Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how personal information is handled when you visit the Apostolic Old Catholic Mission website, contact us, donate, subscribe, apply for or take part in Institute of Ministry formation, or use our related digital services. We seek to treat every person’s information with care, restraint, and respect.

1. Who is responsible for your information

Apostolic Old Catholic Mission NPC, registration number 2025/038188/08, is responsible for the personal information covered by this Policy. The Apostolic Old Catholic Mission is the church body. The Institute of Ministry is the educational and formation body. Where the Institute processes learner, applicant, mentor, assessor, or programme information, it does so within the NPC’s governance and administration.

For privacy questions, requests, objections, or complaints, write to support@apostolicoldcatholic.org. Please use the subject line “Privacy request” and tell us how we may verify your identity and respond safely.

Our current contact address is 15 Rhodes Avenue, Qumrha, Eastern Cape, South Africa, 4950.

The Mission’s Information Officer is Ashley Rodney Deutschmann. Privacy and access-to-information requests may be sent to support@apostolicoldcatholic.org.

2. Our approach and the laws that may apply

We apply the principles of lawfulness, fairness, transparency, purpose limitation, data minimisation, accuracy, security, and accountability. This Policy is intended to support compliance with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA), the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (PAIA), the UK GDPR and EU GDPR where they apply, and other mandatory privacy or consumer laws. Nothing in this Policy removes a right that mandatory law gives you.

Availability of this website in a country does not, by itself, determine which laws apply. EU and UK rules can apply because of an establishment, offering services to people there, or relevant monitoring. Other national and regional requirements depend on our activities and the people affected.

3. Information we collect

We collect only information that is reasonably needed for the service or relationship concerned. Depending on your dealings with us, this may include your name, contact details, correspondence, enquiry or donation details, account and transaction records, newsletter preferences, and technical information such as IP address, browser, device, cookies, and security logs.

For Institute of Ministry formation, we may also collect an application, eligibility and identity information, enrolment and attendance records, learning activity, submitted work, assessment and moderation records, feedback, communications, approved adjustments, and award or certificate records. We do not require special personal information merely to browse the website or make an ordinary enquiry.

In limited circumstances, information about religious belief, health, disability, safeguarding, pastoral need, or another sensitive matter may be volunteered or may be necessary to provide a requested adjustment, protect a person, meet a legal duty, or administer a formation process fairly. We will limit access to this information, use it only for the stated and lawful purpose, and apply the additional safeguards required by law. Pastoral communications are treated with particular care; however, confidentiality is not absolute where disclosure is required by law or is necessary to address a serious and immediate risk of harm.

4. Why we use information and our lawful grounds

We use personal information to answer enquiries; provide worship, pastoral, educational, membership, donation, and website services; administer applications, enrolment, assessment, awards, complaints, and appeals; communicate essential programme or account information; protect people and systems; keep appropriate records; meet legal obligations; and improve our services.

Where applicable, we rely on one or more lawful grounds: your consent; steps requested before entering a contract or performance of a contract; compliance with a legal obligation; protection of vital interests; legitimate interests pursued responsibly and balanced against your rights; or a lawful condition for religious, educational, safeguarding, or special personal information. We will ask for clear consent where consent is the appropriate ground. You may withdraw consent at any time, although this will not affect processing already carried out lawfully.

Ordinary contact messages

We receive the details you type into the contact form: your name, email address, topic and message. Providing them is voluntary, but we need a reply address and enough information to answer you. You may instead contact us by email or WhatsApp. The form does not save a draft or subscribe you to newsletters.

For an ordinary enquiry, we rely on our legitimate interest in answering correspondence and administering the Mission, balanced against your rights; contractual steps apply instead where you specifically request them. Essential security checks support the legitimate interest in protecting this service from abuse. A notice acknowledgement is not marketing consent. Optional analytics and newsletter subscription require separate choices.

Religious belief, health and other special personal information need an additional lawful condition. Religious or non-profit status is not blanket permission to collect or share it. Please keep your initial contact message to what is necessary. If sensitive information is needed, we will explain the purpose and appropriate lawful condition and arrange a suitable way to provide it.

5. Marketing, cookies, and automated tools

Newsletter: We use your email address to send Mission news, reflections and announcements only after you opt in and confirm by email. You may also provide your first and last name; both are optional and are used to address newsletters to you when supplied. We record your signup time, the version of the consent wording, confirmation time, website source, subscription status, and any unsubscribe time. Your email address, any names you provide, and subscription records are kept in protected website storage and synchronised with Resend to manage delivery and suppression. Resend may process them in its account region or another country under its service arrangements. You can unsubscribe using the link in any newsletter or by contacting support@apostolicoldcatholic.org. We retain a suppression record after you unsubscribe so that your choice is respected and accidental re-subscription is prevented.

We use cookies and similar technologies for essential website functions, security, preferences, and, where you allow them, analytics or other optional services. Please see our Cookie Policy and the cookie controls presented to you for further detail.

We do not make decisions based solely on automated processing that produce legal or similarly significant effects for you. Limited automated tools may help us manage subscriptions, detect abuse, organise routine communications, or support website security. A person may ask us to review a decision where applicable law gives that right.

6. Who receives information

Information is available only to people who need it for a proper purpose: authorised officers, staff, volunteers, tutors, assessors, moderators, mentors, or advisers, each subject to an appropriate duty of confidentiality. We use carefully selected service providers for matters such as website hosting, learning systems, email, communications, payment processing, security, and professional support. They may process information only on our instructions or as otherwise permitted by law.

