The Diocese of Coventry produced a daily 'Thought for the Day' from March to August 2020. It was published in the new diocesan website, and publicised via the weekly diocesan eBulletin.
I'm very grateful to those who contributed to the 'Thought for the Day', and also to the 165 people who participated in a short survey.
There results of the survey are shown below.
Survey Results
Written comments
The written comments in the survey indicate that the Thought for the Day was very much appreciated by a significant group of people. For example:
- "Thought for the Day has become part of my daily prayer routine, to the extent that I really miss it on the days when it is not available."
- "I enjoyed the broad range of contributors and how each were interpreting our current and ongoing crisis."
- "In a dark time they are a chink of light."
- "We have used some of these thoughts on our weekly news sheet. People have found them helpful."
However, as we emerged from lockdown, several people mentioned that they had less need for the Thought for the Day. For example:
- "Thank you so much to all who contributed. I found it particularly helpful during lockdown, needing and looking for encouragement and God's new words. As we 'unlocked', I engaged with it less and could engage once a week (or month of course) but wouldn't every day."
- "Now that we are stepping up church activities I perhaps don't need the thoughts daily. During the lockdown I found them essential, so thank you for that."
- "They were helpful at first but now it’s just another thing to try and read so becomes another item on the 'to do' list."
- "I don't feel Thought for the Day is needed anymore."
Our future plans
The aim of all our diocesan communications is to strike the right balance between sharing information which is helpful, but not overloading people with too much information.
The survey shows that a daily article was especially helpful to people during lockdown. However, during the next few months, a weekly article might be more appropriate. This option was the most popular choice (54%), and it was also supported by the written comments.
We will review the situation in a few months time. However, starting next week, I hope you will look forward to reading our Thought for the Week.
Graeme Pringle
Director of Communications
11 September 2020