wfn.org | Panel urges elimination of mandatory clergy retirement age

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TITLE:Panel urges elimination of mandatory clergy retirement age

Feb. 15, 2000 News media contact: Linda Green·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-71B{067}

By Robert Lear*

KISSIMMEE, Fla. (UMNS) - A United Methodist committee is calling for the
elimination of the mandatory retirement age for the church's ordained
clergy.

"Effectiveness in ministry is not related to chronological age," the
20-member Committee on Older Adult Ministries said at its meeting Feb.
11-12. The panel's chairman is the Rev. Harry Wolfe, of Laurinburg, N.C.

Currently, ordained clergy must retire no later than age 70, and they may do
so sooner under one or another of several provisions in the denomination's
Book of Discipline.  Bishops must retire between age 66 and 70, depending on
when their birthdate falls in relation to jurisdictional conferences held
every four years.

The General Conference, the United Methodist Church's top legislative body,
will discuss the retirement issue when it meets May 2-12 in Cleveland.
Committee members said they would support delegates at the conference
seeking to remove the mandatory retirement age.

In other action, the panel called on all United Methodist-related health
care and retirement centers to "embrace the standards and goals" of an
accreditation program known as Eagle. The program operates under the
auspices of the United Methodist Association of Health and Welfare
Ministries, based in Dayton, Ohio. Only 40 of the 400 such institutions in
United Methodism meet Eagle standards, said Robert Willner of Nashville,
Tenn., a consultant to the committee from the health and welfare
organization.

Turning attention beyond the denomination, the panel urged the World
Methodist Council, World Methodist Conference and World Federation of
Methodist and United Church Women to include programs and resources related
to older people when people from Wesleyan traditions around the globe gather
in Brighton, England, next year.

Such an exposure, the older adult panel said, would raise awareness of the
needs, talents and gifts of older people as they relate to economic,
political, social and educational life.  Projections are that by 2030, in
the United States alone, people 65 and above will make up 20 percent to 22
percent of the total population.

Looking to the 2001-2004 quadrennium, the committee supported strongly a
proposed hymn and worship book for use in nursing homes and other health
care facilities.  Such a volume likely would be spiral bound, large print,
and include liturgies and other worship resources in addition to familiar
hymns.

More than 54,000 copies of a resource booklet on the 1999 United Nations
International Year of Older Persons have been distributed, said the Rev.
Richard H. Gentzler Jr., director of adult ministries at the United
Methodist Board of Discipleship in Nashville. About 30,000 of those were
distributed in the United Methodist Church, he said.

A second world assembly on aging will be held in 2002. A variety of
international events are planned for this year, including a global older
women's roundtable on human rights in March, and an international day of
older persons.

Within United Methodism, the Board of Discipleship will sponsor a major
event on adult ministries April 24-27, 2001. Gentzler said the agenda will
include training for leaders of older adult ministries, as well as other
adult groupings, on the theme "Rivers of Faith."

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United Methodist News Service
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