Parish Survey Results

Survey Report to the Parish

January, 2012

The Parish Search Committee wishes to thank the 90 parishioners who took the time necessary to complete the survey handed out in November.  The following is information that we have gleaned from your responses; we hope that you find this report as informative as did the committee.

Demographics

As stated above, ninety parishioners filled out the survey; this is a 58% return rate.  Of those 74% were over 50 years of age. More females than males were participants, 64% to 39%. Seventy percent of responders were married; the next largest category was widowed at 14%.

·         Members who were raised Episcopalian - 55%

·         Of those not brought up in the Episcopal Church, 66% were formerly Catholic.

·         A vast majority of parishioners live within 15 minutes of All Saints’ (82%).

·         Around 73% who answered the survey attend the later service at 10am.

(The most common reason for attending this service was that the time is

convenient.  Participation in the service and style of the service were also

popular answers.)

·         Those who responded attend church services weekly (71%) or occasionally (22%).

Almost all responders graduated from high school and 65% of them having attended college.

There was just about an equal split in responses for employment situation.

·         41% stated they were retired

·         43% work full or part time

The characteristics that originally attracted responders to All Saints’ is the same reason that people continue to consider All Saints’ to be their parish.  The most frequent answers: 

·         a family church  

·         a sense of community

·         other common answers: 

§  having friends at All Saints’

§  style of worship, our music program

§  proximity to home

Participation in activities has remained the same or increased for 87% of people who responded. Most numerous choices for increasedparticipation:

·         accepting responsibility,

·         being personally invited to join an activity 

·         stronger faith

·         more positive view of All Saints’

Most numerous responses of those who indicated that their participation had decreased:

§  changes in people's personal lives (i.e. children grown/household changed; lack of health)

§  work hours

§  decreased relevance in their lives

Other demographic items:

·         Only 37% of people who took the survey have ever attended a Christian education/formation program at All Saints.

·         More than 3/4 of those that participated in the survey have invited someone to church or to a special function at one time or another.

·         E-mail/internet access: 

·         75% of people have email and internet access

·         52% had visited All Saint's website.

Open-ended questions (#’s 21, 22, 23, 24) While there were other areas of the survey that gave parishioners a chance to comment on specific areas of parish life, questions 21 – 24 were broad-based and invited members to write on any topics that came to mind.  Seventy-one per cent of those who took the survey responded to one or more of these questions with a wide variety of answers.

23.  What do we do best?

                 In tone, this was the most positive of these four questions and garnered 54 responses. The theme was unmistakable.  The majority of the comments described our parish as a family and a community. We see ourselves as friendly, with a sense of caring for one another.  We definitely are of the opinion that we are a welcomingcongregation and we value the opportunities we have to gather together, usually around food:  third Sunday breakfasts, parish dinners and similar events throughout the year. Other descriptions used the words “resourceful” and “perseverance” when referring to our members and that we displayed a” non-pretentious manner” in our dealings with one another.

                Other topics mentioned as “best” (but far less) were outreach through our service to the Watertown/Oakville community and to the wider world.  Service projects within our parish such as visitations to shut-ins and the disabled ranked second.  Several answers commenting on other achievements mentioned fund-raising activities and the blessing of the animals in October.

Judging from the number of comments elicited by questions 21, 22, and 24, parishioners are seriously taking stock of the areas they would like to see improved or changed in the future.

21.  What, if anything is missing for you at All Saints’?  

                The predominant theme of the 29 answers to this question involved Christian formation, especially Sunday school, lack of programs for youth and young adults and the lack of children in education programs.  Also mentioned was a lack of “dynamic” men’s activities and nursery care.  The next element missing for parishioners was a permanent priest, (wishfully as full time), and more young families.  A lack of leadership was mentioned several times and as was a lack of acceptance of differing views concerning church operations.  Individual comments referred to missing good communication, a need for greater numbers involved in church activities and events, and more outreach opportunities.  Also a few comments involved the lack of sermons that relate to our lives today, a common religious bond among parish members, inspiration in general, and conversation about the Holy Spirit/Jesus.

22.   If we could change one thing at All Saints’, what would that be?

                This question elicited 38 answers from parishioners. These were scattered among a range of subjects.  The following are listed in order of the total comments made on each subject:  membership (wanting more young people/families); comments on worship (number of services - 9:00am, service for those who work Sunday mornings, effectiveness of greeter program, ability to hear sermons, shorter services, music at 8:00am service, wait for final acclamation until candles are extinguished, allow adult acolytes; buildings and grounds (location too small/enlarge

parking lot, needing a dedicated space for Sunday School, update church, lack of air conditioning); more help with Sunday school, a full-time minister and a minister who speaks with you, interacts with parishioners, is interesting, involved with the parish and “down-to-earth”.  Comments on Christian formation included providing youth activities again, the need for more help with Sunday school, and an increase in the number who attend Sunday school.

