Terms of Use

1. Introduction and Acceptance

Coptic Leader (the "Service") is a ministry-coordination application created, owned, and operated by St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church of Washington, D.C. (the "Church," "we," "us," or "our"). The Service is a ministry of the Church. It is not operated by a separate business entity, no such entity has been formed for it, and the Church is accountable for its operation.

These Terms of Use (these "Terms") govern your access to and use of the Service in each form in which it is made available, including the iOS application, the Android application, and the associated web properties. By accepting these Terms at the enrollment prompt, or by accessing or using the Service, you agree to be bound by them. If you do not agree to these Terms, you may not use the Service.

These Terms constitute an agreement between you and the Church. Where a church other than the Church uses the Service, that church's own policies may also apply to its volunteers in addition to these Terms.

2. Definitions

The following terms have the meanings set out below. They are the same defined terms used in the Privacy Policy.

• "Authorized User" means an adult volunteer or leader to whom a Coordinator has issued an account for the purpose of serving in a ministry.
• "Child Record" means information concerning a minor served by a ministry, entered into the Service by an Authorized User.
• "Coordinator" means an Authorized User who holds administrative responsibility for a ministry, including responsibility for creating and deactivating accounts.
• "Personal Information" means information that identifies, relates to, describes, or is reasonably capable of being associated with an identified or identifiable individual.
• "Your Content" means the records, text, files, photographs, and other material that you enter into or upload to the Service.

3. Eligibility and Accounts

3.1 Eligibility. You must be at least eighteen (18) years of age and authorized by your ministry to use the Service. The Service is intended for adult volunteers and leaders. It is not directed to children, children do not hold accounts, and children do not sign in.

3.2 How accounts are created. Accounts are issued by a Coordinator. There is no public registration and no self-service sign-up. Your right to use the Service exists only for so long as your ministry authorizes it.

3.3 Account security. The Service maintains no passwords and no personal identification numbers. You sign in using a one-time code sent to your email address, or using your Apple or Google account. You are responsible for maintaining control of the email account and the identity provider accounts linked to your account, and for all activity occurring under your account. You must notify us promptly, at the address in Section 16, of any unauthorized use of your account.

3.4 One person, one account. Your account is personal to you. You may not share your account, permit another person to sign in as you, or use the account of another person.

4. The Service

4.1 What the Service provides. The Service provides ministry-coordination functions to churches and their Authorized Users, including scheduling, attendance, lesson administration and lesson materials, messaging, outreach, events, announcements, polls, and transportation coordination.

4.2 No charge. The Service is made available to Authorized Users without charge. No fee is payable by you for access to the Service, and the Service contains no advertising and no in-application purchases.

4.3 Changes to the Service. We may add, modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Service. Where a change materially reduces a function on which ministries rely, we will give reasonable notice within the Service before the change takes effect.

4.4 Access is scoped. Access within the Service is determined by your ministry role and by the classes or groups to which you are assigned. The absence of a control in the interface is not permission to obtain the underlying information by other means.

5. Your Responsibilities for Information You Enter

This Section is the principal obligation you undertake in return for access to the Service. By entering information into the Service, you represent, warrant, and agree that:

1. you are authorized by your ministry to enter and to access that information;
2. your ministry holds all necessary rights, permissions, and consents to provide it, including any parental or guardian consent required in respect of a Child Record;
3. you will use information concerning children and families only for legitimate ministry purposes, and will not export, publish, or otherwise disclose it except as your ministry directs;
4. the information you enter is, to the best of your knowledge, accurate, and you will correct it when you learn that it is not; and
5. your use of the Service complies with applicable law and with the policies of your church.

You acknowledge that a Child Record may contain sensitive information, including allergies and medical notes, and you agree to treat it with corresponding care. You remain responsible for the confidentiality of information you view, download, export, or reproduce outside the Service, including on any device or printed copy.

6. Acceptable Use

You will not, and will not attempt to:

1. access any information you are not authorized to access, including the records of a class, ministry, or church other than your own;
2. probe, scan, or test the security of the Service, or circumvent any authentication, access-control, or rate-limiting measure, without our prior written authorization;
3. upload or transmit content that is unlawful, defamatory, harassing, abusive, obscene, or infringing of the rights of another;
4. use the Service to harass, endanger, or exploit any person, or to contact a child or a family for any purpose other than legitimate ministry purposes;
5. impersonate any person, or misrepresent your ministry role or your authority;
6. interfere with the operation of the Service, including by automated access, scraping, or the introduction of malicious code; or
7. reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble any part of the Service, except to the extent that applicable law prohibits that restriction.

Conduct of the kind described in this Section may result in suspension or termination under Section 9 and, where warranted, in referral to your church or to the appropriate authorities.

7. Privacy and Data Protection

Our handling of Personal Information is described in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms.

Each church that uses the Service determines what information is collected concerning its community and for what purposes, and is accordingly responsible for that information as its controller. The operator of the Service holds and processes that information on the church's instructions, in the role of a processor or service provider. At present those two roles are held by the same body, because the Church both operates the Service and is the only church using it. Upon the admission of any further church, that church would control the information concerning its own community and the Church would process it only on that church's instructions and under a written data-processing agreement. Section 8 of the Privacy Policy describes that allocation in full.

