistics: December 31, 2010
Definition of congregations: Incorporated congregations accepted into membership in the synod.
Definition of attendees: Average total attendance for weekend (i.e., if the congregation has two identical Sunday services, it is the attendance at both services).
Definition of members: Members who have completed confirmation instruction.
Definition of adherents: Baptized members of congregations.
Dual affiliation: No
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: Statistics are reported to synod office by local pastors. Every effort is made to receive
updated information each year. However, there is occasionally data for a particular church that is carried over from the previous
year because a current report was not available.

Evangelical Methodist Church [METH-Evan Meth Ch]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 8,615 members in the Yearbook.

Evangelical Presbyterian Church [PRES-Evan Presby Ch]
Contact person(s): Annette Minard
Date of statistics: December 31, 2010
Definition of congregations: Organized bodies of faith formally recognized by our Presbyteries as qualified particular or
mission churches.
Definition of attendees: Average weekly worship attendance (both adults and children) in primary (Saturday night/Sunday morning) worship services. This figure does not include additional Sunday night or Wednesday services unless that is the time of primary worship.
Definition of members: Membership formally recognized by church, usually ages 12 or older (not baptized children).
Definition of adherents: Members plus baptized rolls (children)
Dual affiliation: No

Federation of Reformed Churches [REF-Fed Ref Ch]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Fellowship of Evangelical Bible Churches [MENN-Fel Evg Bib Ch]
Contact person(s): Paul A. Boecker
Date of statistics: November 22, 2011
Definition of members: Most 14+, no definitive age for Baptism, usually Jr. High, most members adults
Dual affiliation: No

Fellowship of Evangelical Churches [MENN-Fel Evg Ch]
Contact person(s): Lynette Augsburger

Foursquare Gospel, International Church of the [PENT-Int Foursq Gos]
Contact person(s): Wanda Brackett

Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) [PRES-Free Ch Scot]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Free Methodist Church of North America [METH-Free Methodist]
Contact person(s): Kelly Sheads

Free Presbyterian Church of North America [PRES-Free Pres NA]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Free Reformed Church of North America [REF-Free Ref NA]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings
Free Will Baptists, National Association of [BAPT-Free Will Bapt]
Contact person(s): Keith Burden, Dari Goodfellow, Ryan Lewis

Friends General Conference [FRND-Fr Gen Cf]
Contact person(s): Richard H. Taylor
Date of statistics: See Accuracy section below
Definition of congregations: Meetings, churches, and worship groups.
Definition of attendees: Only two of the Yearly Meetings or Fellowship publish attendance records, so it is not shown in the main lists. (See comments under adherent formula.)
Definition of members: Includes non-resident,youth,teens, and other designations.
Definition of adherents: N/A
Comments on the RCMS estimating procedure for adherents: This has been the normal procedure for Friends data. Some local
meetings may include children in member figures, but there is no uniform policy. There is other data that may suggest General
Conference adherents. Four Yearly Meetings report a figure roughly equivalent to adherents. Intermountain with 983 members
(not including 25 in the Wyoming group) reports a total of 1,589 as number in meetings, including worship groups. Ohio Valley
with (rounded for dual meetings) 769 members reports an additional 143 non-member attendees. Southern Appalachian with
594 members reports 1,142 total individuals. Southeastern with 501 members reports 903 total persons. Average attendance
data is also available for two Yearly Meetings. Reported attendance as a percentage of membership for each of these is
74.6% for Lake Erie; and 45.8% for Ohio Valley, an average of 66.9% for these two Yearly Meetings. Since, also, the data
collected includes many local meetings not reporting any membership the total General Conference adherent number
must be higher than reported. It must be concluded that this formula undercounts General Conference adherents.
Dual affiliation: Yes. For the extensive dual alignment with the Friends United Meeting see the separate entry for "Friends
General Conference and Friends United Meeting, dually aligned meetings." In addition there are the following dual alignments.
Four meetings in North Carolina with 286 members are dually aligned to the Friends - Conservative. Five meetings,
(California: 2 with 92 members; Idaho 1 with no member report; Washington 1 with 61 members; and Wyoming 1 with 4 members) are dually aligned with one of the Independent Yearly Meetings.
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: Member data is collected by the Yearly Meetings and varies in dating and items collected. 103 local meetings out of 382 total (27.0%) are worship groups, preparatory meetings, etc. that do not report members and are shown with zero members. Often key members of these groups belong to other local meetings. Some others of these groups are not fully organized. The Wyoming group of five local communities mentioned above is affiliated directly to the General Conference and to one General Conference Yearly Meeting. Two other meetings (one in North Carolina and one in Wisconsin) each belong to two General Conference Yearly Meetings. These duplications have been removed in the figures reported.Data for five Yearly Meetings is from their 2010 meetings.
Northern Yearly Meeting is also from their 2010 report, but many local memberships were estimated from other data in
written reports. Southeastern is from its 2011 report, Ohio Valley the 2009 report, and South Central its 2007 report.
Surveys conducted in 2011 were used to assemble member data shown for the Piedmont Fellowship (very incomplete), and for meetings directly affiliated to the General Conference. Alaska Conference details were estimated from partial 2010 data. When data for dually aligned meetings is not available from a General Conference source, but was available from their dual source, it is inserted.
See Appendix F: Friends

Friends General Conference and Friends United Meeting, dually aligned meetings [FRND-Fr Gen Cf & Un Mtg]
Contact person(s): Richard H. Taylor
Date of statistics: Canadian: 2008; others: 2010
Definition of congregations: Meetings, churches, and worship groups.
Definition of attendees: Only the New England Yearly Meeting reported average attendance, and not for all meetings. Therefore that data is not shown in the main lists. For meetings reporting it, the attendance as a percentage of membership is 46.6%.
Definition of adherents: N/A
Comments on the RCMS estimating procedure for adherents: This has been the normal format for Quaker reporting. But some local meetings/churches may include younger children in their member totals. For comparison to the formula, the New England Yearly Meeting (the only one here to do so) specifically reports 3,964 members and an additional 1,167 average number of active attendees (non-members). Thus non-members make up a significant proportion of New England Yearly Meeting attendees.
Since the over all data collected includes many local meetings not reporting any membership the adherent number over all must be higher than reported. It must be concluded that this formula undercounts dual General Conference and United Meeting adherents.
Dual affiliation: Yes. This grouping are dual congregations to General Conference and United Meeting, in addition to those reported separately. This group has not been counted in either of the other groups in the various lists.
See Appendix F: Friends

Friends United Meeting [FRND-Fr Un Mtg]
Contact person(s): Richard H. Taylor
Date of statistics: Western: 2011; Indiana: 2009; others:2010
Definition of congregations: Meetings, churches, and worship groups.
Definition of attendees: Only four of the seven Yearly Meetings included here reported attendance figures, so it is not shown in the main lists. Reported attendance as a percentage of membership is 101.8% for the Indiana Yearly Meeting, 56.6% for the Iowa Yearly Meeting, 63.6% for the North Carolina Meeting, and 43.2% for the Western Yearly Meeting. this gives an overall percentage of 65.9% for those Meetings collecting this data.
Definition of members: Members.
Definition of adherents: N/A
Comments on the RCMS estimating procedure for adherents: This has been the format historically used for Quaker data. Most United Meeting churches/meetings probably separate younger children from full members. However, there is no uniform rule about excluding younger children from membership reports. Nevertheless this is probably a useful format for most memberreported churches/meetings. The presence of some local churches/meetings not reporting any membership suggests that the adherent number might be higher than reported. In addition, because the percentage of attendees, where known, compared to membership is higher than in many denominational groups, it must be concluded that this formula further undercounts United Meeting adherents.
Dual affiliation: Yes. For the extensive dual alignment with the Friends General Conference see the separate entry "Friends General Conference and Friends United Meeting, dually aligned meetings." In addition one church in Kansas with 437 members is also dually aligned to the Evangelical Friends International. Also one Indiana church is federated to groups affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA), United Methodist Church, and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: Member data is collected by the Yearly Meetings and varies in dating and items collected. 28 local meetings out of 258 total (10.9%) are shown with zero members. The majority of these are a group of regular meetings in the North Carolina Yearly Meeting with no current reports. The few others are a mix of worship groups, preparatory meetings, etc. that do not report members. Often key members of these types of gropus belong to other local meetings. Other times these groups are not fully organized.
See Appendix F: Friends

Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship [PENT-Full Gosp Bapt]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Fundamental Baptist Fellowship [BAPT-Fund Bapt Flwsp]
Published directory

General Association of Regular Baptist Churches [BAPT-Reg Bapt Gen As]
Published directory Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 135,815 members in the Yearbook.

