Changes in Pension Fund Recommended
Diocesan Press Service. September 14, 1967 [57-8]
Broad changes in the Pension Fund of the Episcopal Church will be urged at the 62nd General Convention of the Church in Seattle, Wash., Sept. 17 to 27, to bring the plan up to present clergy needs without increase in the present parish assessment.
Proposed changes include the following factors: adoption of a substantial pension increase immediately basing the clergy pensions on the ten best consecutive earning years; lowering the normal retirement age from 68 to 65; increased housing allowances from the present 20% to 25% of salary; an increase in minimum pensions; vested interest in accrued pension to be given to a deposed or resigned clergyman after 10 or more years of active ministry.
Other recommendations are: mandatory Social Security for clergy instead of voluntary enrollment; inclusion of clergy in national group life insurance and major medical plans already in use by the Executive Council and many dioceses; more communication about the Fund to the clergy; widows pensions to be based on highest ten consecutive year's earnings; doubling the lump sum death benefit from one to two thousand dollars to any named beneficiary; and regular reviewing of pension adequacy.
The report urging the Pension Fund changes was made by an independent committee of review appointed by Presiding Bishop Hines at the request of the Fund's trustees last year.