WASHINGTON — The United Methodist Church’s mandatory retirement age of 70 discriminates against gifted and qualified pastors and should be repealed, the church’s Committee on Older Adult Ministries said.
The 24-member committee plans to ask the church’s highest legislative body, the 2004 General Conference, to repeal the ban. The policy currently mandates that church pastors and lay people elected to church agencies must retire at age 70.
The panel pointed to two contradictory statements on the issue — the church’s constitution that contains the age cap, and a resolution passed in 1988 and upheld in 2000 that calls for the elimination of the mandatory retirement.
Because resolutions are not “legally binding,” General Conference delegates would have to vote to insert it into the constitution.
“It is a justice issue for older people who are capable and willing to serve the church,” Julius Archibald, the committee’s vice chairman, told United Methodist News Service. “In times of shortages, why are we dismissing capable and qualified people against their will?”
Committee members said there is no specific time when qualified pastors and lay leaders might lose their skills. They added that people are living longer and generally healthier lives and should not be told they cannot serve.
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