Big churches posting small membership losses

Membership has waned in the nation's largest Christian bodies — the Roman Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention — while mainline Protestant churches continue to shrink, according to the "Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches."

With more than 67 million members, the Catholic Church continues to far outnumber other American denominations. But Catholics lost nearly 400,000 members between 2006 and 2007, according to the yearbook. The Southern Baptist Convention, which ranks No. 2 in the nation with more than 16 million members, declined by about 40,000 at the same time, according to the yearbook.

Meanwhile, every large mainline Protestant church reported losses. The United Church of Christ — President Obama's home denomination — suffered the deepest drop percentage-wise, with a 6 percent decline to 1.1 million. …