We have amended our practice in the light of GDPR legislation, since sharing information which identifies a living individual without their consent amounts to a data breach.
Whatever we think about the legislation, we are not exempt just because we are a church.
Thanks, all, for your comments and advice. I'm now awaiting a call from our Diocesan Safeguarding people. They may tell me not to worry, but at least I'll be reassured.
I may add that, on the edited version of the news-sheet which appears on our website each week, I studiously avoid surnames and personal details of illness or whatever.
I don't know what happens in church, as FatherInCharge often leads the intercessions himself (for lack of volunteers).
Just had a chat with the Safeguarding Officer, who will check to see where the issue should be dealt with - possibly the Area Dean or Archdeacon.
She says I've raised a valid point, so that reassures me. It's being passed upstairs, but I will be kept informed. Meanwhile, the offending news-sheet (next issue due out tomorrow) will be copied to her for information.
Some years ago I had to put up with people saying after church how happy they were that my new medication was working. The minister had been referring to another person with the same first name. I am in favour of never using names.
Some years ago I had to put up with people saying after church how happy they were that my new medication was working. The minister had been referring to another person with the same first name. I am in favour of never using names.
I think it's OK to mention names (no surnames, no other details) by saying (or writing) something like 'Remember before God - who knows the needs of each - those for whom our prayers have been asked: A, B, C. D etc. etc.'.
Two of the 'sick and suffering' children on FInC's list have very distinctive names, and could possibly be fairly easily identified, so I take your point. I simply put on our website 'those families dealing with difficult children', and leave it there. If you believe in the efficacy of intercessory prayer, surely no more need be said.
BTW, I also redact the surnames of those who have recently died, leaving just the initial (as 'Sue G' or 'Bill G'). It's not unknown for Malefactors to trawl church websites, looking for the names of recently-deceased people, with a view to harassing grieving relatives, or burgling the house during the funeral...
Good to hear the Safeguarding Officer is taking this seriously @Bishops Finger .
I'm reminded of an incident years ago (before GDPR legislation, when the church concerned used full names in their prayers) arising from my uncommon first name. I am "Wanderer L" but one Sunday at my mother's church prayers for the sick included someone by the name of "Wanderer H". After the service several people approached my mother to ask "and how is your daughter??" She assured them that I was fine and anyway that wasn't my name! She was rather touched that people had asked, she felt that they were friends and acquaintances who knew her well enough to know that she had a daughter called Wanderer who was married, but not enough to know/remember what my married name was. My mother then asked the church secretary who the actual sick person was. There's a C of E primary school in the village and "Wanderer H" was the mother of one of the teachers there. So enough of a connection with the church for prayer to have been requested, but not sufficient for anyone in the congregation to know her.
There is something to be said for not including names in the intercessions read out publicly in church, or published on websites.
Maybe 'safeguarding' can be taken too far, but one can't IMHO be too careful, especially in these days of the internet, social media etc., and the ease with which ill-disposed malefactors can obtain personal information about others.
TBF to poor old FatherInCharge, I think he's simply a bit too much of an innocent abroad to appreciate this.
We have had to be more careful about giving people’s full names in the intercessions as our services are usually live-streamed. IMHO we shouldn’t be using full names unless the person has given their permission, knows how the information will be shared and won’t be put at risk as a result (e.g. we do use the full name of a former organist who is now in a residential home around 200 miles away, as he has a common first name, and has been asked to be named in the intercessions).
To provide a personal context it can work to use names such as “Mike’s Auntie Mary” so the congregation know it isn’t the other elderly Mary who hasn’t turned up today, but Auntie Mary hasn’t had her full name read out and so there is less chance of someone burgling her house while she is in hospital.
BUGGER. Captain P's birthday is coming, and I have to organise the party. I found a date that worked for his little friends, and found an affordable activity not too far from home (a pottery workshop). Click on the thing goes I, and thought it was all sorted. And now they've replied to say the date isn't available. Why is available on the website then?
And now I'm feeling stressed and anxious and tearful because I have to find a replacement thing to do and they're all too expensive or too far away or too already booked by someone else.
BUGGER. Captain P's birthday is coming, and I have to organise the party. I found a date that worked for his little friends, and found an affordable activity not too far from home (a pottery workshop). Click on the thing goes I, and thought it was all sorted. And now they've replied to say the date isn't available. Why is available on the website then?
And now I'm feeling stressed and anxious and tearful because I have to find a replacement thing to do and they're all too expensive or too far away or too already booked by someone else.
