As a general rule, the information on CDO personal profiles is provided by the registrant. Information from other sources may be included as follows:
- The Church Deployment Office: a Ministry of Transitions (CDO) may receive information from authorized parties (bishops, diocesan deployment officers, the Church Pension Group) in certain “public record” areas pertinent to their area of responsibility, e.g. canonical residence, work address and contact information, change of cure, ordination status, retirement, clergy discipline, death. (N.B. Dioceses are required by canon law to transmit information regarding canonical clergy discipline to CDO.) The Church Deployment Office: a Ministry of Transitions (CDO) may also receive address changes from the US Postal Service.
- Upon receipt of such information CDO will make the appropriate changes in the personnel database, which will normally be designated an “Administrative Change.”
- Except in matters of clergy discipline and death, CDO will send a communication to the registrant, informing him/her that a change has been made in his/her CDO personnel record. This is to enable any necessary updating or correction of the record by the registrant.
The accuracy of the data in the personal profile record is the responsibility of the registrant.
CDO makes every effort to ensure that registrants whose profiles are available are in good standing in their dioceses, but is dependent on the receipt of third-party information. CDO does not conduct background checks, which are the responsibility of the diocese or other deploying agency.
CDO may communicate information on specific registrants, including copies of personal profiles, only to bishops or their properly certified diocesan deployment officers. In the case of non-diocesan institutions and organizations every effort will be made to restrict the distribution of information to equivalent officers.
The transmission of information for other than deployment purposes is restricted to the following policy adopted by the Board for Church Deployment:
Because, more and more, the Church Deployment Office is asked to provide data for various studies of clergy and deployment practices and, because one pledge of the Church Deployment Office is a guarantee of confidentiality of its registrants, we seek to make clear a policy guideline for decision-making about these requests. Except for deployment purposes:
- We affirm that all information in the possession of the Church Deployment Office is confidential. Only the Presiding Bishop, a Diocesan Bishop or the duly appointed deputy may receive information from the CDO files.
- In light of this, persons seeking information from the Church Deployment Office may do so with the consent of their Bishop or the duly appointed deputy so long as such information is limited to that particular diocese.
- Persons seeking information across diocesan lines (provincial, national, etc.) may receive information from the CDO files provided that they do so empowered by a resolution of the General Convention, the House of Bishops or with the written permission of the Presiding Bishop.
- In the case of interdenominational sharing or other national surveys (such as the Church Pension Fund or Council for the Development of Ministry, etc.) the Executive of the Church Deployment Office may give information from the CDO files with the consent of the Church Deployment Board or its executive Committee, providing that such groups subscribe to this understanding of confidentiality.
CDO is guided by the following resolution of the Board for Church Deployment on non-discrimination and affirmative action:
- Resolved, that the Church Deployment Office make use of every opportunity to lead the Church into providing at all levels opportunity for employment regardless of race, marital status, age or sex, and
- That to that end the Church Deployment Office establish and make known to the Church a policy of not using such categories in searching its files for the purpose of deployment, except to further by positive action the deployment of women and minorities.
For reasons of security and confidentiality CDO will normally not send personal profiles by facsimile transmission. In extraordinary circumstances CDO may transmit a profile by facsimile upon prior receipt of a written release from the registrant.