Georgian Orthodox Parishes in the United States [ORTHE-Georgian Orth]
Contact person(s): Alexei Krindatch
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: Parish (i.e. permanent local place of worship which is lead by ordained priest)
Definition of attendees: Average number of persons (including children) who attend Liturgy (main weekly worship service) on a typical (not festive) Sunday.
Definition of adherents: Total number of persons participating in the life of a parish (congregation): counting adults and children, regular and occasional attendees, paid stewards and persons who do not contribute financially.
Dual affiliation: No

Grace Brethren Churches, Fellowship of [BRETH-Grace Breth]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 30,371 members in the Yearbook.

Grace Gospel Fellowship [Grace Gosp Fel]
Contact person(s): Cynthia Carmichael; Frosty Hansen
Definition of congregations: They sign a form, agree with doctrine and constitution, sign and return. No financial support required.
Definition of members: No children. 18+, but most older; some in college.
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 5,000 members in the Yearbook.

Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America [ORTHE-Greek Orthodox]
Contact person(s): His Grace Bishop Andonios; Alexei Krindatch
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: Total number of persons participating in the life of a parish (congregation): counting adults and children, regular and occasional attendees, paid stewards and persons who do not contribute financially.
Definition of attendees: Average number of persons (including children) who attend Liturgy (main weekly worship service) on a typical (not festive) Sunday.
Definition of members: Total number of persons participating in the life of a parish (congregation): counting adults and children, regular and occasional attendees, paid stewards and persons who do not contribute financially.
Dual affiliation: No

Heritage Reformed Churches [REF-Heritage Ref]
Contact person(s): Ann Dykema
Date of statistics: December 2011
Definition of congregations: Organized church with elders and deacons, under the rule of the Senate, subscribe to beliefs.
Definition of attendees: N/A
Definition of members: Full time members who take classes and do public confession, usually over 18yrs old.
Dual affiliation: Yes. Have the highest level of interaction with: Free Reformed Churches of North America. Exchange pastors, and share events.

Hindu Post Renaissance [HINDU-Post Ren]
See Appendix G: Hindu Groups

Hindu Renaissance [HINDU-Renaiss]
See Appendix G: Hindu Groups

Holy Orthodox Church in North America [ORTHE-Holy Orth in NA]
Contact person(s): His Grace Bishop Demetrius; Alexei Krindatch
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: Parish (i.e. permanent local place of worship which is lead by ordained priest) Definition of attendees: Average number of persons (including children) who attend Liturgy (main weekly worship service) on a typical
(not festive) Sunday. Definition of adherents: Total number of persons participating in the life of a parish (congregation): counting adults and children, regular and occasional attendees, paid stewards and persons who do not contribute financially.
Dual affiliation: No

Hungarian Reformed Churches (Additional) [REF-Hung Ref Add'l]
Definition of congregations: The Hungarian Reformed Federation of America is a service and fellowship organization serving Hungarian (Magyar) Reformed congregations in several denominations. In December, 2010 its website (www.hrfa.org) listed 65 congregations. Thirty of these are members of the United Church of Christ (CA - 2; CT - 3; FL - 1; IL - 1; IN - 1; MI - 2; NJ - 4; NY - 2; OH - 8; PA - 6). Four are members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) (NJ - 2; OH - 1; PA - 1). One church (VA) is a member of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Hanover Presbytery. The thirty remaining congregations are shown here.
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Hutterian Brethren [MENN-Hutt Breth]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 42,800 members in the Yearbook.

Independent Baptist Fellowship International [BAPT-Ind Bapt Flwsp Intl]
Published directory

Independent Fundamental Churches of America [Ind Fund Churches]
Contact person(s): Tom Olson
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 69,857 members in the Yearbook.

Independent Yearly Meetings of Friends [FRND-Indep Yr Mtgs]
Contact person(s): Richard H. Taylor
Date of statistics: North Pacific: 2011; Pacific: 2010
Definition of congregations: Meetings, churches, and worship groups.
Definition of attendees: N/A
Definition of members: Members
Definition of adherents: N/A
Comments on the RCMS estimating procedure for adherents: This has been the usual format for reporting Quaker data. It does account for children. The Pacific Yearly Meeting specifically does not include younger children in its reported membership, so this formula is helpful in that regard. However, because the data provided includes so many meetings not reporting any membership, even with this formula, there is probably a significant undercount for adherents in Independent Yearly Meetings.
Dual affiliation: Yes. Five meetings (CA 2 with 92 members; ID 1 with no members reported; WA 1 with 61 members; and WY 1 with 4 members) are dually aligned to the Friends General Conference.
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: 35 local meetings out of 95 total (36.8%) are worship groups, preparatory meetings, etc. that do not report members and are shown with zero members. Often key members of these groups belong to other meetings.
Other times these are not fully organized.
See Appendix F: Friends

Indian-American Hindu Temple Associations [HINDU-I/A Temples]
See Appendix G: Hindu Groups

International Churches of Christ [CHR-Int Chs of Christ]
Contact person(s): Kelcy Hahn
Definition of congregations: Each congregation is under its own leadership, but may be comprised of many smaller groups
spread over an area that seldom meet together in one location. In general (but not always) International Churches of Christ have only one congregation per city, and the entire metropolitan area will be considered a city. So, for example, there is one ICOC in Los Angeles, but it meets separately on multiple campuses.
Definition of attendees: not collected
Definition of members: International Churches of Christ define members as baptized, adult (including older teenage) believers who take an active part in the church's activities. Those who no longer attend or move to another city are not counted as members.
Definition of adherents: Not counted separately, but children of members attend regularly, and are not included in membership.
Comments on the RCMS estimating procedure for adherents: Yes, the described procedure is reasonably accurate for the ICOC.
Dual affiliation: No

International Council of Community Churches [Int Cou Comm Ch]
Contact person(s): Donald Ashmall
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 250,000 members in the Yearbook.

International Fellowship of Bible Churches [Intl Fell Bible Ch]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

International Fellowship of Christian Assemblies [PENT-I F Chr Assmbl]
Contact person(s): Michael Player; Christine Marini
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 7,150 members in the Yearbook.

International Pentecostal Church of Christ [PENT-Int Pent C Chr]
Contact person(s): Patty Howard
Date of statistics: 2011
Definition of attendees: Highest reported attendance from either Sunday School or Morning Worship ServicesHighest reported attendance from either Sunday School or Morning Worship Services
Definition of members: Confirmed members
Definition of adherents: Inclusive members

International Pentecostal Holiness Church [PENT-Intl Pent Holiness]
Contact person(s): Damaris Cabrera; Ron Carpenter
Date of statistics: 2011
Definition of congregations: Pentecostal Holiness Church and Full Gospel Charismatic Church
Definition of attendees: Membership attendance, Sunday worship; statistics are by District.
Definition of members: 258,000 is with children 14+
Dual affiliation: No

Jain [Jain]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Jehovah's Witnesses [Jehovah's Witness]
See Appendix B: Address Lists
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 974,719 members in the Yearbook.

Korean Presbyterian Church Abroad [PRES-Kor Pres Abroad]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Korean Presbyterian Church in America [PRES-Korean Pres Amer]
Published directory

Korean-American Presbyterian Church [PRES-Korean Amer Pres]
Contact person(s): David Kong
Date of statistics: November 19, 2011
Dual affiliation: No

Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod [LUTH-Luth-MO Synod]
Contact person(s): Ryan Curnutt
Date of statistics: December 31, 2010
Definition of congregations: Individual congregations which have formally joined the LCMS.
Definition of attendees: Congregations reported weekly average attendance in worship.
Definition of members: Number of confirmed members.
Definition of adherents: Number of baptized members.
Dual affiliation: No

Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ [LUTH-Luth Cong Msn Chr]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Macedonian Orthodox Church: American Diocese [ORTHE-Macedonian Orth]
Contact person(s): Tome Stamatov; Alexei Krindatch
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: Parish (i.e. permanent local place of worship which is lead by ordained priest)
Definition of attendees: Average number of persons (including children) who attend Liturgy (main weekly worship service) on a typical (not festive) Sunday.
Definition of adherents: Total number of persons participating in the life of a parish (congregation): counting adults and children, regular and occasional attendees, paid stewards and persons who do not contribute financially.
Dual affiliation: No