                Other comments included the wish that one could lift the morale of parishioners, have a bingo night, bring generations of parishioners together to share ideas; that there be less negativity, increased leadership and involvement of parish, an increase in outreach, improve commitment (effort) of vestry, be more inclusive, and lastly, change the lack of money so there would be less focus on money and more emphasis on spiritual growth.

24.  What do we need to improve?

                Here the greatest improvement needed as recognized by 36 responses was in the area of Sunday school and serving young families.  Comments also included the closely related subjects of confirmation education and programs for older children.  The next significant group of comments was in regards to attracting new members, particularly the young.  After the need to improve the Christian formation and parish membership, the comments centered on our financial needs: raising money, improve giving due to our financial fragility and the possibility of less need for fundraising activities because of improving our financial condition.

                Other areas needing improvement were communications (regarding governance) and church activities (use of Facebook); volunteering and the need to work together; serving the elderly and shut-ins (visitations not just by rector); following up on parishioners we don’t see regularly.  Concerning worship, we could use more “upbeat” music and the addition of another service.

Sunday School

                        Twenty families responded in this section with a total of 31 children living at home. Of those, 11 children were in the college/young adult group, three in high school, seven in 6th-8th grade, three in kindergarten through 5th grade, and seven in the infant/pre-school group.
                Two respondents indicated that their children attend church and/or Sunday School weekly; 10 checked the line for occasionally, and 6 said their children never attend Sunday school or church. [Note: we don't know how many children in each age category.]
                Ten families felt that the Sunday School program does not apply to their household. This is most likely the children in the high school/college/young adult groups. Three respondents felt that the program does not meet their children's needs, while there was one respondent each indicating that the Sunday school program meets their child’s/children’s needs "To a great degree" and "Somewhat".
                Eleven families indicated that their children do not attend Sunday school regularly because the child is not interested. Two have conflicts with other activities. Other reasons included: participate at another church's youth group; don't like being the only ones at church school; attend Catholic school; visiting father alternate weekends; working; and some days not interested

Worship

            The contemporary liturgy (Rite II) was rated as very important/important (92%) as compared to the more traditional Rite I (79%).  Ninety-three percent of those who took the survey put significant importance on the birthday/anniversary prayer that is part of both services.  Sixty-two percent of the people surveyed deemed chalice bearer/lectors, ushers, greeters altar guild and acolytes very important or important.

                 Concerning the worship service at 10:00 am:   95% of the people feel the music with organ, piano, and/or guitar accompaniment as important/very important.  Some people commented that they would like more contemporary music and easier songs to sing.

(Worship cont.)

Rated as “not important” by more people (21%) than any other item in the worship category was the written notification sent to parishioners that they would be included in Sunday “Prayers of the People” This was still rated as very important/important by 54%.

                Special services such as the Thanksgiving/Lenten services, ecumenical services, the fourth Sunday Healing service and the children's Christmas pageant were rated as very important or important(58%).

Pastoral Care

            The ministry of Lay Eucharistic ministers is seen as very important/important by 98% of our respondents.  Not surprisingly, about the same percentage said that home visitation and the drivers for Sunday services were important (96% - 97%).  In this section there were comments made concerning 1) having programs for caregivers, 2) regularly checking in with our elderly and disabled members.

Stewardship

                Many sections of the Stewardship portion were deemed either very important or important. These sections were:

·                     making an annual pledge/ loose plate offering (95%)

·                     giving of time/talent, scholarship fund (98.5%)

·                     understanding how contributions are used (98.5%)

Sections which had higher numbers in the not important section were:

·                     giving 10% of my income (46%)

·                     remembering All Saints in my will (45%)

Outreach

            Out of the eight outreach programs listed in our survey Operation Christmas Child, Thanksgiving baskets, New Beginnings, and local service projects saw nearly unanamous  agreement as to their importance with only one or two prople expressing that they were not important.  The other four projects had a difference in range from 88% to 94% in their importance.

                Suggestions in this section included having teen/adult camping trips, the Financial Peace University as a standard, more outreach instead of fundraising and a desire to revive the meatloaf program GWIM.  One complaint was noted concerning non-profits using the hall:  the need for better clean-up of cigarette butts and coffee cups in the parking area.

Christian Education

            There is overwhelming importance put on the Christian education/formation program in our parish.  Sunday school, youth group, confirmation education and adult spiritual formation all ranked as very important/important in our survey with responses of very important and important ranging from 95% - 99%.  This is despite the fact that in other areas of the survey it is noted that the numbers of young to be educated at All Saints’ are not there.  A significant number saw as important (but not to as great a percentage as those involving youth) were adult spiritual formation (88%), Bible study (86%), and the Advent/Lenten series (86%).  The areas of Christian education that were ranked as less important were book discussions (35%), and retreats (31%). 

