Encounter Arena is responsible for personal information collected through this website. Our address is 799 London Road, Grays, RM20 3LH. Contact info@encounterarena.org or 01375 769149 about this notice or your information. Registered Charity No. 1182247.
Information we collect and why
When you contact us, plan a visit, ask about membership or volunteer, we collect the contact details and message you provide so the church team can respond and organise your next step. We rely on our legitimate interests in responding to enquiries and administering church activities. Optional follow-up based on consent can be stopped at any time.
Prayer requests may reveal religious beliefs, health information or other sensitive details. We ask for your explicit consent to use the information you choose to share for prayer and pastoral support. You may submit without your name or contact details. Please avoid including another person's identifying or sensitive information without their permission. Choosing pastoral-team privacy restricts the request to authorised pastoral administrators; requests are not published on this website.
For invited member accounts, we hold account, profile, security and participation information to provide access and administer church membership. Our lawful basis is our legitimate interest in supporting our church community. Where membership information reveals religious beliefs, we process it within the safeguards applicable to the legitimate activities of a religious not-for-profit body; disclosure outside that body requires an appropriate legal basis and condition.
Event registrations include the details requested for that event. We use them to manage attendance, communicate changes and fulfil the registration arrangement. Where an event asks for sensitive information, the purpose and relevant consent will be explained at collection.
Donations are processed by Stripe. We keep donation amounts, payment references, donor details where provided, and payment status for administration and accounting. We do not store card numbers or security codes. Gift Aid records include your name, home address, declaration wording, acceptance time and the donation reference. We process accounting and tax records to meet legal obligations.
Access and sharing
Access is limited to authorised people who need information for their church responsibilities. Providers supporting website hosting, email delivery, file storage and payment processing may process information on our behalf or under their own privacy notices. We do not sell your information. Where a provider processes information outside the UK, appropriate transfer safeguards must apply. Contact us for details of the providers and safeguards relevant to your information.
We may share necessary information with statutory agencies where required by law or where there is a lawful safeguarding reason. We cannot promise absolute confidentiality where someone may be at risk of serious harm.
How long we keep information
We retain information only while needed for the purpose for which it was collected, taking account of unresolved enquiries, ongoing membership, safeguarding obligations and statutory record-keeping. You can ask us which retention period applies to your records. Gift Aid declarations must be kept for six years after the most recent donation on which Gift Aid was claimed under that declaration. Accounting and safeguarding records may need to be retained where a legal obligation or claim requires it. We review information and remove or anonymise it when no longer needed.
Cookies and external services
This website uses essential session and security cookies for forms and sign-in. These are needed for the functions you request. Video players, maps and external links may connect you to YouTube, Google or another provider. Embedded players and maps are loaded only when you choose to load them; that provider may then receive your IP address and browser information and use its own cookies. You can use the written address and ordinary directions links without loading the map. We do not require advertising or analytics cookies to use our core website journeys.
Your choices and rights
Depending on the circumstances, you can request access, correction, deletion, restriction, transfer of your information, or object to processing based on legitimate interests. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it by contacting us; this does not affect lawful processing already carried out. Some rights are limited where records must be retained by law. We may need to verify your identity before responding.
You can raise a concern with us or complain to the Information Commissioner's Office. You do not have to complain to us first. We do not use these website submissions to make decisions with legal or similarly significant effects solely by automated means.
Changes
We may update this notice when our activities or website change. This version is dated 22 September 2026.