This English version is the reference; translations are pending legal review.

Community guidelines

Last updated: [date of publication]

One Candle is a shared space for prayer. People come here carrying joy, worry, grief and hope, from many countries and many Christian traditions. These guidelines describe how we look after one another. They apply everywhere: your name and look, chat, prayer requests, candle intentions, direct messages, circles and your behaviour in the world.

Be kind

• Speak to others as you would like to be spoken to on your hardest day.
• When someone shares a burden, respond with prayer and gentleness, not advice they did not ask for, debate or judgement.
• Welcome newcomers. Everyone was new once.

Respect faith — every tradition

• No mockery of God, of prayer, of the saints, of any church or of anyone’s beliefs.
• No proselytising between denominations. Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and other Christians pray side by side here. This is not the place to argue doctrine or to try to bring people over to your church.
• Pray in your own words and your own tradition, and let others do the same.

Keep personal details private

• Do not post personal data — your own or anyone else’s: full names with places, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, social media handles or photos.
• No links and no invitations to other apps, groups or websites. The filters remove them, and trying to get around the filters counts as breaking the rules.
• When you pray for someone else, protect their privacy: “my friend who is ill” is enough.
• Never ask anyone for money, gifts or personal information.

No harassment, ever

• No insults, threats, bullying, stalking, sexual comments or unwanted attention.
• No hateful content about anyone’s nationality, ethnicity, sex, age, disability or background.
• If someone asks you to stop, stop. If they block you, let them go.
• No spam, advertising, flooding the chat, or using several accounts.

Respect quiet places and shared prayer

• The chapel is a quiet zone: chat is switched off there, and gestures and candles speak instead. Please honour the silence and step outside for conversation.
• During a live group prayer, follow along and let the prayer lead; save chatter for afterwards.
• Do not block doorways, crowd around people who are praying, or follow someone who is walking away.

If something is wrong

• Report it: tap the person, prayer request, candle, circle intention or message and choose Report. Reports are private; the other person is not told who reported them.
• Mute or block anyone you do not want to hear from. Blocking also stops direct messages.
• Please do not argue back or take matters into your own hands — let the moderators help.
• If someone may be in danger, contact local emergency services first, then write to [Owner name / contact e-mail].

What moderators do

Every message passes through automatic filters (for insults, slurs, links and phone numbers) and rate limits. Posts from new accounts may wait for a short review. Moderators review reports and may, depending on how serious things are:

• hide or delete content;
• mute an account for a while (no chat, messages or posts);
• limit an account so that what it writes is visible only to itself;
• suspend an account for a time, or ban it permanently.

Moderators are people too, often volunteers. Every action is recorded so it can be checked. If you think a decision was a mistake, write to [Owner name / contact e-mail].

Thank you for helping make One Candle a place where people feel safe enough to pray. These guidelines sit alongside the terms of use.