It's nice to see the Silenced website (silenced.co) active once again. Recently a couple of notable pieces on the decline of the United Church of God (UCG) have appeared, once the largest of the schismatic groups from the Worldwide Church of God.Marking UCG's Decline (Feb.1)
COGWA on the Rise (Feb. 3)
I'm not sure what's up with the URL. Frustratingly, it sometimes loads happily, while at others it doesn't. Weird. Best advice; persevere. Unfortunately, the unusual URL is also not able to be added to the blog feed.
According to the (anonymous) Silenced writer, the UCG 2015 Feast of Tabernacles stats indicate that Roderick Meredith's Living Church of God is now numerically larger, as may be COGWA (Church of God, a Worldwide Association). The figures:
LCG: 10,400"... as UCG continues to transform and become less Armstrongized on its surface, new COGWA members may find their decades-old comfort zone restored."
COGWA: 9,300
UCG: 7,800 (US & Canada)
"If anything, COGWA, which was once estimated to be a third of UCG's size and struggled to launch early on, is now very comparable and seemingly slightly larger than UCG is right now."
"COGWA has found a way to survive by acting as a safe harbor for existing COG members, the opposite strategy UCG has invested in as it vainly struggles to attract the great unwashed public into its ranks."
All very Darwinian; the survival of the fittest (and perhaps 'fittest' in this context simply means the stupidest).
Here's hoping y'all will allow a different point of view.
ReplyDeleteThe UCG attendance number does not include their international count, which Merediths group does include.
ReplyDeleteI agree, it is great to see Silenced back amongst the living. Am I reading it wrong, or is the blog master no longer allowing commentary?
ReplyDeleteBB
Silenced does indeed allow commentary, but you must click on the title of the blog entry, then you can join the discussion at the bottom of the article. Silenced uses Disqus for comments which has its own set of rules and benefits.
DeleteI tried the newly designed UCG website. It's a difficult labyrinth to get to the "Booklets",
ReplyDeleteand when you do, the US & Britain one is at the bottom!! a crisis dilemma for them!!
Look for it to disappear altogether this year.