Mahayana Buddhism [BUDD-Mahayana]
See Appendix E: Buddhist Groups

Malankara Archdiocese of the Syrian Orthodox Church in North America [ORTHO-Malan Syr Orth]
Contact person(s): Archbishop Mor Titus Yeldho; Alexei Krindatch
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: Parish (i.e. permanent local place of worship which is lead by ordained priest)
Definition of attendees: Average number of persons (including children) who attend Liturgy (main weekly worship service) on a typical (not festive) Sunday.
Definition of adherents: Total number of persons participating in the life of a parish (congregation): counting adults and children, regular and occasional attendees, paid stewards and persons who do not contribute financially.
Dual affiliation: No

Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church [ORTHO-Malan Dioc Am]
Contact person(s): Metropolitan Zachariah Mar Nicholovos; Alexei Krindatch
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: Parish (i.e. permanent local place of worship which is lead by ordained priest)
Definition of attendees: Average number of persons (including children) who attend Liturgy (main weekly worship service) on a typical (not festive) Sunday.
Definition of adherents: Total number of persons participating in the life of a parish (congregation): counting adults and children, regular and occasional attendees, paid stewards and persons who do not contribute financially.
Dual affiliation: No

Maranatha Amish-Mennonite [MENN-Mara Amish-Menn]
See Appendix D: Amish Groups

Mennonite Christian Fellowship [MENN-Menn Chr Fell]
See Appendix D: Amish Groups

Mennonite Church USA [MENN-Mennonite USA]
Contact person(s): Nancy Kauffmann
Date of statistics: November 11, 2011
Definition of congregations: A faith community who holds to Anabaptist theology as expressed in The Confession of Faith from a Mennonite Perspective.
Definition of attendees: Unable to give figures, but would define this as the total number of people whether members, attenders, visitors on a Sunday morning. Definition of members: Persons who are baptized into the Mennonite Church (baptism and joining a local congregation are held together) and individuals who have transferred their membership from another Mennonite congregation or faith tradition into a local Mennonite congregation. They would identify with The Confession of Faith from a Mennonite Perspective.
Definition of adherents: Do not have that information available.
Comments on the RCMS estimating procedure for adherents: We would be fine with your procedure for estimating total adherents.
Dual affiliation: No. We would have a number of pastors of groups who are a part of the Emergent Church movement who have asked to have a more formal relationship with MC USA. We would hold their credentials but their group would not have formally joined.
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: We recently transferred to a new data system (2010). We are in the process of working on clean up and checking information. This report is 90% plus accurate at this point.

Metropolitan Community Churches, Universal Fellowship of [Metro Comm Ch]
Contact person(s): Barbara Crabtree
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: Bodies that have met the criteria, as established by the Council of Elders and approved by the Governing Board, for affiliation and recognition as church. Definition of attendees: Total reported attendance divided by number of weeks in which congregation held at least 1 worship service. Definition of members: As defined by local church bylaws, articles of incorporation and/or governing documents.
Definition of adherents: No data Comments on the RCMS estimating procedure for adherents: We believe that the procedure described in the Instructions will result in a significant underestimate of the number of total adherents. At issue is the fact that a number of our churches are now streaming their worship services live, and their (informal) reporting of that indicates they have a significant number of remote participants. An additional point of awareness; we do have a relatively specific ministry to and among the LGBT population and that population is much more widely distributed than are our brick & mortar churches, and were keenly aware that our current methods of tracking impact are distinctly inadequate for the digital world.
Dual affiliation: Yes. 2 of 150 congregations reporting are known to maintain affiliation with another group.

Midwest Beachy Amish-Mennonite [MENN-Midw Bchy Am-Menn]
See Appendix D: Amish Groups
Midwest Congregational Christian Fellowship [CONG-Midw Cong Chr Fel]
Contact person(s): Richard H. Taylor
Date of statistics: August 31, 2008
Definition of congregations: Churches
Definition of attendees: Average Attendance
Definition of members: Total Members
Definition of adherents: N/A
Comments on the RCMS estimating procedure for adherents: This does account for children. However, since Midwest Fellowship attendance outstrips membership, the total adherents estimated is probably too low.
Dual affiliation: No
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: 23 of 25 churches and 22 of 25 attendance is as of the collection date. The other numbers were inserted from earlier reports.

Missionary Church [Missionary Ch]
Contact person(s): Bob Ransom
Date of statistics: December 31, 2010
Definition of congregations: 15 or more members
Definition of attendees: Weekly, main worship service
Definition of members: Age 16 or older
Dual affiliation: No

Moravian Church in America-Alaska Province [MORAV-Morav Ch-AK]
Contact person(s): Mike Riess

Moravian Church in America-Northern Province [MORAV-Morav Ch-North]
Contact person(s): Mike Riess

Moravian Church in America-Southern Province [MORAV-Morav Ch-South]
Contact person(s): Mike Riess

Muslim Estimate [Muslim Est]
See Appendix I: Muslim Estimate

National Association of Congregational Christian Churches [CONG-Cong Chr, NA]
Contact person(s): Thomas Richard; Richard Taylor
Date of statistics: Late 2010 and early 2011, most recent fiscal year
Definition of congregations: Full member churches. Churches which have officially voted to join the Association and have been
received by vote of an annual meetings.
Definition of members: Total Active Members
Comments on the RCMS estimating procedure for adherents: This has been the traditional method used for NACCC data.
Dual affiliation: Yes. Dual align limited but includes some large congregations. Also a few federated churches. With United
Church of Christ; Conservative Congregational Christian Conference; Evangelical Association of Reformed and Congregational Christian Churches; and American Baptist Churches.
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: 377 churches are from current data. Twenty churches are from earlier data. Three are estimated from other sources.

National Baptist Convention of America, Inc. [BAPT-NBC Amer]
See Appendix C: African American Bodies

National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. [BAPT-NBC USA]
See Appendix C: African American Bodies

National Missionary Baptist Convention, Inc. [BAPT-Natl Mis Bapt Conv]
See Appendix C: African American Bodies

National Spiritualist Association of Churches [Nat Spirit Asso]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 3,530 members in the Yearbook.
New Apostolic Church of North America, National Organization of the [New Apost Ch]
Contact person(s): Stefan Heinzelman; Allison Swierk
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 41,863 members in the Yearbook.

New Testament Association of Independent Baptist Churches [BAPT-NT Ind Bapt]
Published directory

Non-denominational Christian Churches [Non-denom Chr Chs]
See Appendix J: Non-denominational Christian Churches

North American Baptist Conference [BAPT-N Am Bapt Conf]
Published directory

North American Lutheran Church [LUTH-Nor Amer Luth C]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Old Order River Brethren [BRETH-Old Ord Rvr Br]
Contact person(s): Stephen Scott
Date of statistics: December 31, 2010
Definition of members: Baptized Members
Definition of adherents: Dependent non-member children, regular non-member visitors, and members.
Dual affiliation: No
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: Exact counts from church directory which is regularly updated.

Open Bible Standard Churches, Inc. [PENT-Open Bible Std]
Contact person(s): Linda Dixon; Jeff Farmer

(Original) Church of God [PENT-Orig Ch of God]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Orthodox Church in America [ORTHE-Orth Ch in Amer]
Contact person(s): Very Rev. John A. Jillions; Alexei Krindatch
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: Parish (i.e. permanent local place of worship which is lead by ordained priest)
Definition of attendees: Average number of persons (including children) who attend Liturgy (main weekly worship service) on a typical (not festive) Sunday.
Definition of adherents: Total number of persons participating in the life of a parish (congregation): counting adults and children, regular and occasional attendees, paid stewards and persons who do not contribute financially.
Dual affiliation: No

Orthodox Judaism [JUD-Orth]
See Appendix H: Jewish Groups

Orthodox Presbyterian Church [PRES-Orth Pres Ch]
Contact person(s): George R. Cottenden; Luke Brown
Date of statistics: End of Year 2010
Definition of congregations: Comprised of 265 organized churches and 55 unorganized mission works.
Definition of attendees: Weekly average morning worship attendance in November 2010.
Definition of members: Includes 21,390 communicant members and 489 ministers.
Definition of adherents: Total of 21,390 communicant members, 489 ministers, and 7,572 baptized children (non-communicants).
Comments on the RCMS estimating procedure for adherents: Our 2010 statistics are based on reports received from congregations comprising 98 percent of the total church membership.
Dual affiliation: No

Patriarchal Parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church in the USA [ORTHE-Rus Orth Moscow]
Contact person(s): His Eminence Archbishop Justinian (Ovchinnikov); Alexei Krindatch
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: Parish (i.e. permanent local place of worship which is lead by ordained priest)
Definition of attendees: Average number of persons (including children) who attend Liturgy (main weekly worship service) on a typical (not festive) Sunday.
Definition of adherents: : Total number of persons participating in the life of a parish (congregation): counting adults and children, regular and occasional attendees, paid stewards and persons who do not contribute financially.
Dual affiliation: No

Pentecostal Church of God [PENT-Pent Ch of God]
Contact person(s): Kimberly Ming
Date of statistics: June 2011
Definition of congregations: Those who attend services on a regular basis - Sun. AM worship
Definition of members: Member numbers include children 16+ and in
some church 18+ is required.
Dual affiliation: No

Pentecostal Fire-Baptized Holiness Church [PENT-Fire Bapt Hol Ch]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 223 members in the Yearbook.

