Many members of Emmanuel remember the printed parish directories that helped our community stay connected over the years, including the last paper directory published a decade ago. We have heard from many parishioners who would welcome the return of a directory in some form, while others understandably have concerns about privacy and the sharing of personal information.

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The Vestry and parish leadership take those concerns seriously. Any new parish directory willb be designed to comply with both GDPR (the European General Data Protection Regulation) and Swiss privacy laws, with careful attention to protecting parishioners’ personal data.

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Participation in the directory will be entirely voluntary. You must actively opt in if you wish to be included. Only parishioners who have themselves opted in will be able to view the directory.

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Directory profiles will contain only limited information:

• Name

• Photograph (only if uploaded by the parishioner)

• Email address (unless the parishioner chooses to keep it private)

• Telephone number (unless the parishioner chooses to keep it private)

No other personal information or database fields will be visible in the directory.

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A link to an opt-in form will be published in the Epistle, on the website, on the bulletin board and in emails. The form will ask whether you want to opt in, opt in but not include your email and/or phone number, or not be included in the directory.

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The directory will be hosted within Breeze, Emmanuel’s password-protected church management system. Breeze is invitation-only: access is granted only by the church office after approval by the Rector, and each user has their own secure login credentials.

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If you do not yet have a Breeze account, you will be invited to create one using your email address and a password of your choosing. Once logged in, you can view your own profile page to make sure that the information is correct and add a profile picture, if desired.

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You will be able to update your information at any time by logging into Breeze and editing your profile. Changes will take effect immediately within the directory. If you later decide you no longer wish to be included in the directory, you can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting the church office. Upon withdrawal, your profile will no longer be visible in the directory, though your basic record will remain in the church database for administrative purposes.

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Parishioners who have Breeze accounts but who choose not to participate in the directory will continue to have the standard “Parishioner” permission level, which allows them to view their own personal profile page, but no one else’s.​​
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In addition, Breeze is configured so that parishioners cannot export directory information or download parish data. Export functions are restricted to designated church administrators only.

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We recognize that parishioners have different comfort levels regarding privacy. Our goal is to balance those concerns with the desire of many members to strengthen connections within the Emmanuel community in a secure and respectful way.