Terms and Conditions

Version 2.0 | Effective 18 July 2026 | Supersedes the Terms and Conditions dated 24 December 2025

These Terms govern your use of this website and, where applicable, your enquiries, donations, applications, enrolment, and participation in the Institute of Ministry’s courses and formation programmes. Please read them alongside our Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, and Institute Formation Policies.

1. The church body, the Institute, and the NPC

The Apostolic Old Catholic Mission is the church body. The Institute of Ministry is the educational and formation body. Apostolic Old Catholic Mission NPC, registration number 2025/038188/08, administers the website, digital services, Institute records, and programme operations described in these Terms, unless a course page clearly identifies another provider. This distinction does not diminish the pastoral character of our work; it makes responsibilities clear.

2. Using the website

You may use the website lawfully and respectfully for its intended purposes. You must not interfere with its security or operation, attempt unauthorised access, use automated means to harvest information without permission, upload malicious material, impersonate another person, or use the website in a way that infringes another person’s rights or harms the Mission, the Institute, or others.

Website information is provided in good faith and may be updated without notice. We take reasonable care, but do not promise that every page will always be complete, current, error-free, or available. Links to third-party services are provided for convenience and do not mean that we control or endorse them.

3. Enquiries, donations, and communications

When you contact us or donate, please provide accurate information. A donation is voluntary and does not create entitlement to a sacrament, ministry role, course place, pastoral decision, or other benefit. If a payment error occurs, contact us promptly so that we may consider it fairly and in accordance with applicable law and the payment provider’s procedures.

4. Institute of Ministry programmes

Programme pages set out the particular course description, eligibility requirements, schedule, fee, learning outcomes, assessment arrangements, and award status. The Institute may reasonably amend a timetable, tutor, learning activity, platform, or resource where this is necessary for quality, safeguarding, accessibility, law, or circumstances beyond its control. We will give affected learners reasonable notice and seek a fair practical solution where a material change affects them.

Admission is not automatic. A place may be offered, deferred, declined, suspended, or withdrawn only on grounds set out in the applicable programme and Formation Policies, including eligibility, capacity, payment, academic integrity, safeguarding, conduct, or a material misrepresentation. Decisions must be proportionate, documented, and subject to the complaints and appeals process where that process applies.

5. Enrolment, fees, cancellation, and consumer rights

By enrolling, you confirm that information you provide is accurate and that you will comply with these Terms and the Formation Policies. Fees, payment dates, instalment options, and any programme-specific refund terms will be displayed before payment. If you receive immediate access to digital course content during a statutory cooling-off period, we will seek the express acknowledgement required by applicable law. Nothing in these Terms excludes a non-waivable consumer, cancellation, refund, or remedy right.

If you need to defer, withdraw, or request a refund, contact the Institute promptly at admin@apostolicoldcatholic.org. We will decide each request according to the published programme terms, work already supplied, reasonable administrative costs, and mandatory law. A learner may not transfer a place or course access to another person without written permission.

6. Learner conduct, assessment, and academic integrity

Formation depends upon truthfulness, charity, discipline, and respect. Learners must engage honestly, protect confidential information shared in a learning or pastoral setting, treat others with dignity, and follow reasonable safeguarding, conduct, and platform directions. Harassment, discrimination, threats, exploitation, plagiarism, contract cheating, falsification, unauthorised collaboration, or misuse of another person’s work are not permitted.

Assessment work must be your own unless the task expressly permits collaboration or assistance. You may use an artificial-intelligence or other digital tool only where the task permits it, and you must disclose its use accurately. Submitting generated, purchased, copied, or materially assisted work as your own is academic misconduct. The Institute will consider context, evidence, proportionality, and any accessibility need before deciding an academic-integrity matter. The procedure, possible outcomes, and appeal route are set out in the Formation Policies.

7. Awards, records, and verification

An award or certificate is issued only when the published academic, administrative, and financial requirements have been met. It records successful completion of the stated programme; it does not guarantee ordination, employment, licence, incardination, ministry placement, academic-credit recognition, immigration status, or acceptance by another church, jurisdiction, school, employer, or regulator.

We may correct an administrative error or investigate a certificate obtained through fraud, material misrepresentation, or serious academic misconduct. Any suspension, amendment, or revocation will follow a fair process with written reasons and an opportunity to respond or appeal where appropriate. We may retain minimum award-verification data as explained in the Privacy Policy.

8. Intellectual property and permitted use

Unless another notice says otherwise, website and Institute materials are owned by or licensed to the NPC and are protected by applicable intellectual-property law. Enrolment gives you a personal, limited, non-transferable permission to use course materials for your own learning during the period stated for the programme. You may not reproduce, publish, sell, share, upload, record, translate, adapt, or make course materials available to others without written permission, except where law permits or a resource expressly allows it.

You retain ownership of your original work, but grant the Institute a limited licence to store, assess, moderate, provide feedback on, and retain it for legitimate programme, quality, and record-keeping purposes. We will not publish identifiable learner work without permission, except where law requires or permits disclosure.

9. Pastoral, theological, and professional boundaries

Website and course content is offered for worship, learning, formation, and general information. It is not a substitute for emergency services, medical care, mental-health care, legal advice, financial advice, or a professional safeguarding assessment. If you or another person is in immediate danger, contact local emergency services. A pastoral conversation or participation in a programme does not by itself create a therapeutic, legal, employment, fiduciary, or professional-client relationship.

10. Privacy, safeguarding, complaints, and appeals

We handle personal information under the Privacy Policy. Safeguarding concerns, learner support, complaints, and academic or administrative appeals are dealt with under the Institute Formation Policies. We will seek to address concerns promptly, fairly, and without retaliation. A complaint or appeal will not be decided solely by the person whose decision is being challenged where a separate reviewer can reasonably be appointed.

11. Liability and applicable law

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the NPC is not liable for indirect or consequential loss arising from use of the website or a programme, nor for loss caused by circumstances reasonably outside its control. Nothing limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including liability for fraud or a mandatory statutory right.

These Terms are governed by the mandatory laws that apply to the relevant relationship. Where a choice of law is permitted, South African law applies. Any disagreement should first be raised with us in good faith; this does not prevent either party from using a regulator, consumer body, court, or other remedy that mandatory law makes available.

12. Changes and contact

We may update these Terms when our services, policies, or the law change. Material changes will be posted here with a revised version and effective date. If you have a question, please write to admin@apostolicoldcatholic.org.