Pentecostal Free Will Baptist Church, Inc. [PENT-Pent FW Bapt]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 16,000 members in the Yearbook.

Pillar of Fire [Pillar of Fire]
Contact person(s): Joe Gross

Polish National Catholic Church [OCATH-Pol Natl Cath]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) [PRES-Presb Ch (USA)]
Contact person(s): Kris Valerius

Presbyterian Church in America [PRES-Presb Ch Amer]
Contact person(s): Susan Cullen; Roy Taylor

Presbyterian Reformed Church [PRES-Pres Ref]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Primitive Baptists, Eastern District Association of [BAPT-Prim Bapt E Dst]
Contact person(s): Danny Lawson
Definition of congregations: Number of churches. This includes 57 churches in 4 states, TN, VA, OH, KY. There are 22 in VA, 24 in TN, 7 in KY and 4 in OH. Definition of attendees: This number is not known, these are small country churches so attendance varies but would average 20 - 25 or so.
Definition of members: Total Church membership is 5,065, this includes everyone who has been saved and joined the church, it does not account for those not attending services, etc. Only the individual churches can answer this question, the association does not have a record of this information.

Primitive Methodist Church in the USA [METH-Prim Meth Ch]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 6,588 members in the Yearbook.

Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc. [BAPT-Prog NBC]
See Appendix C: African American Bodies

Protestant Reformed Churches in America [REF-Prot Ref Chs]
Contact person(s): Don Doezema

Reconstructionist Judaism [JUD-Reconst]
See Appendix H: Jewish Groups

Reform Judaism [JUD-Reform]
See Appendix H: Jewish Groups

Reformed Baptist Churches [BAPT-Ref Bapt Ch]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Reformed Church in America [REF-Ref Ch in Am]
Contact person(s): Meredith Nieuwsma
Date of statistics: Calendar year 2010
Definition of congregations: Organized RCA churches (this excludes new church starts that have not officially organized). Definition of attendees: The average number of worshippers each Sunday as reported by the individual church.
Definition of members: Members are all confessing members (those who have received Christian baptism and have been received by the board of elders through profession of faith, reaffirmation of faith, or presentation of a satisfactory certificate of transfer of membership from another Christian church), baptized members (those who have received Christian baptism but who have not been received by the board of elders as confessing members), and inactive members (those who have been removed by the board of elders from the confessing membership list).
Definition of adherents: Adherents are those who participate in the life, work, and worship of the church, whether a member or not.
Dual affiliation: Yes. The RCA has 17 organized congregations that are union or federated congregations. Union congregations are churches that have dual affiliation with the RCA and either the Christian Reformed Church in North America, the Presbyterian
Church (USA), the United Church of Christ, or the Advent Lutheran Church. A Federated congregation is a church that
has at least dual denominational affiliation with a variety of other protestant denominations.

Reformed Church in the United States [REF-Ref Ch in U.S.]
Contact person(s): Pastor Fagrey

Reformed Mennonite Church [MENN-Ref Mennonite]
Contact person(s): Glenn M. Gross

Reformed Presbyterian Church General Assembly [PRES-Ref Pres GA]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Reformed Presbyterian Church Hanover Presbytery [PRES-Ref Pres Han]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States [PRES-Ref Pres US]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America [PRES-Ref Pres of NA]
Contact person(s): Thomas G. Reid
Date of statistics: December 31, 2010
Definition of congregations: Number of congregations
Definition of attendees: Average attendance for the year 2010
Definition of members: Full (someone who is both baptized and communicant) membership
Definition of adherents: Total (someone who is baptized and communicant OR who is only baptized) membership for December 31, 2010. Note: we baptize infants.

Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in Americas [ORTHE-Romania Orth Ar]
Contact person(s): His Eminence Archbishop Nicolae (Condrea);
Alexei Krindatch
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: Parish (i.e. permanent local place of worship which is lead by ordained priest)
Definition of attendees: Average number of persons (including children) who attend Liturgy (main weekly worship service) on a typical (not festive) Sunday.
Definition of adherents: Total number of persons participating in the
life of a parish (congregation): counting adults and children,
regular and occasional attendees, paid stewards and persons who do not contribute financially.
Dual affiliation: No

Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia [ORTHE-Rus Orth Abroad]
Contact person(s): His Grace Bishop Jerome of Manhattan; Alexei Krindatch
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: Parish (i.e. permanent local place of worship which is lead by ordained priest)
Definition of attendees: Average number of persons (including children) who attend Liturgy (main weekly worship service) on a typical (not festive) Sunday.
Definition of adherents: : Total number of persons participating in the life of a parish (congregation): counting adults and children, regular and occasional attendees, paid stewards and persons who do not contribute financially.
Dual affiliation: No

Salvation Army [Salvation Army]
Contact person(s): Sylvia Kirkland

Schwenkfelder Church [Schwenkfelder]
Contact person(s): David W. Luz
Date of statistics: Dec. 31, 2010
Dual Affiliation: Yes. One church (Olivet) is jointly affiliated with the United Church of Christ.

Serbian Orthodox Church in North America [ORTHE-Serb Orth USA]
Contact person(s): His Grace Bishop Maxim; Alexei Krindatch
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: Parish (i.e. permanent local place of worship which is lead by ordained priest)
Definition of attendees: Average number of persons (including children) who attend Liturgy (main weekly worship service) on a typical (not festive) Sunday.
Definition of adherents: Total number of persons participating in the life of a parish (congregation): counting adults and children, regular and occasional attendees, paid stewards and persons who do not contribute financially.
Dual affiliation: No

Seventh Day Baptist General Conference, USA and Canada (BAPT-S-D Baptist Gen Con)
Contact person(s): Rob Appel

Seventh-day Adventist Church [Sev Day Adv]
Contact person(s): Monte Sahlin

Shinto [Shinto]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Sikh [Sikh]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Southern Baptist Convention [BAPT-So Bapt Conv]
Contact person(s): Richie Stanley
Date of statistics: 2010
Definition of congregations: Southern Baptists have 2 categories of congregations. Churches have been constituted and are (theoretically) self-supporting. Church-type missions are typically newer, have not constituted as a church, and are likely receiving assistance from a sponsoring church. The distinction between these 2 categories continues to blur over time. In previous decades the SBC data provided to RCMS included churches only. For the 2010 data it seems more appropriate to include church-type missions also. The 50,816 SBC congregations for 2010 include 45,768 churches and 5,048 church-type missions.
Definition of attendees: Average number of persons in the primary worship service(s) of the congregation.
Definition of members: Total membership of the congregation. Comments on the RCMS estimating procedure for adherents: The RCMS estimation procedure for calculating adherents is acceptable.
Dual affiliation: Yes. It would not be unusual for African American Southern Baptist congregations to also be affiliated with one of the traditionally African American Baptist denominations. There are about 3,500 African American Southern Baptist congregations.
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: We did our best!

Southern Methodist Church [METH-So Methodist]
Contact person(s): John Hucks
Definition of members: Some children are reflected in membership numbers because membership is offered to all ages. But the minimum voting age for members is 18, more or less.
Dual affiliation: No
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 5,000 members in the Yearbook.

Swedenborgian Church [Swedenborgian]
Contact person(s): Renee Hellenbrecht
Date of statistics: December 31, 2010
Definition of congregations: Groups that have been recognized as member societies by one of our regional associations.
Definition of members: Full members are 18 years of age as of December 31 of the reporting year, and have been confirmed into membership by their respective congregations. (Congregations may have their own membership requirements.)
Definition of adherents: We do not track this data. We only ask that active and inactive full members (i.e., those that have been confirmed into membership) be reported. Some groups will include associate members, child members, friends, etc. when reporting, but we do not track these, and, again, not everyone submits these.
Dual affiliation: No
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 1,521 members in the Yearbook.

Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch [ORTHO-Syrian Orth Ch]
Contact person(s): Metropolitan Mor Cyril Aphrem Karim; Alexei Krindatch
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: Parish (i.e. permanent local place of worship which is lead by ordained priest)
Definition of attendees: Average number of persons (including children) who attend Liturgy (main weekly worship service) on a typical (not festive) Sunday.
Definition of adherents: Total number of persons participating in the life of a parish (congregation): counting adults and children, regular and occasional attendees, paid stewards and persons who do not contribute financially.
Dual affiliation: No

Tampico Amish-Mennonite [MENN-Tamp Amish-Menn]
See Appendix D: Amish Groups

Tao [Tao]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Theravada Buddhism [BUDD-Theravada]
See Appendix E: Buddhist Groups

Traditional Hindu Temples [HINDU-Trad Temples]
See Appendix G: Hindu Groups

U.S. Mennonite Brethren [MENN-Menn Br US Conf]
Contact person(s): Donna Sullivan

Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA [ORTHE-Ukrainian Orth]
Contact person(s): Anthony Sharba; Alexei Krindatch
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: Parish (i.e. permanent local place of worship which is lead by ordained priest)
Definition of attendees: Average number of persons (including children) who attend Liturgy (main weekly worship service) on a typical (not festive) Sunday.
Definition of adherents: Total number of persons participating in the life of a parish (congregation): counting adults and children, regular and occasional attendees, paid stewards and persons who do not contribute financially.
Dual affiliation: No

Unaffiliated Conservative Amish-Mennonite Church [MENN-Unaffil Amish-Menn]
See Appendix D: Amish Groups

Unaffiliated Friends Meetings [FRND-Unaffl Mtgs]
Contact person(s): Richard H. Taylor
See Appendix F: Friends

Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations [MJEW-Union Mes Cong]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations [Unit Univ]
Contact person(s): Michelle Rediker
Date of statistics: February 28, 2011
Definition of congregations: Please see the following pages:

http://www.uua.org/uuagovernance/bylaws/ruleiii/7096.shtml

http://www.uua.org/uuarelations/

Emerging congregations are not included in UUA statistics.

Definition of attendees: Please see the following page:

http://www.uua.org/directory/data/faq/certifyingmembership/205

Definition of members: The definition of a Certified Member is up to individual congregations, according to their bylaws. Most congregations define members as those who would be eligible to vote in a congregational meeting, in other words, the "voting members.
Definition of adherents: The UUA does not track the number of Adherents, but we do calculate, annually, the number of
Certified Members + Religious Education Enrollees. That was used as the number of Adherents for this exercise. Adherents may not, however, include family members who occasionally or even regularly attend services but are not registered, paying/supporting members of a congregation. If an individual, a partner or spouse in this instance, is not a registered, voting, or supporting member of a congregation, they would not be included in the Certified Member tally, and therefore not counted as an adherent.
Dual affiliation: Yes. There were 23 multi-denominational congregations that certified during this certification period. Multidenominational congregations hold membership in more than one denomination; the United Church of Christ is a common example. Only the Unitarian Universalist members of such congregations are counted for Certified Members. Comments on the accuracy of statistics: The data provided was derived from data collected during the UUA Certification period, then stored as a static numbers collectively known as the Annual Report of Membership statistics. UUAAnnual Report of Membership Production Notes, 3/4/2011

1. Beginning in 2010, annual totals are computed for the twelve months ending the last day of February. The 2010 Annual Report of Membership issued on March 1, 2010, for example, is based on data reported by congregations during March 2009 through February 2010. (GA Certification closes on February 1, and the extra month allows late-comers to be accounted for, data to be examined and cleaned up, totals to be double-checked, reports to be formatted, etc.).

2. If a congregation leaves the Association during a report year, its numbers are not included in that years report. For example, if a congregation leaves the UUA in September 2010, its numbers will not be included in the 2011 Annual Report of Membership published on 3/1/11 and based on numbers reported during March 2010 through February 2011.

3. When a congregation reports more than once during a report year the latest number is used.

4. For the 2010 Annual Report, all prior years were restated so they would be consistent with tabulation based on the last day of February. In future Annual Reports, data already reported in a previous year WILL NOT CHANGE IN SUBSEQUENT YEARS. That is, for each new report year, that years data will be appended to the Report. Previous years data will not be recomputed each year as it was prior to 2010. Changes made retroactively will not be reflected in future Annual Reports.

5. Canadian congregations who left the UUA to join the CUC several years ago are omitted from the tabulations altogether.

6. Numbers reported by each congregation are included in the Annual Report of Membership whether they are considered
certified or not. Congregations report membership numbers throughout the year, not just during certification between 11/15 and 2/1, the period for GA delegate purposes. Also, congregations may not achieve certification for a variety of reasons, including failing to meet financial criteria. We count the numbers they report anyway, since this is a report about how many people are Uus, not how many Uus qualify to be represented at GA. So this report is not Certified Membership; merely Membership.

7. This report will not match numbers published elsewhere. Changes are made and approved throughout the year that
affect totals shown on the website, in the Directory, as part of ad hoc data requests, etc. This report is a static snapshot of a point in time (i.e. March 1), and historic data will not vary from year to year, even if the underlying historic data indeed changes.

8. This report may not match the Certified members report shown online as this includes counts that are not certified.

9. When a congregation does not report membership during the report year, the last reported number is used for subsequent years.

United Catholic Church, Inc. [OCATH-Un Cath Ch]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

United Church of Christ [Un C of Christ]
Contact person(s): Destiny Hisey
Date of statistics: December 31, 2010
Definition of congregations: We rely on our congregations to file reports annually to obtain the data. Not all congregations file. For those that do not file, their data is carried over from the last year filed on record and is included in our numbers.
Definition of attendees: Reported by local congregations as average weekly attendance in worship service.
Definition of members: In accordance with the custom and usage of a Local Church, persons become members by (a) baptism and either confirmation or profession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior; (b) reaffirmation or reprofession of faith; or (c) letter of transfer or certification from other Christian churches. All persons who are or shall become members of a Local Church of the United Church of Christ are thereby members of the United Church of Christ. - Constitution paragraphs 11 & 12
Comments on the RCMS estimating procedure for adherents: Procedure is acceptable
Dual affiliation: Yes. There are 232 United Church of Christ congregations dually aligned with other denominational groups and 163 federated with other denominational groups. The four most common denomination groups to which UCC church relate are Baptist bodies (primarily American Baptist Churches), the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church, USA.
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: A new data warehouse was developed and used for the 2010 data collection. Unfortunately, we are currently unable to determine our response rate for the 2010 data collection period. Previous years response rate of congregations to the annual statistical report has been between 66% and 69%. There is nothing to indicate the 2010 data collection response was any different. For congregations that did not report, the most recently reported data was used.

United Holy Church of America, Inc. [PENT-United Holy Ch]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

United Methodist Church [METH-Un Methodist]
Contact person(s): Laura Chambers
Date of statistics: December 31, 2010
Definition of congregations: The local church is a connectional society of persons who have been baptized, have professed their faith in Christ, and have assumed the vows of membership in The United Methodist Church. They gather in fellowship to hear the Word of God, receive the sacraments, praise and worship the triune God, and carry forward the work that Christ has committed to his church (Paragraph 203, the 2008 Book of Discipline). Number of congregations includes organized (chartered) churches with membership.
Definition of attendees: Average combined attendance at all services held on a weekly basis as the primary opportunity for worship (Table 1 of the Local Church Report to the Annual Conference). Definition of members: The professing membership of a local United Methodist church shall include all baptized people who have come into membership by profession of faith through appropriate services of the baptismal covenant in the ritual or by transfer from other churches (Paragraph 215.2, the 2008 Book of Discipline).
Definition of adherents: Total includes full (professing) members, baptized members and constituent members. The baptized membership of a local United Methodist church shall include baptized all baptized people who have received Christian baptism in the local congregation or elsewhere, or whose membership has been transferred to the United Methodist church subsequent to baptism in some other congregation (Paragraph 215.1, the 2008 Book of Discipline). Constituent members include all unbaptized children, church school members, and others who are not members of the church but are in a relationship with the congregation and for whom the local church has pastoral responsibility (Table 1 of the Local Church Report to the Annual Conference).
Dual affiliation: Possible. Ecumenical shared ministries are ecumenical congregations formed by a local United Methodist church and one or more local congregations of other Christian traditions. Forms of ecumenical shared ministries include: (a) a federated church, in which one congregation is related to two or more denominations, with persons choosing to hold membership in one or the other of the denominations; (b) a union church, in which a congregation with one unified membership roll is related to two denominations; (c) a merged church, in which two or more congregations of different denominations from one congregation that related to only one of the constituent denominations; (d) a yoked parish, in which congregations of different denominations share a pastor (Paragraph 208, the 2008 Book of Discipline).
Congregations are instructed to only report their United Methodist membership to this office.

