Terms of service

The service

Introit hosts websites for Lutheran parishes, with a console in which a parish’s own staff keep them up. Introit is in early access: it is still being built, it is not yet open to every parish, and what it offers may change as it grows.

Accounts

• Each person signs in with their own account. Keep your password to yourself, and tell us at once if you think someone else has used your account.
• A parish’s administrators decide who may edit its website. Every parish must keep at least one administrator; we recommend two, so that one person leaving never locks a parish out.
• You must be old enough to agree to these terms, and authorised by the parish to act for it.

Your parish’s content

• It is yours. The words, photographs, and documents a parish puts on its website belong to the parish, or to whoever gave the parish permission to use them. We claim no ownership.
• What you allow us to do with it: store it, copy it as the service needs, and show it to the public on the parish’s website, only to run Introit for you.
• What you promise: that you have the right to publish what you upload, and the permission of the people shown in your photographs (and, for children, of their parents).

What Introit may not be used for

A parish’s website must be a parish’s website. It may not be used:

• for anything unlawful, or to infringe anyone’s copyright or other rights;
• to deceive people, including pretending to be another parish, person, or organisation, or collecting passwords or payment details;
• to harass or threaten anyone, or to publish anyone’s private information without their consent;
• to attack, overload, or probe Introit or anyone else’s systems.

We may remove content, or suspend a website, that breaks these rules. Where we can, we will tell the parish first and give it the chance to put things right.

Fees

Introit is not yet taking payment. When it does, the price will be as shown on the front page when a parish subscribes, and a parish will agree to it before being charged. Then:

• Subscriptions renew each month or year until cancelled. A parish may cancel at any time, and the cancellation takes effect at the end of the period already paid for.
• We will give at least thirty days’ notice before changing the price of an existing subscription.
• If a payment fails, we will say so and keep the website up. After thirty days unpaid, the public website shows a holding page and the console can be read but not changed, until payment is made. The parish’s content is kept for twelve months.

Limits

Each parish has room for its photographs and documents that is generous for a parish (currently two gigabytes). Sermon audio and video are linked from services such as YouTube, not stored on Introit.

Leaving

A parish may stop using Introit at any time. Its content is its own, and we will help it take a copy. If a parish has pointed its own domain name at Introit, the domain remains the parish’s and we release it as soon as asked.

Ending the service

We may suspend or end a parish’s use of Introit if these terms are seriously or repeatedly broken. If we ever stop offering Introit altogether, we will give parishes at least ninety days’ notice and a copy of everything they have put on it.

Warranties and liability

We work to keep Introit running well and its websites available, but we provide it “as is”, without a promise that it will always be available or free of faults. The church-year calendar is prepared with care, and a pastor should still review what it shows before a parish relies on it.

So far as the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential losses, and our total liability to a parish for any claim is limited to what the parish paid us in the twelve months before it arose, or one hundred dollars, whichever is more.

Not an official service of the Synod

Introit is independent. It is made for congregations of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, and is not endorsed by or affiliated with the Synod.

Changes, law, and contact

If these terms change, the new version will appear here with a new date. If a change matters to parishes already using Introit, we will tell them at least thirty days before it takes effect.

These terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, where Hallowed Gains LLC is organised.

Questions about these terms: contact@hallowedgains.com.