St. Mary & St. Moses Abbey (“the Abbey”, “we”) keeps this website so that guests can learn about the Retreat House and arrange a visit. This page explains what we collect when you do that, why, who sees it, and how long we keep it. It is written to be read, not to be survived.
Who we are
St. Mary & St. Moses Abbey, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States.
102 Scout’s Path, Sandia, TX 78383
(361) 236-7589 · [email protected]
What we collect, and why
When you register for a retreat or a day visit, we ask for what we need to receive you: your name and title, your email and phone number, your age, and — for overnight stays — your gender, because it determines where you can be housed. We ask for your arrival and departure dates and how many rooms you need.
We ask about your parish and your Father of Confession. Your denomination, your home church and its city, and for some visits the name, email and phone of your Father of Confession. We ask because the Retreat House is a monastery: a first-time overnight guest is received on the word of their priest, and the Brothers need to be able to reach him. This is information about your religious life, and we treat it as more sensitive than the rest, not less.
We ask for an emergency contact — a name, a relationship and a phone number — so that if something happens to you here, we can reach the person you would want us to reach.
If you are bringing your family or a group, we ask for each person’s name, age and gender, for the same housing and safety reasons.
We keep a record of your visit: your booking and its status, the room or bed assigned, any door code issued for your stay, and notes the Brothers make in the course of hosting you.
If you ask us for a ride, you may attach an image or PDF of your flight or bus ticket so that we can check your arrival and departure times. It is kept in the Retreat House’s Google Drive, and only the Retreat House can open it.
If you register a group, you may attach an image or PDF of your group’s schedule for the stay so that we can prepare for your group’s stay. It is kept in the Retreat House’s Google Drive, and only the Retreat House can open it.
If you write to us — a comment on a form, a prayer request, a message through the contact page — we keep what you wrote.
Information you give us about other people
Some of what we ask for is about someone else: your emergency contact, your Father of Confession, the driver bringing you, and the members of your family or group. When you give us those details you are telling us about a person who is not here to speak for themselves. Please only give us details for people who would expect you to. We use them for the purpose you gave them for, and nothing else.
Your Father of Confession and your driver will hear from us by email, so they will know we have their address. Your emergency contact will not hear from us unless there is an emergency.
Children
Children are welcome, and a parent or guardian registers on their behalf. When you do, we collect each child’s name, age and gender for housing and supervision. We do not knowingly collect information directly from a child through this website.
Who else sees it
- The Brothers and staff of the Abbey, in order to host you.
- Your Father of Confession, who is emailed to confirm a first overnight stay.
- Google. The Abbey runs on Google Workspace. Your registration is mirrored into a Google Sheet that the Brothers work from, and depending on the visit may create a Google Calendar entry, a task, or a contact record. Google processes this on our behalf under our Workspace agreement.
- Our email provider, to deliver mail to you.
We do not sell your information, we do not share it for advertising, and we do not send it to any analytics or tracking company. There are no advertising or analytics tags on this website at all.
Cookies and what your browser stores
We do not use any advertising, analytics or tracking cookies. What we do store is limited to keeping you signed in to your own booking, remembering whether you chose light or dark, and holding a half-finished registration form for up to 24 hours so a refresh does not lose your work. That draft stays in your own browser, is never sent anywhere, and is deleted as soon as you submit. If you are on a shared computer, submit or clear the form before you walk away.
Full details of what this site stores in your browser.
How long we keep it
We keep your registration and the record of your visit for as long as we need it to host you, to welcome you back, and to keep the Abbey’s own records of who has stayed here.
A ticket you attach is deleted seven days after your departure, or seven days after the reservation is cancelled or declined. If we cannot tell from the reservation when one of these dates falls, for example because it has no departure date, the Retreat House is asked to review it, and it is deleted ninety days after you attached it, whether or not anyone has reviewed it.
A group schedule you attach is deleted seven days after the group’s departure, or seven days after the reservation is cancelled or declined. For a group, departure means whichever comes later: the departure date on the reservation, or the last night a bed is still reserved for the group, so a schedule is never deleted while the group is still at the Retreat House. If we cannot tell from the reservation when one of these dates falls, for example because it has no departure date and no bed is reserved for the group, the Retreat House is asked to review it, and it is deleted ninety days after you attached it, whether or not anyone has reviewed it.
Your choices
Write to us at [email protected] and we will tell you what we hold about you, correct anything wrong, or delete what we are not required to keep. If you would rather not have your details in a Google Sheet or a Google Calendar entry, tell us and we will make other arrangements.
Keeping it safe
Access to guest records is limited to Abbey staff who need it and is protected by sign-in. Data is held in managed, access-controlled systems.
Changes
We will note the date of the last change here. This page was last updated on 8 October 2026.