United Pentecostal Church International [PENT-Un Pent Ch Intl]
Contact person(s): Diana Dunlap; Jerry Jones
Date of statistics: November 29, 2011
Definition of congregations: churches pastored by a licensed UPCI minister
Definition of attendees: n/a
Dual affiliation: No
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 800,000 members in the Yearbook.

United Pentecostal Council of the Assemblies of God [PENT-Un Pent Asbl God]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

United Reformed Churches in North America [REF-Un Ref Chs N.A.]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

United Zion Church [BRETH-United Zion Ch]
Contact person(s): Charles Brown
Definition of congregations: Separate churches.
Definition of members: Baptized members over the age of 16

Unity Churches, Association of [Unity Ch]
Contact person(s): Young Bae

Unity of the Brethren [MORAV-Unity Of Breth]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: This group reports 3,090 members in the Yearbook.

Vajrayana Buddhism [BUDD-Vajrayana]
See Appendix E: Buddhist Groups

Vicariate for the Palestinian/Jordanian Orthodox Christian Communities [ORTHE-Pal/Jor Orth]
Contact person(s): George Jweinat; Alexei Krindatch
Date of statistics: December 2010
Definition of congregations: Parish (i.e. permanent local place of worship which is lead by ordained priest)
Definition of attendees: Average number of persons (including children) who attend Liturgy (main weekly worship service) on a typical (not festive) Sunday.
Definition of adherents: Total number of persons participating in the life of a parish (congregation): counting adults and children, regular and occasional attendees, paid stewards and persons who do not contribute financially.
Dual affiliation: No

Vineyard USA [PENT-Vineyard]
Contact person(s): Pam Trautmann; Berten Waggoner
Date of statistics: 12/31/2010
Definition of congregations: active churches year end 2010
Definition of attendees: weekly attendance numbers divided by number of active churches year end 2010
Definition of members: total number of members
Definition of adherents: total number of weekly attendance, including children
Dual affiliation: No
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: Annual online census completed by local churches - some answers are estimated, information is automatically entered into national database (not manually)

Wesleyan Church [METH-Wesleyan]
Contact person(s): Ronald Kelly; Ronald McClung
Date of statistics: August 31, 2010
Definition of congregations: All developing and established churches; does not include missions.
Definition of attendees: Total number present at all primary worship services.
Definition of members: All covenant members of the church, those who agree to abide by the covenant membership commitments.
Definition of adherents: Thirty percent more than the average attendance. This is the rule of thumb accepted in some church growth circles, considering that 30 percent more than the average attendance are absent each Sunday, due to illness, travel, etc.
Dual affiliation: No
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: These statistics are taken from the annual statistical reports submitted by local congregations and districts.

Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod [LUTH-Wisc Ev Luth Syn]
Contact person(s): Jan Lampe
Date of statistics: December 31, 2010
Definition of congregations: Established congregations who support the work of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS)
Definition of attendees: Combined totals of Average Worship Attendance submitted by WELS congregations
Definition of members: Members who have been confirmed or profess the beliefs of the WELS and have been accepted as
communicants within a WELS congregation
Definition of adherents: Members who have been baptized or are communicants in the WELS
Dual affiliation: No
Comments on the accuracy of statistics: Verification of submitted statistics per each WELS church can be found at
https://connect.wels.net. Click on Synod Administration/ then Ministry of Christian Giving/ on the left hand column WELS Statistical Report/ scroll down to Congregational Statistics and choose Details - Excel Sheet

Zoroastrian [Zoroastrian]
See Appendix K: On-line Listings

Companies wishing to market to religious congregations often purchase mailing lists. Such address lists are a possible source for locating religious congregations. In addition to mailing addresses, these lists often contain indications of congregational size, with membership and attendance figures included. The Operations Committee explored this possibility for the 2010 religion census.

Two of the first denominations to report data were the Churches of Christ and the Church of the Nazarene. In comparing their 2010 denominational reports to those obtained through the mailing lists, it appeared that a majority of each groups churches was included in the address listing.

Approximately 54% of Churches of Christ were included and 77% of Churches of the Nazarene. Respectively, 80% and 93% of their membership was accounted for from the address lists, and 65% and 87% of their reported attendance figures.

(Part of the difficulty for non-denominational data collectors is determining which denomination a church belongs to. Denominations with similar names, such as Churches of Christ, United Church of Christ, Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, and Churches of Christ in Christian Union, are especially difficult to categorize well. This may help to explain why the address list count for Churches of Christ is less complete than for the Church of the Nazarene with a relatively unique name.)

The Operations Committee determined that the address lists would not be used when denominational sources were available. However, nine large religious bodies had traditionally not supplied information for previous studies, so the address lists could be used to provide some information for these groups.

Reported in Yearbook*

Group	Congregations	Membership
African Methodist Episcopal Church	4,174	2,500,000
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church	3,310	1,443,405
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church	3,500	850,000
Church of God in Christ	15,300	5,499,875
Jehovah's Witnesses	10,883	974,719
National Baptist Convention of America, Inc.	2,500	3,500,000
National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.	33,000	8,200,000
National Missionary Baptist Convention, Inc.	Unknown	2,500,000
Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.	2,000	2,500,000

*Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches: 2010

All but one of these groups historically focuses on African American congregations, and Appendix C will explain further data collection efforts for those denominations.
The address list information for Jehovahs Witnesses was known to be incomplete. Only 5,769 Kingdom Hall locations were given out of 10,883 reported by the group. The Operations Committee determined that membership and attendance sizes were especially inadequate. Fewer than 10,000 attendees were included on the address list. Well over half the congregations on the list were assigned a membership of exactly 350.
Efforts were made to obtain further information directly from the denominational offices, but these were unsuccessful. It was decided to list the known locations in the book with no other information included.

Traditionally, church bodies focused on the African American population have been less focused on gathering statistics than those groups largely composed of European Americans. This has made it difficult for such groups to take part in religion censuses focused on congregational location and size.
For the 2010 religion census, the Operations Committee obtained mailing lists for the eight largest historically African American denominations:

African Methodist Episcopal Church

African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church

Christian Methodist Episcopal Church

Church of God in Christ

National Baptist Convention of America, Inc.

National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.

National Missionary Baptist Convention, Inc.

Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.

(See Appendix B for further information on such address lists.)

Based on the reported membership sizes included on the address lists, less than 50% of any groups churches or members were able to be identified. Still, the available locations did represent nearly four million people associated with specific religious congregations, so the Operations Committee decided to include this information in the 2010 religion census if no better information could be obtained.
Further efforts were made to gather denominational statistics. The preliminary results were shared with the groups, but none of the denominations was able to supply further details. However, three groups did have on-line church locators, so additional congregation locations were identified for the African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist Episcopal Church Zion, and Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. For each congregation located in this way, a membership of 100 was assigned. This represented the modal size of Protestant churches that were reported to the data collection office.
For the African Methodist Episcopal Church, this yielded approximately the correct number of congregations, though the membership figures are only about one-third of their official reports. For other groups, the church counts range from 11% to 50% of reported numbers, and membership figures are from 7% to 28% of the reported amounts.
An adherent formula was used to account for children likely to be associated with each church in addition to adult members. The result is 4,877,067 adherents identified as part of eight historically African American denominations in the United States in 2010.
Additionally, three smaller church bodies that had on-line directories available are described as predominantly African American: Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith, Inc.; Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America; and United Holy Church of America, Inc. No adherent information was available, so only the locations are included in this study.

	Reported in Yearbook*		Reported in Religion Census
Group	Congregations	Membership	Congregations	Members
African Methodist Episcopal Church	4,174	2,500,000	4,256	827,663
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church	3,310	1,443,405	1,657	246,285
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church	3,500	850,000	1,462	236,242
Church of God in Christ	15,300	5,499,875	2,966	506,106
National Baptist Convention of America, Inc.	2,500	3,500,000	575	246,044
National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.	33,000	8,200,000	3,536	1,535,087
National Missionary Baptist Convention, Inc.	Unknown	2,500,000	1,283	213,275
Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.	2,000	2,500,000	390	167,286

*Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches: 2010

[Editors note: Two sets of Amish data were collected in separate studies. Each of the methodologies is described below.]

