Question

To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what steps the Church is taking to use (a) digital platforms and (b) other technologies to connect with wider audiences.

The Church of England, through the work of its central Communications team, has a presence on the majority of social media channels and is producing content for a variety of different audiences and age groups. It has developed a smart speaker app which is useable with ‘Alexa’, provides liturgical resources via the Daily Prayer App, and recorded services to enable people who may not be able to attend a church in person to still participate in worship.

In the month of May 2023, the most recent for which material is available, Church of England content received 8.6 million impressions and the audience using the materials grew by an additional 4,000 unique users. Nearly three-quarters of a million people engaged with materials developed for the Coronation and the Church of England received 40,000 enquiries from the public via its various social/digital media platforms.