Mission Community

Privacy Policy for The United Benefice of Bradworthy (Mission Community)

This Privacy Policy explains how we, the United Benefice of Bradworthy, which includes the parishes of Abbots Bickington, Bradworthy, Bulkworthy, Bradford, Cookbury, Milton Damerel, Putford, Sutcombe, and Thornbury, collect, use, and protect your personal data in accordance with the UK Data Protection Act (DPA), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).

This policy is designed to inform you how we process your personal data, ensure its security, and outline your rights. We take your privacy seriously and will only use your personal data in accordance with this policy.

We are the United Benefice of Bradworthy, which includes several parishes. The main contact for any queries about this policy or your data is:

• Revd Mark James
• Telephone: 01409 251015
• Email: rector@bradworthybenefice.org
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We may collect and process the following personal data:

• Weddings: We collect ID information for wedding registration, including names, addresses, ID info such as Passport as well as contact details. The legal obligation is the basis for processing this data.
• Baptisms: For these events, we collect names, addresses, and contact details for administering records and correspondence.
• Funerals and General Contact: Name, address, and contact details for arranging funerals and maintaining communication.
• Banking Information: For regular giving or donations, we may collect banking details to administer financial transactions securely.
• Electoral Roll and Friends of the Benefice: We collect names and contact details for those on the electoral roll or those identified as "Friends of the Benefice" to communicate general interests, news, and events related to the benefice.
• Email Conversations: We may store your name and email address to correspond and respond to inquiries or share information such as our Link Magazine.

We comply with our obligations under the GDPR by:

• Keeping personal data up to date;
• Storing and destroying it securely;
• Not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data;
• Protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, and disclosure;
• Ensuring appropriate technical and organisational security measures are in place to protect your personal data.

We process your data for the following purposes:

• To provide voluntary services and pastoral care within our parishes;
• To administer records of marriages, baptisms, and funerals;
• To keep you informed of news, events, and services within the benefice, whether you are on the electoral roll or a “Friend of the Benefice”;
• To maintain financial records, including regular giving and gift aid applications;
• To comply with legal obligations related to weddings and other formal ceremonies.

We process your personal data on the following legal bases:

• Legal Obligation: For instances such as wedding registration, where we are required by law to collect and process certain information.
• Consent: For keeping you informed about church activities, events, or newsletters where you have provided your explicit consent.
• Legitimate Interest: For church-related activities, such as responding to inquiries, providing pastoral care, and communicating news and events, where we have a clear, lawful purpose.

Your personal data will be treated as confidential and will only be shared with members of the church for purposes directly related to church activities or administration. We will not share your information with third parties outside of the church without your explicit consent, unless required by law or we have identified a clear legitimate reason to do so,, for example. cateres when you want us to organise that as part of your Church event.

We take the security of your personal data seriously. We have implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your information from unauthorised access, loss, or disclosure. These measures include secure storage systems and limited access to your data.

We only keep your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected. Specifically:

• Marriage and Baptism Records: Kept permanently as part of the Church of England’s legal requirements although a lot of the info provided such as address and ID records are deleted within 12 months.
• Funeral Contact Information: Retained as long as necessary to maintain pastoral contact.
• Banking and Regular Giving Information: Retained as long as necessary for financial administration. (typically 7 years)
• Email Communication Data: Retained as long as necessary for communication purposes unless you chose to opt out, at which point data is held on our dupression records only. 
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For further details on data retention, you can refer to the Church of England’s Record Management Guides: Church of England Records Management.

You have the following rights concerning your personal data:

• Access: You can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correction: You can ask us to correct any inaccuracies in your personal data.
• Deletion: You can request the deletion of your personal data where it is no longer necessary for us to retain it.
• Objection: You can object to the processing of your data under certain circumstances.
• Withdraw Consent: You can withdraw your consent to processing where applicable.
• Complaint: You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you feel we are not handling your data lawfully.

For more information or to make a complaint, contact the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO): www.ico.org.uk.

We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. Any updates will be posted on our website.