How Many Reformed People are there Worldwide?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Hamalas

Hamalas

whippersnapper
I threw this question out on Facebook but I wasn't getting much of a reply. Two questions really: what would you say are the differences between the International Council Reformed Churches and the World Reformed Fellowship?
AND,
how many people are represented by these two bodies?

I ask, because conventional counts say that there are somewhere around 70-80 million Reformed/Presbyterians worldwide but that obviously includes large liberal denominations. I'm trying to get a feel for the size of conservative Reformed/Presbyterians worldwide. :)
 
Putting aside denominations committed to theological liberalism like PC(USA) and RCA (as well as smaller bodies like the KPCA) I think these would be the largest bodies of Presbyterian and Reformed in US, although I'm undoubtedly forgetting somebody. Also, I'm using the numbers on Wikipedia, some of which are well sourced and some aren't as far as I can tell.

PCA: 370,332
CRC: 235,921
EPC: 171,000
ECO: 85,000
KAPC: 70,000
ARP: 39,681
OPC: 31,112
URC: 23,302

The big problem with counting is how you include different churches/denominations. In the US for example, groups like the EPC, ECO, and CRC are larger than pretty much every Reformed church except for the PCA. And many would call these Evangelical, Reformed, and so on.

The WRF includes from this list: ARP, CRC, EPC, PCA,
The ICRC includes from this list: OPC, URC
 
I think the ICRC is more conservative/confessional than the WRF. I base that on these facts:

  • Only 3 of the 9 North American denominations that are in the WRF and not in the ICRC are NAPARC members.
  • All seven of the North American ICRC denominations that are not WRF members are in NAPARC.
I don't know how many people belong to WRF or ICRC churches worldwide. If nobody has answered that part of the question within a few days, I'll see if I can find a good estimate.

I've made a spreadsheet of all the North American denominations which are members of either NAPARC, WRF, or ICRC.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top