This book - Centro de Estudos Anglicanos

8CHANGING TIMES: 1958–2003The early twentieth century had been a relatively calm and successful period forthe Episcopal Church, and like virtually every other American religious body, ithad increased significantly in size immediately after World War II. In books,magazines, and newspapers, some writers even speculated that because of thedenomination’s many attractive features—a historic liturgy, an air of calm reasonableness,and a smooth blend of Catholic and Protestant elements—the EpiscopalChurch occupied a particularly enviable position in the American religiousmarketplace. Unfortunately, that observation proved to be far too optimistic, forbetween 1963 and 1988 the Episcopal Church lost over a million members—anunprecedented drop after nearly two centuries of steady institutional expansion.In fact, during that same 25-year period, as evangelical and theologically conservativechurches experienced rapid growth, all mainline Protestant denominationsreported astonishing losses in membership. 1 According to historians, the1960s represented a crucial watershed in American religious life: James Findlaycharacterized the events of that tumultuous era as the “last hurrah” of the Protestantestablishment, while Sydney Ahlstrom thought the decade marked the endof the long “Puritan Epoch” that had begun several centuries before. 2 In any case,along with American society as a whole, the Episcopal Church entered an extendedperiod of transformation during the second half of the twentieth century.THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENTThe single most important issue that Episcopalians faced during this periodwas the impact of the civil rights movement on the nation’s political and religiouslife. At the 1958 General Convention, a coalition of liberal church memberscommitted to civil rights activism presented a resolution condemning racial prejudiceand calling their church to support efforts to end segregation in the South.Adopting the substance of this resolution, the convention affirmed belief in “the