Well, we are nearing the half way point in the service year. Although it is still early, we may be able to get an initial projection of this year’s service results for Canada.
Publishers for this year and last are as follows:
Sep 106131 105056
Oct 107971 108076
Nov 107668 108499
Dec 108331 106595
Jan 108799 107097
Avg 107780 107065 Increase of +0.7%
At this early stage, it looks like a modest increase is in the works. However, if you realize that the counting threshold has dropped to 15 minutes per month, and the enforcement has improved by transferring this job to the book study conductor, then the results are not as good. It is entirely possible that this seeming increase (caused by counting technique changes) is actually masking a decrease. Consider the number of conversions:
Baptisms (this year/last year):
Sep 149 161
Oct 103 157
Nov 226 131
Dec 81 132
Jan 59 54
Total 618 635 Decrease of 17
Last year, baptisms hit a low of 2030. That was the lowest year since baptisms began being reported. Back in 1969, 3621 baptisms were reported, and that was based on a total publisher count of only 43265. Only a few short years ago, the baptism count was over 5000.
In order to maintain their size, the organization needs to baptize at least 2500 per year (1400 for mortality, and 1100 for dissention).
So, although the 2002 service year results may show a small increase, in reality, the indifference is continuing unchanged.