We do not sell or rent personal information. We may disclose information where you ask us to, where it is necessary for the service, where law requires it, or where disclosure is necessary to prevent or investigate fraud, abuse, safeguarding concerns, or serious harm.

Providers and linked services

Cloudflare provides website hosting, protected storage and Turnstile spam protection. Resend provides delivery of service emails and, when you subscribe, Mission newsletters. The information processed depends on the service you use. Turnstile processes technical browser and network information to check for automated abuse. The verification token is separate from your message; the Mission's verification request does not send your form answers to Turnstile. See Cloudflare's privacy information and Resend's privacy information.

Google Analytics is optional and is not loaded on contact, pastoral-request, private enquiry, return-link or owner pages. WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube open only when you follow their links; their providers then apply their own terms and privacy practices. We do not embed their tracking widgets in these contact links. Institute, document-delivery and donation destinations have their own service notices.

If you deliberately select an automatic translation, your browser opens a public information page through Google Translate. Google may receive your IP address and the page URL and applies its own privacy terms. Automatic text may be incomplete or inaccurate. Please use the English website for forms, private services, official notices and governance. Links to these journeys return to the English site, and forms on translated pages remain inactive.

7. International processing

Our ministry and formation work are international. Information may be accessed or processed in countries other than the country where you live, including where a service provider operates its systems. International transfers must meet POPIA section 72 and, where applicable, EU or UK international-transfer requirements. The safeguards required depend on the destination, provider and information involved. You may ask the privacy contact for details of the safeguards applicable to your information.

8. Retention and security

We keep information for no longer than is reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, for legal obligations, and for legitimate record-keeping. Ordinary contact and pastoral enquiries not marked Keep are deleted from the website database after 24 months without activity. Formation enquiries not marked Keep are deleted after seven years without activity. Saved but unsubmitted drafts are deleted after 30 days. The Mission may mark records Keep when a legal, pastoral or safeguarding duty requires longer retention, and can remove the Keep mark when it is no longer needed. Learning, assessment, and programme records are normally retained for seven years after the learner’s last substantive activity. The minimum details needed to verify a genuine award or certificate may be retained indefinitely. Financial records are kept for the period required by applicable law. Safeguarding, disciplinary, and pastoral records receive restricted access, regular review, and a retention period proportionate to their purpose and any legal duty.

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect information, including access controls, least-privilege access, secure service providers, backups, and procedures for responding to suspected incidents. No online system can be guaranteed completely secure. We will assess suspected unauthorised access or acquisition promptly and notify the Information Regulator, affected people and any other competent authority whenever the relevant law requires it, using the applicable legal trigger and deadline. POPIA notification duties are not limited to breaches we consider materially harmful.

9. Your privacy rights

Subject to applicable law and necessary verification, you may ask to know whether we hold information about you; request access, correction, deletion, restriction, objection, or portability where those rights apply; withdraw consent; object to direct marketing; and complain to the appropriate supervisory authority. We will normally respond to a privacy request within one calendar month, or sooner where law requires. If we need more time or cannot fulfil a request, we will explain why and tell you about any available review or complaint route.

To keep everyone’s information safe, we may ask for reasonable proof of identity and may withhold or redact information where disclosure would unlawfully affect another person, confidentiality, safeguarding, legal privilege, or another protected interest.

You may complain directly to South Africa's Information Regulator: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za, telephone +27 10 023 5200. Where EU or UK law applies, you may also contact your competent EU supervisory authority or the UK Information Commissioner's Office. You do not have to complete our internal complaint process first.

10. PAIA access-to-information requests

You may request access to records held by the NPC under PAIA. Send a written request to support@apostolicoldcatholic.org, marked “PAIA request”, with enough detail to identify the record, your contact details, the capacity in which you make the request, and any preferred form of access. We will deal with the request under PAIA and POPIA, including any prescribed form, verification, time limit, fee notice, grounds for refusal, and internal or external remedy that applies. A request does not guarantee access; we will give reasons where law permits or requires us to withhold a record.

This privacy policy is not a substitute for the NPC’s PAIA manual. Prescribed guidance and forms are available from the Information Regulator’s PAIA resources.

11. Children and young people

Our website is not designed to collect personal information from children without appropriate involvement of a parent, guardian, or other lawful authority. Institute programmes have their own published eligibility requirements. If you believe that a child’s information has been provided to us improperly, please contact us promptly.

Our website may link to third-party websites or services. Their privacy practices are their own, and you should read their notices before providing information. We may update this Policy when our practices or the law change. Material changes will be posted here with a revised version and effective date.

Related policies include our Terms and Conditions, Cookie Policy, and Institute Formation Policies.

Location map and optional street detail

The map outline, location pins and directory are hosted with this website. On the embedded Federation and Mission map, streets and place names load only after a visitor chooses them in the translated privacy notice. Until then, no OpenStreetMap tiles are requested. If accepted, the visitor’s browser requests tiles from the OpenStreetMap Foundation, an independent data controller. It may receive the visitor’s IP address, browser and device information, referring page and requested map tiles. The selection is not stored and can be withdrawn by hiding street detail; earlier requests cannot be undone. Read the OpenStreetMap Foundation privacy policy. Loading an embedded map also requests its hosted page and location details from the Apostolic Old Catholic Mission website. The website’s Imprint identifies the Information Officer and access-to-information contact.