wfn.org | Church's Temporary General Aid Fund fulfills mission

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Jan. 9, 2002  News media contact: Joretta Purdue7(202) 546-87227Washington
10-31-32-71B{006}

By United Methodist News Service

With a final payment of $11,000 to an annual conference in the South, the
United Methodist Church has fulfilled a commitment made 37 years ago, when
the denomination saw a need for ensuring pay equity among clergy members as
a result of integration.

The payment was made late last year to the Mississippi Annual Conference
account at the denomination's Board of Pension and Health Benefits,
concluding an important chapter in the church's history. It signaled the
termination of the Temporary General Aid Fund, which had collected and
distributed about $23 million since its creation by the 1964 General
Conference.

The fund was created to raise the level of pensions and minimum salaries for
clergy in the former Central Jurisdiction and the Rio Grande Annual
Conference, serving African-American and Hispanic members, respectively. The
Central Jurisdiction was the Methodist Church's racially segregated,
non-geographical jurisdiction, formed in 1939 and eliminated with the 1968
union of the Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren churches. 

The Methodist Church's General Conference established the fund in
anticipation of the 1968 union. The fund was continued by the 1968 Uniting
General Conference, and through the years it provided grants-in-aid to the
annual conferences in the geographical jurisdictions receiving transfers
from the former Central Jurisdiction. 

The pension portion of the aid was distributed by the Board of Pensions,
which became the Board of Pension and Health Benefits. The minimum-salary
portion was administered by the General Council on World Service and
Finance, which became the General Council on Finance and Administration
(GCFA). Financial support came from the church's U.S. annual conferences
through a system of apportioned asking.

"The actions taken by the 1964 and 1968 General Conferences were bold and
justice-oriented," said Bishop Alfred L. Norris, GCFA president. "Having
been a member of the Central Jurisdiction at that time, I am personally
aware of the need for such action. Once again, our denomination rose to the
occasion with a sense of compassion, concern and justice. We are a stronger
church because of it."
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United Methodist News Service
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