EZRA - Parish Management Software

EZRA is a parish management software that automates the various functions performed by a parish priest and the vestry. It helps better data management and easier accessibility to all information related to the parish.
History of Record Management in Parish
A Parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central Parish church with its associated organisation. A registry for baptism was initiated by Cardinal Ximenes in 1497. Following the split with Rome in 1538, English King Henry VIII's Vicar General Thomas Cromwell ordered that every parish priest must keep a record of the marriages, baptisms and deaths in the parish. The book was to be kept in a "sure coffer" with two locks. Although the order was issued then, it was only in 1598 that proper book-keeping was followed in the churches.
During the English Civil War and Commonwealth period, there were widespread irregularities in the maintenance of these records. In 1812 an "Act for the better regulating and preserving Parish and other Registers of Birth, Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, in England" (Rose's Act) was passed. It stated that "amending the Manner and Form of keeping and of preserving Registers of Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials of His Majesty's Subjects in the several Parishes and Places in England, will greatly facilitate the Proof of Pedigrees of Persons claiming to be entitled to Real or Personal Estates, and otherwise of great public Benefit and Advantage". In the United States, at least the parishes in the Roman Catholic dioceses maintained a similar practice of recording baptisms, marriages, burials, and often also confirmations and first communions.
Various components covered by the EZRA
EZRA is a windows application aimed at automation of the functions of a parish. It empowers the parish staff to keep families informed, active, and connected to the church. Easy to use features provide innovative ways to save time, maintain church records, and track funds and finances.
Some of the functions automated by the software are:
* MINISTRY AND EVENT SCHEDULER
A facility that helps in organising anything from simple one-time events to complex multi-year events like Liturgy and Sacraments, Faith Formation, Parish Events etc. using multiple facilities.
* SACRAMENTAL REGISTERS
Provides a searchable electronic database of all the sacramental records. This will store and display Baptism, Confirmation, First Communion, Marriage, and Death records in a format similar to the physical registers. The search helps in finding people even if the information known is very less.
* FAMILY REGISTERS
An electronic register of all the families under the parish, the members of these families, their age, address, ethnicity, sacramental details, contacts and every other information that might be needed.
* HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
One of the toughest tasks in any organisation is the management of human resource. Ezra offers a helping hand in this by providing exclusive functionality for the human resource management of the parish like the Clergy, Office Staff, Volunteers, Parish Council,Committees etc..
* FACILITIES MANAGEMENT
All the facilities of the parish such as Parish Hall, Car Park, Other Facilities are properly managed with facilities for booking, approval etc..
* PARISH GROUPS
An elegant way to manage the groups within a parish like UCM to Youth Group, Knights of St Columba to SVP .
* FINANCE
Provides a ledger which is a complete accounting solution for parish churches. Gift Aids, Regular Donations, Sunday Collection, Special Collections are all managed properly with complete data security.
* EDUCATIONAL SERVICES
The perfect solution when it comes to managing Schools, Governing Bodies, Teachers, School Chaplaincy etc..maintained by the church.
Fr John, a Parish Priest from St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Wembley HA9 6AG,Archdiocese of Westminster, which is using EZRA says,
"EZRA is an amazing software solution for the parishes; EZRA reduced the workload of our parish team. We digitized the sacramental registers since 1903 and made an electronic database in EZRA; now we can simply search the registers in our computers using keywords like name, surname or date. The electronic Family Register is also very helpful as the information about each family is at the fingertip. EZRA is a blessing since you don't need to know anything about computers except how to click a mouse!"

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