In 2009, The Institute for the Study of American Religion (ISAR) was asked to do a census of the American Buddhist Community, the first such attempt to do an assessment of the number of individuals who are affiliated with the burgeoning and now highly visible Buddhist religious facilities that have since 1965 appeared in every state of the Union. Responsibility for overseeing this project was accepted by Dr. J. Gordon Melton, ISARs director, with the work on the census carried out by the ISAR staff. The effort was funded by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation through a request by the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) based at Pennsylvania State University.

American Buddhism burgeoned following the changes of the immigration laws relative to Asia in 1965. From relatively few centers based in the Chinese- and Japanese American communities, the whole spectrum of Buddhist organized life appeared through the 1970s and 1980s and has continued to grow as organizations from Eastern, Southeastern, and Southern Asia moved to establish centers to serve their members who had become residents of the United States. Simultaneously, a host of new American-based organizations were formed to serve non-Asians who had converted to the different forms of Buddhism. That process was accelerated by the high levels of sympathy found among non-Asian Americans for the plight of the Tibetan exiles who left their country following its annexation by the Peoples Republic of China and the special consideration given to Vietnamese who left their country after the end of the Vietnamese War. As Buddhism emerged in strength in the United States, it was divided by language, ethnicity, and variant emphases in belief and practice.

Buddhism has commonly been seen to exist in three major forms- Theravada (the dominant form in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia), Mahayana (the dominant form in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam), and Vajrayana, which some consider another form of Mahayana (the dominant form in Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and Mongolia). Both Theravada and Mahayana have spawned a meditative form which emphasizes the practice of meditation and the de-emphasis on theology. The Theravada form is termed Vipassana and the Mahayana form is known as Chan (China), Zen (Japan), or Son (Korea). That being said, a classification system of Buddhist groups can be created as follows:

Theravada
    Burmese
    Cambodian
    Laotian
    Sri Lankan
    Thai

Mahayana
    Chinese
    Japanese
        Nichiren
        Shin
        Shingon
        Tendai
    Zen
    Korean
    Vietnamese

Vrajayana
    Bhutan
    Nepal
    Mongolian
    Tibetan

Estimates of the Buddhist population of the United States have varied, with some long-term knowledgeable observers estimating it to be as high as 3.5 million and most recently as high as 5 to 6 million. Polling has revealed much lower figures, the 2008 report of the Pew Forum, for example, suggesting that Buddhism had the allegiance of some 0.7 percent of the population, roughly a little more than two million followers. This ISAR approaches the problem in a different way as it focuses on reported membership and constituency of Buddhist groups. All of the known Buddhist groups in America were contacted by mail with telephone follow-ups with requests for information. Where information was not forthcoming, visits were made to multiple local centers of groups to establish an average size of local centers and an estimate made based on those observations and reports.

As a whole, Buddhist groups are just beginning to make counts of membership and support, part of a larger transition process to adapting to the volunteerism of American religious life. Of the major world religions, Buddhism has most clearly adapted itself to the denominational pattern of religions that tends to emerge in free societies, especially to the lack of any social assigning of religious status at the time of birth.

Data from local meetings and churches within the Society of Friends (Quakers) is shown in this study in eight family groups. Many Friends have worked for years for the unity of their movements. But there are also theological and practical differences within the community. The Friends community has evolved in the last sixty years with many new unifications and divisions.

Friends data was combined in the 1971, 1980, and 2000 studies. Member and adherent data in the 2000 was estimated for local situations by a division of national totals.

The current study more closely resembles the 1952 and 1990 studies that were also broken down by family group. The 1952 study did not include two groups. The 1990 study combined the Central Yearly Meeting with the Alaska Yearly Meeting as Independent Evangelical. The latter has since become part of the Evangelical Friends Church. The 1990 study also divided local unaffiliated meetings. Some with a more conservative stance were reported with the Independent Evangelical group, while others with a more liberal stance or unprogrammed meeting style were reported with the Independent Yearly Meetings. Since assignments of unaffiliated meetings to other groupings may be prejudicial, all unaffiliated meetings are listed together in the current study.

Friends member and adherent data is collected by regional Yearly Meetings. Even for those that belong to larger fellowships, date, definitions, and type of data collected may vary among Yearly Meetings. Many local worship meetings may be preparatory meetings or worship groups that meet regularly, but have no formal organization or may have their member data joined to other local groups. This accounts for large number of meetings or churches reported with zero members.

Four Yearly Meetings and several local meetings belong to both the Friends General Conference and the Friends United Meeting. Because of this significant dual affiliation, these churches and meetings are shown as a separate family group. To determine total congregations and adherents for either the General Conference or the United Meeting it is necessary to combine the data for the individual group with that for the dual group. For those desiring to see a comparative picture of the entire Friends community, one should combine all eight family groups. (This total does include a handful of additional dual affiliations that are noted in the discussions for each family group in Appendix A.)

Thanks are extended to the Friends World Committee for Consultation - Section of the Americas, and to officers of many Yearly Meetings for generous help in compiling this information.

In 2009, The Institute for the Study of American Religion (ISAR) was asked to do a census of the American Hindu Community, the first such attempt to count to do an assessment of the number of individuals who are affiliated with the burgeoning and now highly visible Hindu religious facilities that have since 1965 appeared in every state of the Union. Responsibility for overseeing this project was accepted by Dr. Constance Jones, a sociologist and professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, with the work on the census carried out by the ISAR staff. The effort was funded by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation through a request by the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) based at Pennsylvania State University.

Preliminary Considerations: The term Hinduism is among the most contested in the field of religious studies. It arose as a designation of the various religious strains that were found by Westerners on the Indian Subcontinent in the eighteenth century. The term has been met with a range of acceptance by the modern Hindu community but has come to be used by most Indians in the modern West to apply to that range of religions currents that originated on the Indian subcontinent, apart from the three large strains whose adherents have come to be seen as constituting separate religious communities-Jainism, Hinduism, and Sikhism. The Hindu community is tied together by its use of a number of ancient holy texts (most notably the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Mahabharata, the Puranas, etc.), acknowledgement of a number of deities discussed in these texts, and the creation of temples at which rituals are performed and holy days observed.

There being no body which regularly collects data on Hindu religious groups, ISAR originally planned to gather the basic data by mail. As the original mailings met with an almost universal lack of response, that plan was scrapped and replaced with an effort to phone each groups and interview a local representative. Thus, in 2009 a list of all the known Hindu temples (some 450) in the United States was compiled and beginning in January 2010, an attempt was made to call each local temple and interview the president, a priest serving the temple, or local knowledgeable board member. That process continued through the fall. In the process of contacting the temples, several hundred additional temples were discovered and a picture of the overall organization of the community as of the fall of 2010 emerged. That overall organization is presented below.

It is to be noted that most temples do not make or keep counts on their membership (with many having no formal membership) nor on the larger community of support (constituency). Temples regularly reported membership as a range (200 to 500) and often as family units (100 to 150 families), with an understanding that the average size of a family unit was four. For most temples, membership consisted of those individuals or families who regularly supported the temples by their time, attendance, and gifts, but overwhelmingly, the temple served a far larger group of worshippers and attendees who might only be seen a couple of times a year at the most important holy days. Phone calls to the local temples were supplements to on site visits made by Drs. Jones and Melton and members of the ISAR staff to verify information received over the phone and gain some firsthand understanding of the situations in which such observations were made. On site visits were made to multiple locations in southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, and Austin.

The information we supplied on Jewish congregations consists of the following estimates, calculated by denomination and by county:

• Number of synagogues
• Number of members
• Number of adherents
• Number of worshipers

The following proposal was accepted by the Operations Committee and formed the basis of the Muslim Estimate in the 2010 U.S. Religion Census.

Proposed Mosque and Muslim Count
Lead Researcher: Ihsan Bagby

Objective: Provide a county level count of all masjids in the United States and obtain a count of adherents and attendance at these masjids.

Participating People/Organizations:
Ihsan Bagby, Professor, University of Kentucky Riad Ali, President of MuslimGuide.com Larry Mamiya, Professor, Vassar College Dave Roozen, Director, Hartford Institute for Religion Research Rich Houseal, Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies Louay Safi, Executive Director, ISNA Leadership Training Center Yaser Tabbara, Director of Chapter Development, CAIR

Definition of Congregation: U.S. Religion Census will aggregate to the county level the number of Masjids, defined as (1) a Muslim association/organization, that (2) holds Jumah Prayer and that (3) organizes other Islamic activities.

