Privacy Policy

St. John's United Church of Christ Weldon Spring

Effective Date: 8/1/26  |  Last Updated: 8/1/26

1. Introduction and Scope

St. John's United Church of Christ ("St. John's UCC," "the Church," "we," "us," or "our") respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it through compliance with this policy. This Privacy Policy describes the types of information we may collect from you, or that you may provide, when you visit the website located at stjohnsweldonspring.com (the "Site"), and our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing that information.

This policy applies to information we collect on the Site; through email, text, or other electronic communications between you and the Site; and when you interact with our advertising and applications on third-party websites and services, if and to the extent those applications or advertising include links to this policy. It does not apply to information collected by any third party, including through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible from the Site.

Please read this policy carefully. By using the Site, you agree to the practices described here. If you do not agree, please do not use the Site.

2. Information We Collect About You

We collect several types of information from and about visitors to our Site, including:

  • Identifiers and contact information — such as your name, mailing address, email address, and telephone number, when you voluntarily submit it through a contact form, "Plan Your Visit" form, prayer request, event RSVP, or newsletter signup.

  • Correspondence — the content of any messages, questions, or requests you send us through the Site.

  • Giving and transaction confirmation information — if you give online, you are redirected to our third-party giving platform, eservicepayments.com, which collects and processes your payment information directly. We do not collect, process, or store your payment card, bank account, or other financial account details on this Site. We may receive limited, non-financial confirmation data (such as that a gift was made) for our internal recordkeeping.

  • Internet or other electronic network activity information — such as your IP address, browser type and version, operating system, referring/exit pages, the pages you view on our Site, and the dates/times of your visits, collected automatically as you navigate the Site.

  • Approximate location information — such as city- or region-level location inferred from your IP address.

3. Cookies and Similar Tracking Technologies

Our Site, which is built and hosted on the Squarespace platform, uses cookies and similar technologies (which may include pixels, tags, and local storage) to operate the Site, remember preferences, and understand how visitors use it. These generally fall into two categories:

  • Essential/functional cookies — required for the Site to operate correctly (for example, remembering your cookie preferences). These cannot be disabled and do not require consent.

  • Analytics cookies — used to understand aggregate visitor behavior, such as which pages are viewed and how visitors arrive at the Site, so that we can improve it. These are non-essential and require your consent.

When you first visit the Site, a cookie banner will ask you to consent to non-essential cookies. You may accept, decline, or customize your preferences at that time, and you may change your preferences at any time by returning to the cookie settings, typically accessible via a link in the Site's footer. You can also control cookies through your browser settings; note that blocking all cookies may affect Site functionality. Our Site does not currently respond to "Do Not Track" browser signals, though your cookie preference choices are still honored.

4. How We Use Your Information

We use information that we collect about you, or that you provide to us, to:

  • Respond to inquiries, visit requests, and prayer or event requests

  • Communicate with you about church news, events, ministries, and services you've requested

  • Maintain accurate records of correspondence, membership, and giving for administrative and tax purposes

  • Operate, maintain, secure, and improve the Site, including understanding how it is used

  • Comply with applicable law, respond to legal process, and protect the rights, property, or safety of the Church, our congregation, or others

5. Disclosure of Your Information

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for their own marketing purposes. We may disclose information we collect or that you provide as described in this policy:

  • To our service providers, including our website platform (Squarespace) and our giving platform (eservicepayments.com), solely to the extent necessary for them to provide their services to us

  • To church staff and volunteer leadership directly involved in responding to your request, coordinating a ministry, or maintaining church records

  • To comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to a government or regulatory request

  • If we believe disclosure is necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of St. John's UCC, our congregation, visitors to the Site, or others, including exchanging information with other organizations for fraud protection purposes

  • In connection with, or during negotiations of, any reorganization, restructuring, or similar transaction involving the Church

6. Third-Party Links and Services

The Site contains links to third-party websites and services, including our giving platform (eservicepayments.com), livestream and video hosting (such as Facebook and YouTube), and outreach and ministry partners such as FISH of St. Charles, Festival of Sharing, Global Ministries, and Nurses for Newborns. This Privacy Policy does not apply to, and we are not responsible for, the privacy practices of these third-party sites. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of every site you visit, including these.

7. Data Retention

We retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, administrative, or reporting requirements. Correspondence and form submissions are generally retained only as long as needed to respond to and, where applicable, follow up on your request. Giving and financial records are retained as required for church financial recordkeeping and applicable tax law.

8. Data Security

We have implemented reasonable measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, or disclosure, including relying on the security infrastructure provided by our website platform, Squarespace, and our giving platform, eservicepayments.com. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your information.

9. Your Privacy Choices and Rights

Regardless of where you are located, you may:

  • Decline non-essential cookies at any time using our cookie banner or your browser settings

  • Ask us what personal information we hold about you, request that we correct it, or request that we delete it, subject to any recordkeeping obligations we may have

  • Unsubscribe from any email communications at any time using the link provided in those emails, or by contacting us directly

If you are a resident of the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, California, or another jurisdiction with its own data protection law, you may have additional statutory rights under that law (such as the GDPR or CCPA), including rights of access, correction, deletion, restriction, and portability. To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the information in Section 12 below, and we will respond consistent with applicable law.

10. Children's Privacy

The Site is intended for a general audience and is not directed to children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 through the Site. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information without parental consent, please contact us so we can take appropriate action.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. The "Last Updated" date at the top of this page indicates when this policy was most recently revised. We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at: