Hints and tips

We hope that these brief notes are helpful in completing your online Return form.

Don’t leave any Blank spaces

  • Try to complete as much of the form as you can. But to avoid confusion:
    • For questions where you don’t know the answer write “unknown” (even where a number is required).
    • For actual values of zero, please enter ‘0’
    • For questions that are not relevant, write “n/a”
  • You can see if any blanks are still present as your form will not be 100% complete.

When you want to include more than one church in a single form

  • Although we’re asking for one Mission Return form to be completed for each Church, we understand that in some circumstances (e.g. in small, rural, multi-parish benefices) it would make more sense to submit a single Return for the whole benefice.
  • The churches you wish to include can be selected from a list given at the beginning of the form. But if you want to include other churches that aren’t in this list, please enter the church names in your comments at the end of the form.

If you think you might be duplicating data

  • If you think there’s a possibility that another Church might be duplicating some of your data, please give the name of the church and the data you think is affected in your comments at the end.

Congregation size

  • If you have a congregation size that you feel isn’t typical because of some special circumstance, or you have any other concerns about the data you entered, then please mention this in your comments at the end.

Age categories of the congregation

  • Some questions ask for the congregation to be split into different age groups. Where possible, give a best estimate for the number in each age group. But where there are possibly too many unknowns, just enter ‘unknown” for that category.
  • Always give a Total figure over all age categories.
  • Please note that if you do have a mix of numbers and ‘unknown’ for the different age categories, then when the numbers are added together, they should be less than the Total figure.

End comments

  • If in doubt about any of your replies or if there’s anything about the data you entered that you’d like to highlight, please mention this in your comments at the end.
  • Also, please include any suggestions you have as to how data collection might be improved.
  • All comments will be read by us.

Thank you for your help with the Mission Returns

Your data is not only essential to planning at the Diocesan, Archdeaconry and Deanery level but is also useful for local parish mission planning, compiling profiles for new incumbents and in encouraging generosity of giving in local churches.

To access your Mission Return form, click on this link: https://parishreturns.churchofengland.org/

For help, call us on: 01865 208200 and ask for the Parish Returns Helpdesk or send an email to: parishreturns@oxford.anglican.org

Page last updated: Tuesday 20th December 2022 6:58 PM
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