Oh I hate stuff like that- I do hope you find a way of sorting it quickly and easily.
As regards birthday parties, a resounding yes. Just apart from the effort required for food prep there is the policing of the little buggers ( keeping them out of the parental bedroom, refereeing fights & cleaning up the inevitable vomit, and finally those parents who either bring an extra kid, arrive 30 mins early then bugger off and return an hour after designated end of party.
TICTH copy-typing. I have a funeral coming up, and the widow of the deceased has written an account of her husband's life in longhand. I won't be able to use that at the service (and it needs a tiny bit of tweaking), but copying it all out is a pain. I'm not going to even attempt scanning it into my computer!
I managed to be irritated by 3 different Friends before Meeting for Worship this morning.
And people think managing a library is an easy job 🤯
Then the Meeting room was so warm and stuffy I took my cardigan off! In February!
Whoever has been calling me at 5 AM several times the past week, claiming I need to return a call because of a suspicious $3,000 charge to my bank account. I keep blocking the number, but they use a different one and wake me up. I want the phone next to my bed in case of an emergency.
With many phones these days you can turn off the ringer between set hours. Worth checking if you can do that on yours. Then it's still by your bed if you need it.
To be a bit more specific, there are often functions called "focuses" (at least, the iPhone calls them this) which allow you to mute all incoming calls except from certain numbers which you specify (for example, family members) during certain hours. I have mine set so any phone call originating from a number not my husband's, my son's, or my dad's, will simply go straight to voice mail and not wake me up between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. I don't have to do anything to the ringer at all--which is good, because I have a terrible tendency to turn it completely off (say, for church) and then forget for days to turn it on again! Which is not good. The focus thingy works automatically once you set it up, so you don't miss calls after your chosen time period is over.
Some weeks ago, I mentioned my disquiet at FatherInCharge's naming of names and personal details of 'the sick and suffering' etc. in his weekly emails/pew sheet. As advised by some of you, I took it upstairs to our Diocesan Safeguarding people.
Today, FinC tells me that he has been advised by the Archdeacon to use first names only, with no other information. He has duly complied, though he still seems a little puzzled as to why names only are to be used. However, a good result, and I suspect that he knows it was me who shopped him, though he's too polite to say so!
TICTH the absolute bloody fiasco which is the new immigration rules for entry to the UK. If you're wondering "what new immigration rules"? my whole point is that didn't bother informing anyone they'd changed.
You apply for an ETA and get an email saying you don't need to print it or anything. However, they've now outsourced the enforcement to the airlines, who don't have access to the government database so when you actually get to the gate, they want to see the thing you were specifically told not to print. Cue massive stress as you go looking for the confirmation on the Internet right at the moment you were expecting to be boarding the plane.
And don't even get me started on the new rules for the UK's 3 million dual citizens, who are now longer allowed to enter the UK on our "other" passports. Now you might think this is the sort of thing they should probably have let us know about in advance. As it is, most of us learned about it last week. My British passport expires in 3 weeks time, so I just squeaked in, but otherwise I would have found myself being denied entry to a country of which I am a citizen. It's a bloody mess and I was ashamed to be British in the airport earlier.
There was a lot about that on the news today. It is causing a lot of inconvenience to a lot of people.
I understand that an Irish passport is the greatest asset anyone can have in the current situation.
I'm consigning to hell the young man on the Interislander talking loudly into his phone, (so much so that I took out my hearing aids and he was still loud). It was like a monologue and the other person didn't seem to get a word in edgeways.
He did this for most of the 3.5 hour journey. Yes I could have shifted, but I was too tired to try finding another place.
I don't know who or what I'm consigning to hell for this, cause I don't know why it's happened. Last fall I preordered a Stephen Colbert Funko Pop. Some weeks ago it was supposed to have been delivered, but never showed up. I wanted a replacement but Funko said they were unavailable and I'm supposedly getting a refund. Fine.
So I still wanted the Stephen Colbert Pop so I went to Ebay and ordered one from a collectables company for a small markup. Annoying but OK. It was supposedly delivered yesterday. It is not here. Was it not delivered when they said it was? Was it stolen from my lobby? Who knows?
I am waiting to see if it shows up today before I start investigations.
Comments
Whatever we think about the legislation, we are not exempt just because we are a church.
I may add that, on the edited version of the news-sheet which appears on our website each week, I studiously avoid surnames and personal details of illness or whatever.
I don't know what happens in church, as FatherInCharge often leads the intercessions himself (for lack of volunteers).