8. Ownership and Licenses

8.1 The Service. The Service, including its software, design, and associated marks, is owned by the Church. Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Service for the purpose of serving in your ministry. No other right is granted, whether by implication or otherwise.

8.2 Your Content. As between you, your church, and us, Your Content belongs to you or to your church. You grant us a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, transmit, and display Your Content solely for the purpose of operating the Service on your ministry's behalf. That license is granted for no other purpose. We do not use Your Content for advertising, we do not sell it, and we do not use it to train machine-learning models, as stated in Sections 5 and 6 of the Privacy Policy.

8.3 Feedback. If you send us suggestions concerning the Service, we may use them without restriction and without obligation to you.

9. Account Deletion, Suspension, and Termination

9.1 Deletion by you. You may delete your account at any time from within the application, using the option provided on the profile screen. Deletion revokes your sessions across every device, removes any linked sign-in identities, and removes your account and the associated information we are not required to retain. Certain ministry records you created may be retained or anonymized as described in Section 10 of the Privacy Policy, because those records belong to the ministry rather than to the account that entered them.

9.2 Deactivation by your ministry. A Coordinator may deactivate your account when you cease to serve. Deactivation revokes your sessions across every device.

9.3 Suspension and termination by us. We may suspend or terminate access where we reasonably determine that these Terms have been violated, or where suspension is necessary to protect the Service, its users, or any person. Where the circumstances permit, we will give notice and an opportunity to remedy.

9.4 Survival. Sections 5, 8.2, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, and 16 survive termination of these Terms, together with any other provision that by its nature should survive.

10. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, ERROR-FREE, OR SECURE, OR THAT ANY DEFECT WILL BE CORRECTED.

The Service is an administrative tool. It is not a substitute for the judgment of a ministry leader, and it does not provide medical, legal, or safeguarding advice. A record in the Service, including an allergy or medical note, may be incomplete or out of date, and must not be relied upon as the sole basis for a decision affecting the safety of a child.

Some jurisdictions do not permit the exclusion of certain warranties. Where that is so, the exclusions in this Section apply to you only to the extent permitted by applicable law.

11. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, GOODWILL, OR ANTICIPATED SAVINGS, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT, OR OTHERWISE, AND WHETHER OR NOT WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

Limits on these limits. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that applicable law does not permit to be excluded or limited, including liability for gross negligence, willful misconduct, fraud, death or personal injury caused by negligence, or any statutory duty that cannot lawfully be disclaimed. The limitations in this Section are a good-faith allocation of risk between a church and its volunteers. They are not, and are not intended to be, a means of escaping responsibility for our own serious fault.

12. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Church and its clergy, officers, employees, and volunteers from and against third-party claims, damages, and reasonable costs (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of:

1. information you entered into the Service without the authority or the consents required by Section 5;
2. your misuse of the Service or of information obtained through it; or
3. your violation of these Terms or of applicable law.

This indemnity is limited to matters within your own control, and does not extend to any claim arising from our own act or omission. It does not apply to the extent that applicable law does not permit it. Responsibility as between the operator of the Service and a church is allocated separately, and mutually, under a written data-processing agreement.

We will notify you promptly of any claim for which indemnity is sought, and you may participate in its defense. No settlement imposing an obligation on you will be entered into without your consent, which will not be unreasonably withheld.

13. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms, and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or to the Service, are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. The state and federal courts located in Fairfax County, Virginia, have jurisdiction over any such dispute, and you and we each consent to the jurisdiction of those courts, save where applicable law grants you the right to bring proceedings in the courts of your place of residence.

Before commencing proceedings, we ask that you first raise the matter with us at the address in Section 16, so that it may be resolved informally where possible.

14. Changes to These Terms

We may revise these Terms from time to time. Where we do so, we will post the revised Terms with an updated Effective Date. Where a revision materially affects your rights or obligations, we will additionally require that you review and accept the revised Terms upon your next use of the application. Continued use of the Service after a revision takes effect constitutes acceptance of it.

15. General Provisions

15.1 Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and the Church concerning the Service, and supersede any prior understanding concerning its subject matter.

15.2 Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, that provision will be enforced to the greatest extent permissible and the remaining provisions will remain in full force.

15.3 No waiver. A failure to enforce any provision of these Terms is not a waiver of the right to enforce it subsequently.

15.4 Assignment. You may not assign or transfer your rights under these Terms. We may assign these Terms in connection with a transfer of the operation of the Service, in which case we will notify the affected church before its information is transferred.

15.5 Relationship of the parties. Nothing in these Terms creates an employment, agency, partnership, or joint-venture relationship between you and the Church. Service in a ministry is voluntary.

15.6 Headings. Section headings are for convenience and do not affect interpretation.

16. How to Contact Us

Questions and notices concerning these Terms may be directed to your ministry Coordinator or to the Church:

St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church of Washington, D.C.
Attention: Coptic Leader — Terms of Use
11911 Braddock Road
Fairfax, Virginia 22031
copticleader@stmarkdc.org