Church of the Redeemer Sarasota just welcomed its 3,000th member. The church reached this milestone on Feb. 16, when infants Casey Jane Clegg and Ruby Mae Spears were baptized. The congregation celebrated the momentous occasion with balloons. This represents a significant departure from wider demographic trends, where mainline denominations have seen declining attendance.
“Church of the Redeemer Sarasota is a growing parish of more than 3,000 members in the heart of downtown Sarasota. The parish is part of the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida and a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion,” their website reads. “At the center of this parish church is Jesus Christ – His life, death, and resurrection.”
“You will see this reflected in all we do and our mission statement “to make new Christians and all Christians new.” We are a parish grounded in the Holy Scriptures and firmly anchored in the Anglican tradition of worship, theology, and piety expressed in the Book of Common Prayer,” they concluded. Fr. Charleston Wilson said, “The hand of God is clearly at work at Redeemer, and we give thanks to God for this incredible milestone.”
“Now our focus is on doubling down on making new Christians and making all Christians new,” he added.“Jesus lies at the center of all we do at Redeemer, and that may be our ‘secret sauce,’ so to speak. I think Redeemer is growing because people who are connected to this parish feel a very deep, personal, and real connection to the compassionate Christ — to the Jesus of the Bible,” he explained.
While the Church of the Redeemer is growing, many other mainline protestant churches are shrinking. Episcopal churches have recently made headlines for their woke priests. Mainline churches, which tend to be highly progressive, have made headlines for declining attendance. Last year, the United Methodist Church lost over a million members in a single day due to woke policies.
A large West African conference voted to leave the organization due to its acceptance of LGBT clergy and marriages. The African EMUCI said the church “deviates from the Holy Scriptures” and would rather “sacrifice its honor and integrity to honor the LGBTQ community.”
EMCUI’s decision comes in response to the U.S.-based UMC’s vote in May to repeal the decades-long ban on LGBT clergy and marriages. This sparked a mass exit of congregations around the world. The controversial decision was passed 692-51 at its general conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Korean Methodist Church is also eyeing the door.
The Korean Church has around 1.5 million members who said, “Homosexuality cannot be accepted until the Lord returns. This is not an emotional issue but a matter of unchangeable truth. Homosexuality is clearly a sin,” they went on to say. “This is an issue concerning the sanctity of life that the church must teach correctly, without compromise.”