In May 2020, the Parish Pastoral Council conducted an online survey to determine how our parishioners were coping with the COVID-19 restrictions and to understand the challenges they face without access to the sacraments or to our church. Surveys are not new for our church and we use the results for our parish planning but this is the first survey that we are sharing what we found with our parishioners.

A total of 344 persons responded to our survey of which 94% were parishioners of the Church of St Anthony.

Here are some highlights:

  • Responses came from a wide range of age groups from children to seniors. The largest segment of  66% came from people in the 36-65 age group.
  • Sentiment check -in: 85% see the need to stay connected with the parish, 79% said it was important to be encouraged by our priests
  • Have you been following what has been pushed out? 91% were aware of the ways the Parish or Archdiocese was reaching out to Catholics.
  • How do you find out about activities? 49% were subscribers of our social media channels, 57% obtained information from ministry members or from 64% from WhatsApp groups.
  • Have you been following what has been pushed out? 61% viewed weekend masses on our church YouTube channel.
  • Do you need any assistance? 94% said they did not need technical assistance with regard to our online channels
  • Formation Topics : 76% wanted formation on the Mass, 58% on the Sacraments, 53% on family communications and 35% on how to pray. The remaining 11% included 14 different topics.
  • What can the Church of St Anthony do to assist your faith? Of the 157 respondents, 10% said the church was doing all it can, 17% said faith formation, 13% said nothing, 19% were not sure what could be done.
  • What can the church do to reach out? Of the 150 respondents, 29% said to check on people, 12% did not know, 7% said nothing, 7% said outreach, the rest were spread over 29 different suggestions with 1-5% of respondents.

The church will use these results to guide its planning for the months ahead. This will undoubtedly be challenging because of the changing COVID-19 situation and the restrictions in place. We thank all our parishioners who took the trouble to fill in the survey and we hope you will continue to take part in any future ones.

The Parish Pastoral Council has put together a brochure with some interesting survey results and suggestions on how our parishioners can be connected with the church. As the survey shows, WhatsApp chatgroups are an important way to reach more parishioners so we invite you to download or share the link to the brochure below:

PPC COVID-19 May 2020 Survey Highlights