Every year the national church asks parishes to fill in their ‘Statistics for Mission’ data during January. This covers details like church attendance, numbers of weddings, etc. This gives the national church a good idea of what’s happening ‘on the ground’, although it does not describe everything that’s happening.
But more importantly, it gives us in Chester Diocese some understanding of what is happening, which allows us to better target resources and support more effectively. It is a tool to help us (and parishes!) look honestly in the mirror at ourselves and see what we can learn from doing so.
As we seek to grow missionally healthy churches across the diocese, this information will become increasingly important, so we are encouraging every church to fill in their data as soon as possible, and by any event by 31 January.
Your data is entered here:
There is a helpful webinar recording about the hows and whys of filling in the form here:
If you want to see what kind of information is produced, you can find your own parish data here: (you will need access – usually your incumbent or parish admin has it).
Other helpful information (deprivation information) about your parish can be found here:
And an interactive map which shows a wealth of information can be found here:
If you need any further support, please contact Rebecca Hathaway: rebecca.hathaway@chester.anglican.org