Nashville, USA - The United Methodist Church, America's second largest Protestant body, reported a net loss of 71,518 U.S. members during 2004, bringing the total under 8.2 million. That followed a 69,141 decline for 2003.
The denomination has suffered annual declines for decades, but losses appeared to be slowing in the late 1990s, United Methodist News Service reported.
The church reported membership increases in 14 of its 62 regional bodies, known as annual conferences. Most of the largest increases were in the South, while the largest drops were mostly in the Midwest and Northeast.