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Church of England
UK News

Alexa helps Church of England engage with tens of thousands

Since last year, the devices, which allow users to ask 'Alexa' to play music, do the shopping or give trivia, can now say prayers, answer questions on faith and even tell you where your nearest church is.

Over the past twelve months, 75,000 questions have been asked to the Church.

Unpacking the figures on Premier's News Hour, the Church of England's head of digital Adrian Harris, said: "We've been thrilled with the number of people that have used the skill over the last year, and also the really broad range of users that have engaged with it from people who perhaps can't get to church, the older generations, but also families, and those who are open and exploring their faith."

The skill has a score of 4.2 out of five stars on the official store.

New data has revealed requests are more frequent in the evening and the most common made to Alexa are to say a prayer or explore the Christian faith.

The Church is now developing new content to meet the needs of users.

Explaining further, Adrian Harris said: "I think one of the really interesting trends we've seen is how people are using it to access daily content - not just prayers, but also daily reflections, which are three to four minute pieces with a prayer, a reflection and a Bible passage especially throughout Lent and Easter.

"The Church's Alexa skill has been developed by Church House Publishing and the Church of England digital team. We're excited about the Thy Kingdom resource launching on the platform later this week."

To enable the skill, users need to say. "Alexa, open the Church of England".

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