wfn.org | Older adults want church to eliminate mandatory retirement

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

March 12, 2002	News media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.     10-71B{099}

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - The United Methodist Committee on Older Adult
Ministries is requesting that the denomination eliminate mandatory
retirement requirements for all lay people and clergy members serving in the
church.

Meeting March 8-9, the committee noted a contradiction between the
denomination's 2000 Book of Discipline and 2000 Book of Resolutions. The
Book of Discipline, the church's book of law and guiding principles, calls
for the mandatory retirement at age 70 of all lay people elected to staff
positions at churchwide agencies and of clergy members in full connection.
However, Resolution 144, adopted by the 1988 General Conference and revised
at the 2000 General Conference, calls for the elimination of mandatory
retirement based solely on age at all levels of the church. General
Conference is the church's highest legislative assembly.

The 24-member Committee on Older Adult Ministries serves as a forum for
cooperative planning of programs by, with and for senior adults. Created by
the 1996 General Conference, it is administratively related to the Board of
Discipleship, based in Nashville.

After discussing the conflict between the two books, the committee passed a
resolution calling for the 2004 General Conference to eliminate mandatory
retirement from the United Methodist Church. The committee is requesting
that Resolution 144 be implemented and that retirement-related paragraphs in
the Book of Discipline be deleted or amended. 

Resolution 144 states that by 2030, older adults will outnumber the young
people in the population. It calls attention to better health care,
nutrition and job safety for people living into older adulthood. It notes
that daily in the United States, 5,600 people celebrate their 65th birthday
and 4,550 people aged 65 or older die, resulting in an increase of 1,050
older adults daily.

The older adults committee said there is no specific age when gifts of
ministry are lost, and losses of those gifts vary from person to person.
People are living longer and having more productive lives, the group noted.
Increased life span in the United States has resulted in a population that
is older, healthier and more active than in the past.

"It is a justice issue for older people who are capable and willing to serve
the church," said committee Vice Chairman Julius Archibald, of Plattsburgh,
N.Y. "In times of shortages, why are we dismissing capable and qualified
people against their will?"

Church laws exist that address retirement of clergy and bishops who have
passed their capacity for effectiveness, committee members noted.

In other action, the committee, through the Comprehensive Plan for Older
Adult Ministries, is providing funding for helping U.S. annual conferences
in ministries with older adults. Each annual conference is invited to send
two people to a March 27-30, 2003, symposium on older adult ministries at
Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville.

The committee also:
7	Approved the development of an advanced lay-speaking course, which
will be made available in Spanish.
7	Requested that an advanced lay-speaking course be developed to equip
lay people to lead worship services in retirement communities.
7	Requested that the Mil Voces Para Celebrar, the Spanish-language
hymnal, be printed in large type.
7	Received a presentation on older adults and hearing loss from Wineva
Hankamer, secretary of the denomination's National Committee for Ministries
with Deaf, Late-deafened, Hard of Hearing and Deaf Blind People.
7	Received a presentation on Primetimers, a churchwide Board of Global
Ministries program that offers a continued mission experience for mature
adults who cannot participate physically in a regular, strenuous United
Methodist Volunteer in Mission experience.
7	Heard that the United Methodist Association, an organized body of
health and welfare organizations, has opened its accreditation program to
other faith-based organizations that serve a Christian-based mission.

# # #

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org