The Board of Pensions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has announced the most extensive changes to the Assistance Program in a generation. The changes steer financial help to ministers where their need is greatest and loosen requirements to extend access across Benefits Plan membership. The changes take effect January 1, 2022.
In a small conference room at the Board of Pensions, before COVID-19 led to staff working remotely, D.J. Lee recalled how he chose to travel from his home in South Korea to Philadelphia to earn an MBA. He spread an imaginary map of the United States across the conference table and ran his hands across it, one westward, one eastward.
The Board of Pensions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has announced changes to the church Benefits Plan that extend support to more ministers and add benefits that promote financial protection for all church workers.
The changes, effective January 1, 2021, are the most substantial since the plan redesign of 2017.
An African American CREDO conference hosted by the Board of Pensions in partnership with Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary drew 17 African American ministers to Roslyn Retreat Center in Richmond, Virginia, to cultivate wholeness — specifically, their spiritual, vocational, health, and financial well-being.
With a market value of $9.6 billion, the Board of Pensions’ Balanced Investment Portfolio returned 10.3 percent during the first eight months of 2019, more than 4 percent over the long-term investment return assumption of 3, 10 and 20 years.
In a single month, Elizabeth Little vacationed, all expenses paid, at Westin’s resort in Los Cabos, Mexico, as a top sales leader; oversaw a $150,000 bar mitzvah at the Westin Charlotte in North Carolina, as senior catering manager; and took a mission trip to Mexico’s Yucatan, where she slept in a hammock in a village where no child had access to middle school.The contrasts were jarring.“I just kept thinking, there has to be something more,” said Little, who has been a Church Consultant with the Board of Pensions since 2016. “How could I take my hotel experience into the mission world?”
“If the new Healthy Pastors, Healthy Congregations program were a breakfast food, you could say it’s selling like hotcakes,” said Andy Browne, Vice President of Church Relations for the Board of Pensions.
The Board of Pensions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has received a $1 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., enabling the expansion of Healthy Pastors, Healthy Congregations into a program of national scope and impact.
