Sending a message to your parish

Send a message

1. Open Messages and press New message.
2. Under Who gets it, choose Everyone in the parish, or choose one group, such as a society, a station or a class.
3. Write a Subject and your Message.
4. Tick the ways it should travel (see below).
5. Press Send message.

Before you send, the page counts how many people each way will reach: In the app, Email, Text message, and No way to reach for people with no account and no phone on record. The numbers show how many parishioners each way will reach.

Choose how it travels

• In the app. The message lands in each parishioner's inbox. It's ticked for you.
• Email. It goes to the addresses on file.
• Phone notification. A notification on phones that have the app and are signed in.
• Text message. For people with a phone number on record.

Email and phone notifications are on for every parish. Text messages need setting up first, under Settings, then Text messages. A way that isn't ready is greyed out, with a note beside it.

Mark it urgent when it can't wait

Tick Mark this message as urgent for things like a funeral announced, a Mass moved at short notice, or a flooded hall. An urgent message is marked in parishioners' inboxes, and its phone notifications go out at once, even at night. Use it every week and people learn to ignore it, so keep it for the real ones.

Writing a good message

Put the one thing that matters in the first line, because that's what shows on a lock screen. Keep it short, give the date and time clearly, and say what you want people to do.

After it goes out

Messages keeps everything you sent under From this parish, with its status and who it reached. Open one to see How it went out and the Delivery list. A sent message stays on the record. If you got something wrong, send a short follow-up.

The same page shows Received from the diocese: the letters and notices your diocese sends to its parishes.