Terms of Service

These terms are an agreement between you and the Coptic Orthodox Church of Saint Mark in Jersey City, New Jersey. By creating an account, submitting an application or registration, or using the portal, you agree to these terms and the Privacy Policy. If you submit information for a child or another person, you confirm that you are their parent, legal guardian, or otherwise authorized to provide it.

The portal is for people participating in or administering authorized St. Mark ministries. Children under 13 may not independently create an account or submit personal information. Their parent, guardian, or an authorized ministry leader must act for them. Older minors may use an account only with appropriate guardian permission and church authorization. The church may require confirmation of identity, age, authority, or guardianship.

The portal supports Sunday School and the Servants Preparation Program. Features may include registration, class and servant assignments, attendance, lessons, exams, mentoring, notes, files, notifications, annual rollover, and ministry reporting.

The portal is an administrative tool. It is not an emergency service, medical record system, professional counseling service, or replacement for direct communication with clergy, ministry leaders, guardians, or emergency services.

You must provide accurate, current information; use only your own authorized account; keep credentials confidential; and promptly notify church administration of suspected compromise or unauthorized access. You may not share an account, allow another person to use your session, or attempt to take over another person's account. You are responsible for activity performed through your account until you notify us of a security issue.

Role tags grant portal modes, while ministry assignments, mentor relationships, and guardian relationships limit whose records a person may access. Access to a screen or record does not give permission to copy, download, photograph, disclose, or use the information outside the assigned church responsibility. You must stop using information when the relevant role, assignment, or relationship ends, even if technical access has not yet been removed.

You may not bypass or test access controls without written authorization; scrape or bulk-export records; probe for vulnerabilities; disrupt the service; introduce malicious code; impersonate another person; use automated tools that burden the portal; upload unlawful, harmful, or infringing material; enter information you know is false; harass another user; or use ministry information for personal, political, commercial, advertising, or other non-ministry purposes.

Ministry records, especially records about children, guardians, mentoring, conduct, grades, attendance, and religious participation, are confidential. Users must follow church safeguarding practices and report suspected abuse, safety concerns, or unauthorized disclosure through the church's established channels. Do not rely on a portal note as the only way to report an urgent concern.

Do not record the substance of a confession in the portal. Confession-related features are limited to administrative verification that a requirement was completed.

Parents and guardians must keep family and contact information current, use only guardian links they are authorized to hold, protect a child's information, and tell church administration when custody, guardianship, or access authority changes. A guardian link is a portal access relationship and does not itself establish legal custody or guardianship.

You retain any rights you hold in content you submit. You give the church a non-exclusive, royalty-free permission to host, copy, display to authorized users, modify for formatting or security, archive, and otherwise use that content as reasonably necessary to operate the ministries, protect the community, and comply with law. This permission lasts as long as the content is legitimately retained under the Privacy Policy.

You confirm that you have the right to submit uploaded photos, forms, files, and information about another person. Do not upload government identifiers, financial details, medical records, confession content, or unrelated private material unless specifically requested for an authorized purpose.

The church and its licensors retain their rights in the portal software, branding, curriculum, forms, reports, and ministry materials. Subject to these terms, the church gives authorized users a limited, revocable, non-transferable right to use the portal only for approved ministry purposes. No other license is granted.

Attendance percentages, exam averages, alerts, and eligibility indicators may be generated from available records and can contain errors or incomplete information. They are administrative aids and do not replace human review. Clergy and authorized ministry leaders retain responsibility for final assignments, exceptions, eligibility, graduation, discipline, and other ministry decisions.

The portal may rely on or link to third-party hosting, database, authentication, storage, analytics, push-notification, and curriculum services. Your use of a third-party service may also be governed by that provider's terms. The church does not control an external site merely because the portal links to it and is not responsible for third-party content or independent practices.

The Privacy Policy explains what information the portal handles, why it is used, who may access it, service-provider disclosures, retention, and available requests. By using the portal, you acknowledge those practices. Where consent is legally required, we will request it separately rather than relying only on these terms.

We may add, change, suspend, or discontinue portal features; correct records or configuration errors; and perform maintenance without guaranteeing advance notice. We will make reasonable efforts to keep the portal available, but service may be interrupted by maintenance, provider outages, security events, or circumstances outside the church's control. Users should preserve any separate records the church requires them to maintain.

The church may limit, suspend, or remove access when a role or assignment ends; an account is inactive; information or users may be at risk; these terms or church policies are violated; or continued access is no longer appropriate for ministry operations. You may request account closure. Closing an account does not require deletion of records the church legitimately retains under the Privacy Policy.

The portal is provided for church ministry administration on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the extent permitted by law, the church disclaims implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, and uninterrupted or error-free operation. Nothing in these terms excludes a warranty or right that applicable law does not allow us to exclude.

To the extent permitted by law, the church, its clergy, officers, servants, volunteers, and service providers will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages arising from portal interruption, data loss, unauthorized misuse, third-party services, or reliance on incomplete or outdated records. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

To the extent permitted by law, you are responsible for losses or claims caused by your intentional misuse of the portal, unlawful disclosure of ministry records, violation of another person's rights, or submission of content you had no authority to provide. This section does not apply to conduct that cannot lawfully be assigned to you.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New Jersey, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Before filing a claim, the parties should make a good-faith effort to resolve the concern with church administration. Unless applicable law requires otherwise, legal proceedings relating to the portal must be brought in a state or federal court with jurisdiction in Hudson County, New Jersey.

These terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement governing portal use, in addition to any separate church safeguarding or ministry policies that apply to your role. If a provision is unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not transfer your account or rights under these terms. The church may transfer portal operations to a successor church-controlled ministry or service, subject to the Privacy Policy.

We may revise these terms as the portal, providers, law, or ministry practices change. The date above identifies the current version. For material changes, we will provide notice through the portal or available contact information when reasonably practical. Continued use after the revised terms take effect constitutes acceptance; if you do not agree, stop using the portal and contact administration about closing your account or preserving required ministry records.

Questions about these terms may be directed to church administration at Coptic Orthodox Church of Saint Mark, 427 West Side Avenue, Jersey City, NJ 07304; by phone at (201) 333-0004; or through the official church website at saintmark.com.