Parochial Report Resources
The Parochial Report is an important tool used by The Episcopal Church to track trends, assess ministry impact, and gather financial and membership data. While the Diocese of West Tennessee does not generate this report, it relies on certain components to calculate annual pledge assessments.
To assist congregations in completing their reports accurately and on time, the Diocese of West Tennessee has compiled key dates, filing instructions, and responses to common questions that arose during a Zoom FAQ call in January, 2025. Please review the following information carefully to ensure a smooth and timely submission.
Please note that the information below pertains to the 2024 Parochial Report, filed in 2025.
General Information
Filing Dates and Deadlines
- Filing begins: Monday, January 6, 2025
- Canonical deadline: March 1, 2025. The site will close at 11:59 PM on March 1. After this time, congregations will lose access to the site.
- Diocesan administrator access: From March 2, only diocesan administrators can access the site to file late reports.
- Final deadline: May 1, 2025, for diocesan administrators and the General Convention Office. By this date, all reports must be filed, reviewed, and verified.
- After May 1, the General Convention Office will begin data checking to prepare the 2024 parochial report data for publication.
Key Instructions
- Online Filing Only: All reports must be submitted online.
- Integrated Instructions: The parochial report now includes detailed inline help for each section. This eliminates the need for separate instruction manuals, streamlining the reporting process.
Updated Instructions
- For video walkthroughs on how to file online and an overview of the new 2024 Parochial Report, please visit the General Convention website: https://generalconvention.org/forms-and-instructions/
Attendance and Impact FAQ
https://parishregister.episcopalchurch.org/
The advantage of using the online register is that it integrates directly with the new Parochial Report and will populate all of the previous year’s information for in-person and online worship automatically.
This new report asks for the same two metrics as the online register does: “live views” and “after views.” It asks for data about any live weekday services as well, but only “live views.”
No, there is not a fee.
Neither the parochial report nor the register offer any guidance for knowing how to account for households who view online worship together. However, one strategy is to ask each household to put in the chat how many are viewing and record the number of viewers. A poll is another option to record the number of people in one location viewing services online.
Another approach, used by the Diocese of Texas, is to
take those viewing worship online during the hour of liturgy on Sunday for at least one minute during the service time. Add this to those that viewed worship online for at least one minute from the time the service ends up until the service starts the following week. This is then multiplied by 1.5 to reflect the households that view worship online together. This sum is your total online attendance on a given week.
If you do something every six weeks, add the total number for the year and divide by 52.
Measuring and recording online attendance is not as simple and straightforward as tracking average in-person Sunday attendance. Congregations in the Diocese of West Tennessee are using a variety of platforms, though the most common appear to be Facebook, YouTube, and Zoom. Instructions for gathering viewer metrics on those platforms can be found through the following links:
The new online Parish Register of Services includes a section to record data about online streaming views. It asks for “Unique Views Online.” This means the number of people who viewed your service live, or “live views.” When examining the viewer metrics on the platforms you use for streaming this would be the number of those viewing worship online for at least one minute during the hour of that liturgy.
It will also asks for “Unique Recorded Views of Online Stream.” This means the number of those who viewed worship online for at least one minute following the time Sunday service ends up until the start of worship on the following week. If you are recording in the Parish Register immediately following your services, you will need to go back and record this number from the previous week each time.
If you need additional assistance, please contact Emily Austin, Director of Communication & Community Engagement, at (901) 937-4784 or eaustin@episwtn.org.
Revenue FAQ
No, the diocesan assessment will not be on the Total Revenue line. The Finance Committee is working to address which components of the revised parochial report will be used to determine the annual pledge assessments. More information is forthcoming.
Line 5 should include support from the Diocese.
Line 4 should include support for a designated purpose.
Year End (as of Dec. 31) Supplemental Information
No, line 9a is a numeric response. Do not include the value of the endowment on this line. The value at year-end is not requested to be provided.
No, year-end accruals are not to be included in line 10. According to The Episcopal Church, this question is more focused on real-time debt figures as of December 31, 2024.
