Periodic Doctrinal Evaluation
Policy Section 1180
Conservative Mennonite Conference provides for ministerial members of CMC who are below 70 years of age to be evaluated every five years in regard to doctrinal positions. In these periodic evaluations, ordained ministers (ministers, bishops, and deacons) are requested to respond to Conservative Mennonite Statement of Theology (1991), the Mennonite Confession of Faith (1963), and the "Danvers Statement" (1987; adopted by CMC 1991). The responses are due by January 31 of the year of evaluation. The responses are received and evaluated by the Ministerial Committee. In cases of responses regarded as questionable, the Ministerial Committee communicates with the minister for clarification and possible solution and then refers the case to the CMC Executive Board.
The Ministerial Affirmation Form in section 3050 is processed in a five-year cycle with approxi-mately one-fifth of the ministers responding in a given year. The year of evaluation of a minister is designated by the last digit of his year of ordination and each fifth year thereafter, except that a min-ister does not submit the periodic questionnaire in the year of ordination. This plan is exemplified as follows:
Group A Years of last digit of 1 and 6 in 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016, etc.
Group B Years of last digit of 2 and 7 in 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, etc.
Group C Years of last digit of 3 and 8 in 2003, 2008, 2013, 2018, etc.
Group D Years of last digit of 4 and 9 in 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019, etc.
Group E Years of last digit of 5 and 0 in 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020, etc.
Ministers who become members of CMC by transfer follow the same schedule, using date of ordination rather than date of transfer, except that a transferee is not requested to submit a questionnaire within the first three years of transfer.