Please take the Attender Survey

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Dear Parishioners,

Our parish has been invited to participate in a survey sponsored by CARA, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.  As a subscriber to CARA for a number of years, I have benefited from receiving their articles about research they have conducted.  The Attender survey which is part of the EPIC (Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations) research project, invites all of you, attending services, in our pews or online viewing community to participate by completing this survey.

As a parish, we will benefit from this research conducted across the U.S. and various faith communities as results will be shared with all of you at its conclusion.  It is our hope that you will take the time to complete this comprehensive survey so that we can gain insightful information about our church today and how we can better serve your needs.

God give you peace and count your blessings!

Fr. David F. Ryan

This Attender Survey is a part of the Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations (EPIC) project and Faith Communities Today (FACT) research initiative. Since 2000, FACT has conducted research that provides religious leaders of all traditions with critical information about the changing nature of congregational life and how to respond effectively. EPIC is a 5-year research project studying changes in the religious landscape since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Unlike previous studies from these projects which gather information from one representative of each congregation, this survey aims to capture the experiences of all the attenders within a congregation. This approach is not done often, making this survey a valuable opportunity to gain insights from attenders of religious communities across the country. 

There are two main components to this research:

  • The Attender Survey to be sent out to all regular participants (age 18 or older) of this congregation via a link that is unique to your congregation 

  • A Congregational Profile Survey for you (or a colleague) to complete providing some context about the congregation as a whole 

The first component is the Attender Survey. We are asking that you disseminate the link to this online Attender Survey to all the participants of this congregation and encourage them to participate. A good goal is to strive for responses from 50% or more of your regular participants. The survey itself will take a participant about 10-15 minutes to complete. This survey uses a split ballot method, meaning all participants will have 50% of the survey the same and for the other half they are randomly assigned one of two different sections. This approach is used to gather data on more questions without adding length to the survey.

Please find the survey at the link below.

The survey is open from now until November 15, 2024.