wfn.org | United Methodist officials explore funding Mozambique pension fund

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Nov. 14, 2003 News media contact: Linda Green7(615) 742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
7 E-mail: newsdesk@umcom.org7 ALL-AF {558}

NOTE: Photographs are available.

By Nancye Willis*

MAPUTO, Mozambique (UMNS)-"When someone loses a goat, he starts looking for
it, even on top of the trees," says an African proverb. 

"We've lost our goat," said United Methodist Bishop Joco Somane Machado,
likening the missing animal to the dire economic situation of Mozambique,
where unemployment is estimated between 50 percent and 85 percent. "Where can
we find it?"

Machado, leader of the churches in Mozambique, was among church officials
from that nation who met here recently with the Global Pensions Task Force, a
group of U.S. church officials investigating the possibility of offering
pension support to central (outside the United States) conferences. The
church in Mozambique, which has about 80 retired pastors, provides pensions,
but depressed economic system causes amounts to vary.

Contributing a percentage of salary toward retirement is a difficult concept
in this southeastern African nation, where a pastor's salary averages the
equivalent of $48 a month. Historically, pastors' salaries have been paid
intermittently, members of the task force learned, with most of the funds
coming from church entities outside the country. 

Missouri United Methodists help pay salaries of Mozambican pastors. "Missouri
money helps cover almost 90 percent, with 10 percent from local sources,"
said the Rev. Morais Quissico, pension administrator for the church's
Mozambique Area. Additionally, the United Methodist Publishing House
contributes part of its revenues to support pastors' pensions within and
beyond the United States. 

"If close to 90 percent of Mozambicans are in absolute poverty, United
Methodists are in that percentage," said Quissico. "We can't expect them to
have money to contribute toward pastors' salaries."

Besides supporting a family, Leonardo Lasse, North Maputo district
superintendent, noted, "pastors provide spiritual and material support,
including clothing and food, to church members." Therefore, he said, even
pastors who are paid regularly would find it difficult to put a portion of
their salaries aside for retirement.

The goal for the church in Mozambique, said Barbara Boigegrain, top executive
of the denomination's Board of Pension and Health Benefits, is that "clergy
and lay workers can have adequate support in old age." 

"Although pension plans might develop in different countries at different
paces," Boigegrain, a member of the task force and a participant in the visit
to Mozambique, added, "each would be a self-sustaining program, built in the
country of the people who would benefit in much the same way pensions for
'tired, worn-out preachers' developed in early American Methodism." 

Conference staff members, banking officials and representatives of
Mozambique's social security system met with the group to share information
about local economic conditions, investment possibilities and established
retirement practices. 

Clementina Chiziane, director of Mozambique's National Institute of Social
Security (INSS), outlined the national retirement plan. Under INSS,
established in 1989, employees contribute 3 percent of their salary, and the
employer, 4 percent, toward retirement. Participants must register with INSS
and maintain a consistent record of contributions, a difficult goal, when
salaries are relatively low.

Machado noted, "In terms of the system, that would be good, despite the fact
that we're still in a struggle to see how we can decide what constitutes a
reasonable salary."

INSS has set 60 as the age of retirement for men and 55 for women, with 10
years' contributions to the pensions system. Since few Mozambicans live until
the age of 70, "by the time they retire, they are advanced in age and
exhausted," said Arlindo Dias Simbine, Mozambique area financial executive
for the denomination's Board of Global Ministries (BGM). "They survive, but
barely."

"We've never had anyone want to retire early," said Alexandre Machaba,
treasurer of the church's Mozambique Area. "To be a pastor is to accept all
kinds of sacrifice," he added, including little money and long distances to
travel without adequate means of transportation. 

Although Mozambique faces many challenges, opportunities are present, said
Xavier Guambe, director of the Mozambique Council on Ministries. "Peace makes
Mozambique a preferred country for many investors," he said. 

"The United Methodist Church is well-respected by government and civil
society," Guambe added, "and the government is open to working with the
church, providing moral, and in some cases, financial support for community
development."

Machado said he and conference staff have considered investment possibilities
in land owned by the church, including the marketing of cashew nuts and
coconut products. "People from South Africa are coming to get coconut oil to
process for beauty products and other uses," he said.

The initial investment would be for a machine to extract the oil, he noted.
"Once it is set up, it doesn't cost much to run. All year you can get
coconuts."

Machado expressed gratitude for the U.S. delegation's visit. "Our joy is to
be, for the first time, sitting down and talking with our brothers and
sisters here," he said. "These conversations are making us start to feel much
more a part of the global church."

In that sense, the bishop said, "When a small finger feels the pain, the
whole body feels it; when the head hurts, the whole body goes to the hospital
with it. But when one part of the body starts to dance, the rest of the body
will dance with it." 

The delegation to Mozambique included Boigegrain, John Connors and Sarah
Johnson, Board of Pension and Health Benefits staff members; James Branscome,
treasurer of the denomination's Virginia Annual (regional) Conference and a
member of the pension board's directors; Donald Reasoner, BGM translator;
Jerald Scott, BGM staff executive; Paul Dirdak, director of the United
Methodist Committee on Relief; Rukudzo Murapa, vice chancellor of Africa
University; and Nancye Willis, representing United Methodist Communications.
 
The Mozambique visit, the second the task force has made, included sessions
with Bishop Machado, conference staff members, banking officials and
representatives of Mozambique's social security system. A similar visit to
Russia took place in July.

The Global Pensions Task Force was established after the 2000 General
Conference when the church's missions agency identified pension support for
central conference pastors as a new mission initiative. The legislative
assembly called for the establishment of a fund to "launch a pension support
plan for the central conferences." 

The Board of Global Ministries has pledged funds for central conference
pensions, and the task force is investigating other funding sources. A
Central Conference Pension Initiative fund has been established to help
churches outside the U.S. pay pension benefits to their ministers and lay
workers. Conferences, churches and clergy in the U.S. will not be required to
contribute to this fund. 

An overview of the Central Conference Pension Initiative, a short list of
frequently asked questions and answers, a copy of the legislative document,
and feedback mechanism are available at the initiative Web site
www.gbophb.org/news/ccpi. 

# # #

*Willis is a staff member of United Methodist Communications

 
 

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