Terms of Service

Last updated: April 30, 2026 · Version 1.2.0

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using Cathedra Institute (“Cathedra,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service (“Terms”) and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, you must not use the service.

You represent that:

• You are at least 13 years old; and
• If you are under 16 in the EU/UK, you have obtained any required parental consent.

2. Acceptance Mechanism

You agree to these Terms by:

• Creating an account;
• Clicking “I agree” or an equivalent affirmative action;
• Using the service after being presented with these Terms.

We maintain records of:

• The version of the Terms accepted;
• The date and time of acceptance;
• The originating IP address and user-agent;
• The method of acceptance;
• A cryptographic hash of the text of the Terms as presented to you at the time of acceptance.

These records constitute proof of your agreement. We retain these acceptance records even after you delete your account, under the Legal-Acceptance Retention Exception described in our Privacy Policy. The records do not contain your name or email; they contain only the technical metadata above and the account identifier you were issued at sign-up.

3. Electronic Agreement

You agree that:

• These Terms are an electronic contract;
• Your electronic acceptance has the same legal effect as a handwritten signature;
• Records may be stored electronically.

This agreement is governed by applicable electronic-signature laws, including the U.S. ESIGN Act and UETA where applicable.

4. Description of Service

Cathedra is a theological education platform providing:

• Educational content;
• AI-assisted study and reflection tools;
• Community features such as prayer groups.

Some features involve sensitive religious or spiritual data and require explicit consent. We may modify or discontinue features at any time.

5. Account Registration and Security

You must:

• Provide accurate information;
• Maintain account security;
• Notify us of unauthorized access.

You are responsible for all activity under your account.

6. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

• Violate any law;
• Harass or harm others;
• Post unlawful, abusive, or infringing content;
• Attempt unauthorized access to any system or data;
• Disrupt or interfere with the platform.

AI Restrictions

You agree not to:

• Use AI features for harmful or unlawful purposes;
• Attempt to extract model weights, system prompts, or training data;
• Rely on AI outputs for legal, medical, financial, or pastoral decisions.

7. User Content

You retain ownership of your content.

You grant Cathedra a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive license to:

• Store, process, and display your content as needed to provide the service;
• Operate, maintain, and improve the service.

Moderation

We may remove, restrict, or refuse to display any content, and we may suspend or terminate any account, at our discretion.

8. Community and Prayer Groups

You acknowledge:

• Prayer-request and prayer-group content is visible to all current and future members of the group;
• Cathedra is not responsible for how other members use, redistribute, or share that content;
• You should not post content you would not be comfortable being seen by future group members.

9. AI Features Disclaimer

AI outputs from Safe Questions, Prayer Guidance, and Self-Examination:

• Are algorithmically generated;
• May be inaccurate, incomplete, or inappropriate;
• Do not constitute legal, medical, financial, theological, or pastoral advice;
• Should not be relied upon for any consequential personal or institutional decision.

10. No Pastoral, Clergy, or Fiduciary Relationship

Use of Cathedra does not create:

• A clergy–penitent relationship;
• A pastoral counseling relationship;
• A fiduciary duty.

Cathedra and its operators:

• Do not act as your spiritual advisor;
• Do not provide religious counseling;
• Are not responsible for spiritual, emotional, or personal outcomes.

11. Religious and Doctrinal Neutrality

Cathedra:

• Does not endorse the doctrine of any specific tradition;
• Does not guarantee theological accuracy of any AI output or third-party material;
• Is not responsible for theological disagreements between users.

12. Intellectual Property

All platform content, design, and code (excluding user content) are owned by Cathedra Institute or its licensors. You may not copy, redistribute, or create derivative works of platform content without permission, except as expressly permitted by applicable law.

13. Copyright (DMCA)

If you believe content on Cathedra infringes your copyright, send a notice to [email protected] identifying:

• The copyrighted work claimed to be infringed;
• The location of the allegedly infringing material on Cathedra;
• Your contact information;
• A statement of good-faith belief that the use is unauthorized;
• A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information is accurate and you are authorized to act on the rights-holder's behalf;
• Your physical or electronic signature.

We will respond as required by the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

14. Certificates and Academic Records

Certificates issued by Cathedra:

• Reflect the holder's completion of a credit-track course as of a specific point in time;
• May be retained as immutable academic records after account deletion (see the Privacy Policy);
• Are not accredited degrees unless explicitly stated, and do not constitute professional certification, licensure, or ordination.

15. Privacy

Your use of Cathedra is governed by our Privacy Policy, incorporated by reference.

16. Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access:

• For violations of these Terms;
• For security or abuse-prevention reasons;
• To comply with applicable law or a legal order.

