What parishes ask before they start

What it is

What is YourParish?

YourParish is an app and website platform for Orthodox Christian parishes. Parishioners get a free iPhone and Android app with their parish's service schedule, events and tickets, church store, giving, requests for sacraments and services, and photo album. The parish gets one admin page to run all of it, a website on its own domain, and push notifications to every parishioner's phone.

Who is it for?

Orthodox parishes of any jurisdiction, from a mission of thirty families to a cathedral, and the dioceses that look after them. It is built around Orthodox practice: the church calendar, feasts and saints, the daily readings, commemoration of the living and the departed, and the services a parish actually offers. A separate edition, YourKehillah, serves synagogues.

Is the app free for parishioners?

Yes. The YourParish app is free on the App Store and Google Play. A parishioner finds their church near them or by name, and its times, clergy, store and photographs are already there. Guests can reserve a seat at an event or order from the store without making an account.

Orthodox practice

Does it follow the Old Calendar?

Yes. Each parish chooses its calendar: the New (Revised Julian) Calendar, the Old Calendar in Russian practice, or the Old Calendar in Greek practice as kept in Jerusalem and on Mount Athos. Feasts, saints of the day and the daily readings follow the parish's own calendar, and Old Calendar parishes of the Russian tradition see the Russian Church's readings and saints.

Which languages does it support?

The app and website speak 14 languages: English, Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Greek, Romanian, Georgian, Bulgarian, Arabic, Hebrew, German, Spanish, French and Portuguese, with right-to-left layout for Arabic and Hebrew. A parish writes its own content in any of 9 languages (English, Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Greek, Romanian, Georgian, Arabic and Hebrew) and can machine-translate a field into all of them at once, so a bilingual parish does not keep two of everything.

Can parishioners request sacraments and submit names for commemoration?

Yes. From the app a parishioner asks for a baptism, a wedding, confession, a memorial service, a house blessing or a moleben, or a quiet word with the priest. Times come from the clergy's own calendar, so nothing is double-booked, and the clergy confirm, decline or move the request. Names of the living and the departed for commemoration are sent the same way and arrive in the parish's inbox.

Does it show the daily readings and saints?

Yes. The app's home screen shows the day in the Church: the feast or the saints of the day, the fast, and the day's Epistle and Gospel readings, which open to be read in full.

Running the parish

Can our parish have its own website?

Yes. Every parish gets a website built from the same information as the app, so the schedule, news, clergy and events are always the same in both. Choose a layout, colours and fonts, and connect your own domain; the parish's live stream appears on the home page while a service is being streamed.

Can we take donations and sell candles, prosphora and books?

Yes. Parishioners give once or towards a goal, and buy from the parish's own shelf in the app, paid by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay and collected at the church. Payments go through Authorize.Net, and a parish can use its own merchant account so the money settles straight to its bank. Every gift gets an emailed receipt.

Can we sell tickets to the feast dinner or a pilgrimage?

Yes. Publish an event with a picture, a date and a price or free entry. Parishioners reserve or pay in the app, every guest gets their own ticket code and an Apple Wallet pass, and seats are counted as people book, so the hall is never oversold.

Can we send a message to every parishioner?

Yes. Write a notice once and it reaches every parishioner's phone as a push notification, in their own language. The parish can also see who will receive it before sending.

Can a diocese oversee its parishes?

Yes. A diocese (eparchy) can be given oversight of its parishes: it sees their activity, giving and statistics without editing what a parish publishes. Its staff and their roles are set up by YourParish.

Cost and getting started

How much does it cost?

The app is free for parishioners. A parish membership is US$100 a month and covers everything: the app, the website, giving, the store and tickets, with people on hand to help. There is no setup fee and no minimum term; it renews monthly until you cancel, which takes a minute in the admin. Charged to a card, in US dollars.

Who sets it up?

We do, with you. The parish's name, address, clergy and weekly services are entered for you before you sign in. After that a person, not a ticket queue or a chatbot, answers at any hour and will do the work with you if that is what it takes. Creating a parish publishes nothing and charges nothing until you have looked at it.

Does it replace our parish database or accounting software?

It is a different job. Parish database and accounting systems keep the office's records and books. YourParish is what parishioners actually use: the app in their pocket, the website, notifications, giving, tickets and requests, with the people and their gifts gathered on one page for the parish. Many parishes keep their accounting package and use YourParish for everything parishioners see. The guide to software for Orthodox parishes compares the kinds of tools in more detail.

What happens to our parishioners' data?

Personal data is used only to provide the service, and it is never sold or shared with advertisers. A parishioner can delete their account from the app at any time, and card numbers never reach YourParish's servers.

Is there a version for synagogues?

Yes: YourKehillah, at yourkehillah.com, is the same platform for synagogues and kehillot, with Shabbat times, prayer requests, lifecycle-event bookings, events and giving.