Parochial Reports

*C9.12(b). The pastor of this congregation: shall submit a summary of such statistics annually to the synod.

The annual congregtion report (more commonly called known as "the parochial report") is not merely an exercise in number crunching. The data collected assists the congregation, the synod, and the national church. "How?" you might ask. Let's take them one by one.

• The congregation benefits from periodic self-evaluation. Demographics, financials, and other narrative information can be an important part of self-evalutation. Even something as apparently mundane as having correct contact information is important; e.g., the contact information for your congregation is part of the congregation lookup system that people do use to locate potential new church homes when they relocate. The information gathered can also be very important in the call process as both your call committee and potential candidates will want those numbers. N.B., candidates have turned down invitations to interview because the congregations presented did not have parochial reports for several years in a row.
• The synod benefits not only in its call process work but also in its budget development and subsequent mission support formula. Old data, espeically when it reports larger membership or stronger financial health, usually hurts a congregation because the synod sets mission support based upon those numbers. Accurate data is also important in the development of cooperative agreements, grant applications, and the proactive delivery of services. Allocation of voting members to Churchwide Assembly is also based upon reported demographics.
  
• The national church benefits from accurate data in the same way that the synod does.

Parochial Report 2022: Advance materials mailed Dec. 13

On 13 December 2022, the Office of the Secretary of the ELCA sent to congregations an email with advance information related to parochial reports. Assuming you have regularly updated your congregation's email contact information, you have received this email describing the annual congregation report process and key dates for the new data year. The email included a link to a landing page with generic versions of the 2022 versions of Form A and Form C, the instructions to complete the forms, and the financial worksheet (available as a PDF and a fillable Excel file). These items as well as a FAQ are posted on the ELCA's Annual Congregation Report page. If you have not seen it in your inbox, check your spam.

The Office of the Secretary expects the online system for 2022 to open during the second week of January.