(RNS) The Presbyterian Church (USA) lost more than 69,000 members in 2008, the largest drop in membership since the denomination was formed in 1983.

The decline brings membership in the mainline Protestant denomination to 2.1 million, after it lost more than 57,000 members in 2007. Donations to the PCUSA also declined by more than $24 million.

Although nearly 104,000 people joined the denomination last year, almost 35,000 Presbyterians left the PCUSA to join the more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church, according to denominational statistics. More than 34,000 Presbyterians died, and nearly 105,000 were removed from church rolls “after they drifted away from our congregations,” said the Rev. Gradye Parsons, stated clerk of the PCUSA.

“These are sisters and brothers with whom we break bread and sing the doxology,” Parsons said. “We should not let them drift.”

Like many mainline Protestant denominations, the PCUSA has experienced a decades-long drop in membership, with church rolls declining every year since the denomination was formed as a result of a merger in 1983, according to church researchers.