The loss of membership in the North Church has accelerated significantly in the past year. A good 46,000 people in Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have left the Protestant Church, said State Bishop Kristina Kühnbaum-Schmidt in Hamburg on Tuesday. The North Church has lost a total of 66,000 members, including deaths. For the first time there were more exits than deaths. Around 1000 people re-entered the North Church after leaving.
As a possible reason for the many resignations, the state bishop suspected the rising energy prices and cost of living in the past year. Many people may have wondered whether they want to continue to be members and pay church taxes. On the other hand, there could have been a catch-up effect because there were fewer terms of office for leaving the church during the Corona period. “Of course, that worries me,” said Kühnbaum-Schmidt, referring to the decline in members.
When the North Church was founded in 2012, the number of members was given as 2.3 million. According to official figures, at the end of 2021 there were still a good 1.8 million. The further decline in the past year shows that the North Church has shrunk by almost a quarter in the first ten years of its existence.
