Forest Hill Christadelphians Privacy Notices
Forest Hill Christadelphian Ecclesia statement on use of personal data
As a religious body and charity Forest Hill Christadelphians use personally-identifiable information to further our charitable aims of promoting the Christadelphian faith. The data we hold on you depends on whether you are a member of our Ecclesia, a member of another Christadelphian Ecclesia, or a member of the public (using our website, attending one of our services or on our mailing list to receive pamphlets, magazines or other relevant material).
(The term Ecclesia is derived from the Greek, and is used by Christadelphians to describe the whole group of baptised believers based at a particular location; the meaning is similar to the word congregation used by many other churches, but as Christadelphian worship involves lay preachers rather than a paid priesthood, the term ecclesia includes all those who are members of the church, regardless of role).
In all cases, the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), which came into force on 25th May 2018, require organisations such as ours to ensure that you are happy with how we store and use any information we hold on you. You have a number of rights under the GDPR, in particular to be informed what your data are being used for; to access, rectify errors in, and/or erase your data; to request copies of your data to move to other organisations; to restrict your data being processed in certain ways, and to object to how your data are being used. You also have the right to know whether your data are being used in any automated decision making and profiling.
As a religious body, some of the information we hold on people is classified by the GDPR as sensitive, as it concerns people's religious beliefs; the GDPR require us to be particularly careful about how we store and process such information, and the ways in which we get people's permission to do this.
Members of the public
If you visit us at one of our services, we will not normally request any personal details unless you ask us to keep in touch with you (e.g. to send you leaflets, magazines, or details of our religious services).
Our website does not use cookies to track you in any way, and if you contact us through the website, by email, or by post we will only use your contact details to provide the services you have requested. (Please note that, for technical reasons, the internet address associated with your computer may be temporarily stored by our web server. We will not make use of this information in any way that might identify you).
When you request something from us, then with our reply we will include a form asking you to tell us whether you are happy for us to us to retain your contact information; if you consent to this, we will hold this information for up to 5 years, at which point we will contact you again to check if you are still happy to hear from us. If you tell us you don't want us to retain your contact information (or if you don't reply) we will delete your details as soon as we have dealt with your initial request. The only information we will store about you will be your name and, if you provide these, your postal and/or email address. We will only transfer these details to another organisation in order to provide you with the information you have requested (for example by asking another Christadelphian organisation to send you a booklet) and we will never do so without specifically asking your permission.
We will never automatically process your information in any way.
You can contact us at any time and ask to review, update or delete the details we hold on you.
Members of Forest Hill Christadelphian Ecclesia
We hold a range of personal data on members of the ecclesia in order to provide the services that ecclesial members expect. Specifically, our membership list (which includes your contact details, and implicitly records religious belief) is used to update you about religious services and other activities you may be interested in, and to contact you about other membership-related issues, including requests to undertake specific duties. We may also use these details for pastoral reasons, for example to check on your health and wellbeing and that of your family members.
We will hold your membership details indefinitely, in case you in the future wish to claim conscientious objection to military service or other similar duties, should these be proposed by the government of the day. (In order validate such claims, it is likely you would be required to demonstrate the length of time for which you have been bone fide adherents to the Christadelphian faith, being a member of Forest Hill and other ecclesias, making such record keeping essential).
As a not-for-profit religious organisation, the GDPR allow us to store and use your membership details without your explicit consent, as long as we do not share these details with other organisations. (In GDPR terminology, we have a legitimate interest). If we need to pass on your details (for example to the Christadelphian Office, or another Christadelphian body (COVID-19 update (June 2020): or the NHS or other organisation in order to aid COVID-19 tracing)) we will ask for your explicit permission before doing so.
Our website does not use cookies to track you in any way, but please note that, for technical reasons, the internet address associated with your computer may be temporarily stored by our web server. We will not make use of this information in any way that might identify you.
We will never automatically process your information in any way.
You can contact us at any time and ask to review, update or delete the details we hold on you.
Members of other Christadelphian Ecclesias
If you attend one of our services, we will ask you which Ecclesia you are visiting from. We will use this information in order to let our members know who is visiting on a particular day. We will also ask for your permission to record this information and store it indefinitely. We will do this in case you in the future wish to claim conscientious objection to military service or other similar duties, should these be proposed by the government of the day. (In order validate such claims, it is likely you would be required to demonstrate the length of time for which you have been bone fide adherents to the Christadelphian faith, attending religious services at Forest Hill and elsewhere, making such record keeping essential). As this information inherently reveals your religious beliefs (i.e. your Christadelphian faith), which is classified as sensitive personal information under the GDPR, we will ask for your explicit consent for this. If you do not wish to give such consent, you are of course still very welcome to take part in the service, and we will not record or announce your details.
Similarly, if you are a visiting speaker at Forest Hill (or perform other duties for us), we will ask for your explicit consent to retain your contact details, as your work with us inherently reveals your Christadelphian faith. If you consent to this, we will hold this information for up to 5 years, at which point we will contact you again to check if you are still happy for us to remain in contact.
Our website does not use cookies to track you in any way, and if you contact us through the website, by email, or by post we will only use the details you provide to respond to your specific request. (Please note that, for technical reasons, the internet address associated with your computer may be temporarily stored by our web server. We will not make use of this information in any way that might identify you).
The only information we will store about you will be your name, your ecclesia, and, if you provide these, your postal and/or email address. We will only transfer these details to another organisation (for example the Christadelphian Military Services Committee) if you request us to, and we will never do so without specifically asking your permission.
We will never automatically process your information in any way.
You can contact us at any time and ask to review, update or delete the details we hold on you.
Complaints
If you have a query or complaint about how we handle your personal data, you can contact our Data Protection Officer, Mr Gareth Barker GDPR@foresthillchristadelphians.org and ask him to investigate.
If you still have any concerns, you can also contact the Information Commissions Office (ICO) helpline on 0303 123 1113.