Definition of Adherent: U.S. Religion Census will aggregate to the county level the number of adherents as defined by survey question 6:
Approximately how many Muslims are associated in any way with the religious life of your masjid? Please include adults and children, as well as both regular and irregular participants.

Definition of Attendance: U.S. Religion Census will aggregate to the county level an average attendance as defined by survey question 2:
At a typical Jumah Prayer, what is the total attendance-including men, women and children?

After this proposal was accepted, Bagby outlined the following
procedures:
An initial masjid was compiled from four sources, three of them being online sources of information on mosques: (1) the masjid list from the 2000 Masjid Study, (2) Muslim Guide, (3) Islamic Finder, and (4) Salatomatic. Local Muslims were contacted to verify information on existing mosques and identify mosques not on our list. Most local Muslims were representatives of local CAIR chapters. The Islamic Shura Council of Southern California also helped us. In New York City, the Center for American Muslim Research and Information helped. Based on these efforts we identified a little over 1,900 masjids.

From this list we sampled 727 mosques, using a stratified sample based on zip codes. A first-class letter was sent to masjids asking them to participate in the study. Only about 10 masjids responded. Interviewers conducted a phone interview with masjid leaders. A masjid leader was defined as (1) the Imam or President of the mosque or (2) a member of the Mosques Board. About 9 interviewers were hired at different times to conduct the telephone interviews.

Interviewers were asked to modify the existing masjid list as they sought to locate masjid leaders. Through this process the original list was expanded to its final number of 2,106 mosques.

Estimating Adherents and Attendance to the County Level:
Bagby was able to supply location information for every masjid in the United States to the U.S. Religion Census data collection office. He used the survey information to estimate a total Muslim population within each state. The U.S. Religion Census staff then used Bagbys state figures to estimate adherents and attendance for each mosque. For surveyed masjids, the reported adherent and attendance counts were used. For those not surveyed, the remaining state Muslim counts were assigned proportionately, with larger estimates for those masjids within larger metropolitan areas. Totals were then aggregated to the county level.

Over the past several years, the primary researcher has been collecting nondenominational church lists found on the Internet. To this list were added eight additional listings of non-denominational congregations, house churches, megachurches, and independent networks of churches that were collected on the web and privately during 2009/10. Additionally three purchased mailing lists of independent and non-denominational Christian congregations were added to the database. After all these lists were merged together, the database was then screened for duplicates, incorrect entries, and non church listings.

Following this effort, a team of 6 temporary staff persons spent over 1,000 hours culling the web to attempt to verify the status of these congregations. Every church in the database was looked up on Google and in the online Yellow Pages to confirm if it existed and if it was independent/nondenominational. Every church was also emailed and/or called in order to confirm further their independent/non-denominational status, their membership and their attendance. Additionally, one of the staff members spoke Spanish and established contact with the obviously Hispanic/Latino churches in the listing. Approximately 30% responded to the request and verified their information. While engaged in this research, the staff found additional church lists from the websites of newspapers, towns and counties that added new independent and non-denominational churches. They then attempted to confirm the information on these churches using the above method.

The end result was a database that contained over 50,000 potential entries. Over 15,000 were removed due to uncertainty about their existence, size, non-denominational status or being a part of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship or Calvary Chapel Networks (which are listed separately in the U.S. Religion Census). The resulting 35,496 congregations are the best estimate of the independent and non-denominational churches in the U.S. Even given these efforts, the primary researcher is certain that the current listing is not entirely accurate. The independent status or exact size of many churches could not be confirmed. Additionally, we found that when we checked several cities approximately 9 months later, quite a few of the previously confirmed congregations had already closed. Non-denominational and independent congregations are a very fluid grouping of churches. Additionally some of the non-denominational churches listed might be affiliated with a denomination but did not indicate it on their website, in their published material or even after we contacted them.

Submitted by: Scott Thumma

Many religious groups now provide on-line locators for the benefit of those looking for one of their congregations. Rarely, these include membership or attendance information as well. The Operations Committee preferred to obtain information directly from a religious body, but opted to use these on-line listings when such direct information was unavailable. Church locations for sixty-eight groups were obtained from such on-line listings. Three groups provided on-line attendance information for each congregation, and four were able to provide membership or adherent numbers. For those without actual adherent counts, membership figures were used to provide adherent estimates by adding an appropriate number to account for children who might be associated with the congregations as well.

Ideally, these locations would have been obtained in 2010, but most were instead gathered at the end of the data collection process. Since this represents over twenty thousand congregations, the Operations Committee had hoped to receive the information from other sources. The month of data collection is shown in the accompanying table.

Group	Date	Congregations
African Methodist Episcopal Church	January, 2012	4,256
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church	January, 2012	1,657
Alliance of Baptists	January, 2012	124
American Association of Lutheran Churches	February, 2012	70
American Presbyterian Church	July, 2011	3
Anglican Church in North America	February, 2012	913
Apostolic Christian Church of America, Inc.	January, 2012	88
Apostolic Lutheran Church of America	Fall, 2011	52
Assemblies of God International Fellowship	February, 2012	18
Association of Free Lutheran Congregations	February, 2012	276
Association of Messianic Congregations	January, 2012	12
Bible Presbyterian Church (General Synod)	Summer, 2011	20
Brethren In Christ Church	January, 2012	256
Calvary Chapel Fellowship Churches	January, 2012	1,136
Canadian and American Reformed Churches	July, 2011	4
Christian Brethren	January, 2012	183
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church	January, 2012	1,462
Church of Christ (Holiness), U.S.A	January, 2012	172
Church of God by Faith, Inc.	January, 2012	162
Church of God of the Apostolic Faith, Inc.	February, 2012	55
Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith, Inc.	February, 2012	454
Church of the Lutheran Confession	October, 2011	79
Churches of Christ in Christian Union	August, 2011	194
Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches	November, 2011	73
Conservative Lutheran Association	August, 2011	4
Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church	January, 2012	3
Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America	July, 2011	107
Elim Fellowship	January, 2012	103
Enterprise Baptists Association	February, 2012	55
Evangelical Association of Reformed, and Congregational Christian Churches	July, 2011	67
Evangelical Church	January, 2012	128
Evangelical Methodist Church	February, 2012	97
Federation of Reformed Churches	July, 2011	7
Free Church of Scotland (Continuing)	July, 2011	5
Free Presbyterian Church of North America	July, 2011	14
Free Reformed Church of North America	July, 2011	2
Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship	February, 2012	699
Grace Brethren Churches, Fellowship of	January, 2012	266
Hutterian Brethren	February, 2012	135
International Fellowship of Bible Churches	February, 2012	27
Jain	February, 2012	71
Korean Presbyterian Church Abroad	January, 2012	193
Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ	February, 2012	673
National Spiritualist Association of Churches	January, 2012	84
North American Lutheran Church	February, 2012	305
(Original) Church of God	February, 2012	13
Pentecostal Fire-Baptized Holiness Church	February, 2012	216
Pentecostal Free Will Baptist Church, Inc.	January, 2012	148
Polish National Catholic Church	August, 2011	119
Presbyterian Reformed Church	July, 2011	4
Primitive Baptists, Eastern District Association of	February, 2012	57
Primitive Methodist Church in the USA	January, 2012	67
Reformed Baptist Churches	February, 2012	353
Reformed Presbyterian Church General Assembly	July, 2011	9
Reformed Presbyterian Church Hanover Presbytery	July, 2011	8
Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States	July, 2011	9
Group Date Congregations Shinto	February, 2012	5
Sikh	February, 2012	246
Swedenborgian Church	August, 2011	34
Tao	February, 2012	43
Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations	January, 2012	65
United Catholic Church, Inc.	February, 2012	10
United Holy Church of America, Inc.	February, 2012	369
United Pentecostal Church International	January, 2012	4,062
United Pentecostal Council of the Assemblies of God	February, 2012	25
United Reformed Churches in North America	January, 2012	74
Unity of the Brethren	August, 2011	27
Zoroastrian	June, 2010	33

The discrepancy between web lists and denominational reports has been covered for three of these groups in Appendix C. The remaining groups may have more than 1.4 million members, based on figures reported in published reports or on-line. Their combined reported congregation count of 14,913 is about 11% more than the on-line listing of 13,385.