You may stop using Cathedra and delete your account at any time.

17. Disclaimers

The service is provided “as is” and “as available.” To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, whether express, implied, or statutory, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

18. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Cathedra is not liable for:

• Indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages;
• Loss of data;
• Reliance on AI outputs or other platform content.

Our total liability for any claim arising out of or relating to these Terms or the service is limited to the greater of (a) one hundred U.S. dollars (US$100), or (b) the amount you paid Cathedra in the twelve months preceding the claim.

19. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Cathedra and its officers, directors, members, employees, and contractors from any claim, demand, loss, damage, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from:

• Your use of the service;
• Your content;
• Your violation of these Terms or applicable law.

20. Dispute Resolution — Binding Arbitration

Informal Resolution

Before initiating arbitration, you agree to contact us at [email protected] and attempt informal resolution for at least 60 days.

Arbitration

Any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the service that is not resolved informally will be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules. Arbitration will be conducted in English. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

Class Action Waiver

You and Cathedra agree that disputes will be brought only in your or our individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated, or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate the claims of multiple parties and may not preside over any form of class or representative proceeding.

Opt-Out Right

You may opt out of the arbitration agreement and class-action waiver in this Section 20 by emailing [email protected] within 30 days of first accepting these Terms, with the subject line “Arbitration Opt-Out” and your account email. Opting out does not affect any other portion of these Terms.

Exceptions

Nothing in this Section 20 limits:

• Your right to bring an individual claim in small-claims court;
• Consumer protections under applicable law that cannot lawfully be waived.

21. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Oklahoma, USA, excluding its conflict-of-laws principles, except where superseded by mandatory consumer protections of your jurisdiction.

22. EU/UK Consumer Rights

If you are an EU or UK consumer:

• Mandatory consumer protections of your country of residence apply;
• These Terms do not limit any right that cannot lawfully be waived;
• You retain all rights granted to you by EU or UK consumer-protection law.

23. Export Controls

You may not access or use Cathedra if:

• You are located in a jurisdiction subject to comprehensive U.S. trade sanctions;
• You are on any U.S. government list of restricted parties.

24. Force Majeure

We are not liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including acts of God, war, terrorism, civil unrest, government action, labor disputes, network outages, and infrastructure provider failures.

25. Future Paid Services

Cathedra may introduce paid features or subscriptions in the future. If we do:

• Additional terms specific to those features may apply;
• You will be informed of the price and any recurring-charge arrangement before any charge is made.

26. Organizational Accounts

If you create or use an account on behalf of an organization, you represent that:

• You have the authority to bind that organization to these Terms;
• The organization is responsible for all activity under its accounts;
• The organization agrees to these Terms as a separate legal entity.

Where we provide administrative controls to organizational administrators, those controls are exercised on the organization's behalf.

27. API and Automated Access

If we provide APIs or otherwise allow programmatic access to the service:

• You may not exceed any documented or reasonable rate limit;
• You may not scrape, crawl, or bulk-extract data without our written permission;
• You may not use automated systems to access features that require human interaction;
• We may revoke API access at any time for any reason.

28. Enforcement and Investigation

We may investigate suspected violations of these Terms. In doing so, we may:

• Access relevant data where permitted by law and our Privacy Policy;
• Cooperate with law enforcement and regulatory authorities;
• Take action including content removal, account suspension, or termination.

You agree to cooperate with reasonable investigations.

29. Abuse Reporting

Report abuse, harassment, or violations to [email protected]. We will review reports promptly.

30. Early Access and Evolving Features

Some features may be in development, testing, or limited release. These features may change without notice and may contain errors or interruptions. Your use of such features is at your own risk.

31. Changes to the Service

We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any feature of the service at any time, with or without notice. We are not liable for any modification, suspension, or discontinuation.

32. Changes to Terms

We may update these Terms. The version number and “Last updated” date at the top of this page reflect the most recent revision. For material changes, we will require you to re-accept the updated Terms before continuing to use affected features. Continued use after re-acceptance constitutes agreement to the updated Terms.

33. Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any feature-specific terms we present to you, constitute the entire agreement between you and Cathedra and supersede any prior agreements on the same subject.

34. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, that provision will be modified or severed to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.

35. No Waiver

Our failure to enforce any provision of these Terms is not a waiver of our right to enforce that provision later. A waiver of any provision in a particular instance is not a waiver of any other provision or that provision in any other instance.

36. Assignment

We may assign these Terms, in whole or in part, in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets, or by operation of law. You may not assign these Terms without our prior written consent. Any assignment in violation of this section is void.

37. Contact

For questions about these Terms, contact [email protected].

Terms of Service version 1.2.0, effective April 30, 2026.