THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
Mississippi Area + Episcopal Office
Hope Morgan Ward, Resident Bishop
Dear Sisters and Brothers in ministry,
Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We write to challenge all clergy in the Mississippi Conference to very special generosity as we gather soon for Annual Conference.
Our Methodist tradition has always included a concern for ministers who have given their life in Christ's ministry. As early as 1774, before the Methodist Church was formed in America, Methodists in the colonies took up special Easter offerings dedicated to "preachers in want." At the Christmas Conference of 1784 creating the Methodist Church in America, two actions have impacted our church to the present time. One was the establishment of The Preachers' Fund to care for the "worn out preachers" and the sending of two newly ordained ministers to the Caribbean as missionaries. From these actions, The General Board of Pensions would later emerge and the American Methodist missionary movement would reach out to the world.
Today the United Methodist Church has one of the strongest pension benefits programs for clergy and lay workers of any religious body in America. The mission emphasis of our church is no less significant. In 1884, the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church founded the Central Conference which included all Methodist Churches outside the United States. The growth of these churches has been phenomenal in the last several decades. United Methodist Church membership rose 233.1% in Africa and 200.9% in the Philippines between 1995 and 2005.
There is a great imbalance between the experience of clergy retiring in the United States and the experience of clergy retiring outside the United States. Clergy in the Central Conferences have had no assurances for their years in retirement. The General Conference in 2000 created the Central Conference Pension Initiative to correct this situation.
From the earliest days of the Methodist movement and now in the Central Conferences, clergy have given first toward the support of brother and sister clergy in retirement. In this tradition, we invite each of you to join with the two of us in preparing a personal offering to be received at the Clergy Session on June 11 for the Central Conference Pension Initiative. An offering envelope is provided for your use in the Clergy Session. Exemplary generosity and leadership of clergy will be a strong witness to the laity as this need is shared across our Annual Conference.
In the Clergy Session, you will also be asked to consider a leadership role in the next steps in Mississippi in support of the Central Conference Pension Initiative. If God is calling you to serve in this way, you will be welcomed into a leadership role for this important work.
The total amount of the clergy offering will be shared with the entire Annual Conference in the Friday afternoon session as we interpret and invite the Friday evening offering to be divided equally between the Central Conference Pension Initiative and new church planting here in Mississippi.
We look forward to being with each of you soon as we gather for Annual Conference in Jackson June 11-13.
In Christ's service,
Bishop Hope Morgan Ward
Bishop Clay Lee
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