Fellowship/Special Events

            Overwhelmingly, fellowship is an important part of our parish life.  Coffee hour, October Fest, and the third Sunday breakfasts and Shrove Tuesday pancake supper were rated as very important/important by most respondents. However there were some respondents who felt that some activities listed were not as important as others.  In this latter category were the parish picnic, and the occasional game nights.

                There were several suggestions for fellowship activities that might be added.  A desire for a program that would bring all generations together to share ideas and a program where parishioners (not just clergy) would make visitations were suggested; development of leadership and parish involvement programs were also mentioned.

Qualities of a Rector

            In the section entitled “Qualities of a Rector”, we listed twenty-four characteristics that we felt were desirable. We asked the parishioners to choose their top eight choices from most to least important. These were then tabulated in a way that allowed us to really differentiate between the choices based on how often they were chosen and how high they were ranked. The actual numbers tallied for each quality are available. 

                The top eight results are listed from the quality having the most points:

·         minister to the sick, dying and bereaved in a compassionate way and celebrate times of joy and success (This quality came up in virtually all the questionnaires in one choice or another.)

·         be approachable as well as a good listener.

·         *relate to all ages

·         *make worship joyful as well as relevant

·         be able to energize and manage the parishioners in the life of the congregation

·         be passionate about his/her work

·         connect with youth  

·         be a good communicator

·         have relevance and clarity in preaching

(*indicates a numerical tie)

            Overall, it appears as if the human elements of being compassionate, connecting with people, being a good listener and communicating with all age groups are the most important qualities to us. Qualities that related to the financial aspects of the church, stewardship, involvement in the greater community or ecumenical activities, inclusiveness and Christian formation, while they may be important, were further down the list.

Parish Identity/Vision

            This section reveals our grasp of what we think of as the DNA of the parish.  The top ranking in percentage was a tie with 99% agreeing with the statements:

                1) I have a clear understanding of what our parish stands for.

                2) Members help each other out in times of trouble.

Next followed “I have a strong sense of belonging to this parish” (96%); “Our parish is involved with the community around the church” (88%) and “The vestry is responsive to concerns of parish members”. (87%)

At the opposite end of the rankings were these statements having the lowest agreement by respondents:

                18)”I think of our parish as being a place where we have a variety of perspectives”. (52%)

                17)”An effective effort was made to instruct me in our parish’s mission.” (54%)

                16) “There is a sense of excitement among members about our parish’s future.” (61%)

                15) “Disagreements and conflicts are dealt with openly rather than hushed up or hidden behind closed

                        doors.”(64%)

                The statements that involved other views on parish mission and identity as well as morale and communication between vestry and parishioners fell in the middle of the rankings.  The vestry and the Parish Search Committee will be looking to our members for more clarification on these points.

Parish Organization

                Even though this was the last page of the survey, 81 respondents took the time to answer one or more of the statements.   If one considered the number of those who marked “agree”, it seemed as though the vestry was doing their job of informing the parish.  Upon closer study of the combined numbers of the two columns labeled "disagree" and "don't know" it became clear that is not necessarily the case.

                If we add the “disagree” and “don’t know” columns for the 1st question (“Members are well informed about what the various committees and groups in the parish are doing”), 34% of respondents are unsure of what is going on in the parish while it appears that 66% agreed that members are well-informed.  However, if we remove the members of the vestry from the “agree” group (we can safely assume that those members know what is going on), in real numbers, we have only 36 of 76 (47%) respondents that agree that they know what is happening.

                There were two other questions that were of particular concern because of the high percentage of disagree/don’t know responses.  The first was concerning the statement “a study of the needs of the congregation and the community is regularly undertaken as a basis for parish planning.”  The second item was the statement in regards to “lay leaders being provided the training needed for their committee and task assignments.”  The number of “disagree” or “don’t know” answers for these two sections point out areas where improvement is needed.  It seems that this entire section of the survey will be the subject of further study as we attempt to set goals for the future at All Saints’.

                On the bright side concerning this section, as individuals, we feel we are encouraged by our parish community in the work we do for All Saints’ and our community.

                In conclusion, the information afforded us by the responses in the survey will be processed by the Parish Search Committee and the vestry and with your help, create a snapshot of who we are as a community and the direction you would like to see chosen as we proceed on our journey together.  Please continue to contribute to this process by dialogue and participation in future discussions. Most importantly, please continue to pray for a successful conclusion to this process.

                                                                                      Bob Baron

                                                                   Linda Caesar

                                                                   Theresa Gorman

                                                                   David Jean

                                                                   Ann Kuegler

                                                                   Karen Langin

                                                                   Colleen Mailhot

                                                                   Will Palmer

                                                                   Ashley Taylor

                                                                   Alma York

                                                                   Chuck McGrane

                                                                   Spike Panilaitis