Mennonite Member Profile 2006, the results of which were released Feb. 1, shows the average age of MC USA members is 54, five years older than a similar 1989 survey found. The profile effort was directed by Elizabethtown (Pa.) College sociologist Conrad L. Kanagy.

The survey also showed the number of “non-cradle” Mennonites — MC USA members for whom both parents were not Mennonites — stood at 26 percent, up from 17 percent reflected in a similar 1972 survey. A total of 39 percent surveyed had married a spouse from a different denomination, up from 25 percent in 1972.

In other findings, 34 percent of the MC USA members surveyed said they were “very strongly” committed to the denomination and 12 percent to their area conference. The survey also found 58 percent are “very strongly” committed to their local MC USA congregation.

Of those surveyed, 48 percent said they wanted to remain a member of MC USA for life.

Though its results are being weighed against two earlier surveys, this latest profile provides a somewhat different view of the Anabaptist landscape. Because of the merger that created MC USA, a change in identity by another church and a decision by another group not to take part, the three denominations participating include only one group present in the prior reckonings.

Studies conducted in 1972 and 1989 included the General Conference Mennonite Church, the Mennonite Church, the Mennonite Brethren, the Evangelical Mennonite Church and the Brethren in Christ. Of these five, only the BIC remained in the 2006 survey.

Since the last study, the MC and GC denominations merged in 2002 to become MC USA and Mennonite Church Canada.

Meanwhile, the EMC, which had its origins in the 19th-century Egli Amish, changed its name to the Fellowship of Evangelical Churches in 2003. The move was said to be part of an ongoing shift amid the conference away from Mennonite distinctives that some members no longer felt attuned with.

The U.S. Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches was asked to take part in the study, as it did in 1972 and 1989, but declined.

The Church of the Brethren, which was not part of the previous studies, was added to the 2006 profile.

For the latest study, 3,080 MC USA members from 120 congregations received survey questionnaires. More than 76 percent of those who received questionnaires responded.

A book by Kanagy, Road Signs and Guideposts, will provide an overview of the entire church member profile. The book will be accompanied by congregational resources available on DVD and CD.

The full findings of the survey will be released in July at MC USA’s delegate assembly in San Jose, Calif.