Emmaus Church Privacy Policy

Who we are

Emmaus Church, Severn Beach is a group of people ‘which aim to make disciples of Jesus, live as Christian community and reach out to transform society.’ Emmaus Church is a registered charity and governed by a leadership team and trustees.

We are based at Emmaus Church Centre, 2 Gorse Cover Road, Severn Beach, Bristol BS35 4NP.

Your personal information will be held by Emmaus Church (We, us, our). The law in the UK requires us to manage personal information in accordance with data protection principles. This notice tells you what personal information we collect, how we use it, who we may share it with, steps we take to protect and secure it, your rights under data protection law and finally, how you can contact us with questions or concerns.

We are committed to the privacy of the personal information that is entrusted to us and we want to ensure you can exercise your privacy rights.

What personal information we may hold about you.

We use a wide range of personal information about you that we have put into the following categories:

· Contact - Information we can use to make contact with you and where you live.

· Transactional - Information relating to payments, credit and debit payments.

· Consents - Information relating to permissions, consents and contact preferences.

· Disclosure & Baring Service (DBS) Checks - Information relating to checks completed on individuals within the church who work with children

· Groups you attend - Information relating to your attendance of various groups run by Emmaus Church (for example, Home Groups, ‘Yorkie’ Group etc)

· Giving / Gift Aid - Information relating to the money you give to church and where relevant our engagement with the HMRC to claim back tax via the gift aid process.

Where we collect personal information from

We may collect personal information about you from the following sources:

· In application forms you complete, from emails and letters you send us, when registering for events, courses and special events.

· The Disclosure & Baring Service (DBS) when you ask to work with children or vulnerable adults.

What we use your personal information for

We will use your personal information for the following purposes:

· Managing our relationship with you, including administering membership records;

· Responding to your enquiries and complaints;

· Running the church in an effective way, including managing finance, maintaining accounts and records, planning, charity governance and audits;

· Notifying you about either important changes or developments;

· Updating, consolidating, and improving the accuracy of our records;

· Informing you of news, events, activities and associated ministries;

· Ensuring we comply with the law for example when responding to court orders, or legal processes; to establish or exercise our legal rights or, defend against legal claims;

· To investigate, prevent or detect crime or illegal activities and situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person;

and · HM Revenue & Customs or other authorities require it Recipients of personal information

When we use your personal information in the ways described above, we may need to share it with other organisations outside our group of churches, as detailed below:

· HM Revenue & Customs or other lawful authorities;

· Our agents, service providers, contractors and others involved in running church events and activities;

· Banks and other debit/credit card providers when managing payments or refunds.

We will never sell your personal information to third parties. Using your personal information to keep in contact with you Emmaus Church will use your personal information to keep in touch with you, for example providing updates on church life including news about special events, services, courses, highlighting ways you can engage in church life and general information which we believe will be of interest to you.

We will not contact you if you have asked us not to. You can ask us to stop sending you communications or change your contact preferences at any time by contacting us, using any convenient means. We will not provide information about you to other organisations or churches unless you have given us your explicit consent to do so.

How long will we retain your personal information?

We will continue to hold your personal information for as long as you wish to maintain a relationship with us. You also have the right to ask us to delete your personal information if you believe we no longer have a valid reason to continue holding it

Confidentiality and security of personal information

The security of your personal information is of paramount importance to us and we use a wide range of technical and security measures to safeguard it, including physical, electronic, and procedural controls. From time to time we may publish photographs or video, captured at church events and meetings, on our websites or social media to help publicise events or demonstrate church life. We do not normally process personal information when using such content, but nonetheless want to provide you with the opportunity to object if you would rather not have images of yourself used in this way. Please email us or write to us at our registered address to object.

We will ask for your explicit consent when displaying your name alongside any such content.

 Obtaining a copy of your personal information

You have the right of access copies of the personal information we hold about you by writing to us at:

Mr J Miller Emmaus Church Centre c/o Salthouse Farm Shaft Road, Severn Beach Bristol BS35 4NH

If any personal information is inaccurate or incorrect, please let us know and we will correct it.

Other important rights

You have the following additional rights:

1. The right to request that we correct any personal information if it is found to be inaccurate.

2. The right to request that your personal information is erased where we no longer have a valid basis to continue processing it.

3. The right to withdraw your consent to us to process your personal information.

4. The right to object to the processing of personal information in certain limited circumstances.

5. The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

To exercise any of your Rights please contact us by email or by writing to us at our registered address.

Contacting us about privacy concerns

If you have a privacy concern regarding Emmaus Church, or this Privacy Policy, and if you cannot satisfactorily resolve it, you should contact us using the contact page link, email or by writing to us at our registered address

In some instances, honouring your requests (for example requesting that we erase your personal information) may preclude your ability to receive information about the church and its activities.

You can also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office on 0303 123 1113, via email (see https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/or in writing at The Information Commissioners Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 5AF.

 Changes to the Privacy Policy

 If there is ever a change to how we use or intend to use your personal information, we will post that change to this policy and, where necessary, we will seek your consent to such new uses. We keep our privacy policy under regular review. This policy was last updated on 16th May 2018