We had 94 respondents complete the survey, which is an impressive response rate. In addition, over 85% of the respondents provided written comments to the survey which demonstrates that parishioners took the time to be thoughtful with their answers. Over 90% of the respondents indicated that they either regularly (72%) or occasionally (19%) participate in the zoom services. When we asked about returning to in-church services, one out of four respondents indicated that they would not attend service until NYC lifts Covid restrictions and 7% indicated that they lived outside of the NYC area. However, over six out of ten respondents indicated that they would regularly or occasionally attend service depending how in-church services have changed. Interestingly, it seems some respondents like the Zoom service option. If Ascension continues to offer Zoom services, over half of the respondents indicated that they would regularly attend in-church services or attend in-church services a majority of the time. However, 16% of respondents indicated that they would attend Zoom services more than in-church services. Also, 19% of respondents said they would mostly attend Zoom services and attend in-church services on special occasions.
When we asked about what people enjoyed the most with Zoom services. We had 80 responses and popular descriptions included words like community, people, worship, service, sermon, and seeing faces. We developed the accompanying WordCloud that highlights common words from the question regarding what people enjoy the most with the Zoom services.
The committee would like to thank all parishioners who completed the survey. It will be helpful as we move forward with our work in finding ways to safely re-open, as well as maintaining worship online.