Just had a chat with the Safeguarding Officer, who will check to see where the issue should be dealt with - possibly the Area Dean or Archdeacon.
She says I've raised a valid point, so that reassures me. It's being passed upstairs, but I will be kept informed. Meanwhile, the offending news-sheet (next issue due out tomorrow) will be copied to her for information.
I think it's OK to mention names (no surnames, no other details) by saying (or writing) something like 'Remember before God - who knows the needs of each - those for whom our prayers have been asked: A, B, C. D etc. etc.'.
Two of the 'sick and suffering' children on FInC's list have very distinctive names, and could possibly be fairly easily identified, so I take your point. I simply put on our website 'those families dealing with difficult children', and leave it there. If you believe in the efficacy of intercessory prayer, surely no more need be said.
BTW, I also redact the surnames of those who have recently died, leaving just the initial (as 'Sue G' or 'Bill G'). It's not unknown for Malefactors to trawl church websites, looking for the names of recently-deceased people, with a view to harassing grieving relatives, or burgling the house during the funeral...
I'm reminded of an incident years ago (before GDPR legislation, when the church concerned used full names in their prayers) arising from my uncommon first name. I am "Wanderer L" but one Sunday at my mother's church prayers for the sick included someone by the name of "Wanderer H". After the service several people approached my mother to ask "and how is your daughter??" She assured them that I was fine and anyway that wasn't my name! She was rather touched that people had asked, she felt that they were friends and acquaintances who knew her well enough to know that she had a daughter called Wanderer who was married, but not enough to know/remember what my married name was. My mother then asked the church secretary who the actual sick person was. There's a C of E primary school in the village and "Wanderer H" was the mother of one of the teachers there. So enough of a connection with the church for prayer to have been requested, but not sufficient for anyone in the congregation to know her.
Maybe 'safeguarding' can be taken too far, but one can't IMHO be too careful, especially in these days of the internet, social media etc., and the ease with which ill-disposed malefactors can obtain personal information about others.
TBF to poor old FatherInCharge, I think he's simply a bit too much of an innocent abroad to appreciate this.
To provide a personal context it can work to use names such as “Mike’s Auntie Mary” so the congregation know it isn’t the other elderly Mary who hasn’t turned up today, but Auntie Mary hasn’t had her full name read out and so there is less chance of someone burgling her house while she is in hospital.
And now I'm feeling stressed and anxious and tearful because I have to find a replacement thing to do and they're all too expensive or too far away or too already booked by someone else.
Oh I hate stuff like that- I do hope you find a way of sorting it quickly and easily.
(*)The sort of angel in Revelation who goes around smiting the earth, opening seals to let out the four horsemen, and so on.
My train is canceled. The next one is 9.55. It's stopping trains all day from now in, so takes twice as long having already been delayed 44 minutes.
I am NOT impressed. Especially as I forgot to bring a book.
What a fucking pain innthe arse: beats haemorrhoids.
And people think managing a library is an easy job 🤯
Then the Meeting room was so warm and stuffy I took my cardigan off! In February!
I am sure these calls are coming far from the USA.
Today, FinC tells me that he has been advised by the Archdeacon to use first names only, with no other information. He has duly complied, though he still seems a little puzzled as to why names only are to be used. However, a good result, and I suspect that he knows it was me who shopped him, though he's too polite to say so!
You apply for an ETA and get an email saying you don't need to print it or anything. However, they've now outsourced the enforcement to the airlines, who don't have access to the government database so when you actually get to the gate, they want to see the thing you were specifically told not to print. Cue massive stress as you go looking for the confirmation on the Internet right at the moment you were expecting to be boarding the plane.
And don't even get me started on the new rules for the UK's 3 million dual citizens, who are now longer allowed to enter the UK on our "other" passports. Now you might think this is the sort of thing they should probably have let us know about in advance. As it is, most of us learned about it last week. My British passport expires in 3 weeks time, so I just squeaked in, but otherwise I would have found myself being denied entry to a country of which I am a citizen. It's a bloody mess and I was ashamed to be British in the airport earlier.
I understand that an Irish passport is the greatest asset anyone can have in the current situation.
He did this for most of the 3.5 hour journey. Yes I could have shifted, but I was too tired to try finding another place.
So I still wanted the Stephen Colbert Pop so I went to Ebay and ordered one from a collectables company for a small markup. Annoying but OK. It was supposedly delivered yesterday. It is not here. Was it not delivered when they said it was? Was it stolen from my lobby? Who knows?
I am waiting to see if it shows up today before I start investigations.
I m really upset about this.