The Rev. Steven McClaskey really didn’t want to retire right now from his pastoral post at Trinity Church in Rock Island.
Yet, he also didn’t want to risk losing his pension, which advisers and he felt was endangered, by the continued dispute between Episcopal Church leaders and the worldwide Anglican Communion.
The two sides have been at odds since the 2003 consecration of the Rev. Gene Robinson, a non-celibate homosexual, as a New Hampshire bishop. The crisis escalated in 2006 when Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was named as the church’s presiding bishop.
Anglican archbishops issued a Sept. 30 deadline for Episcopal Church leaders to give “unequivocal assurances” that they will stop advocating teaching and practices “incompatible with Holy Scripture;” and would not consent any longer to consecrating bishops living in a same-sex relationship or blessing same-sex unions.
The Episcopal House of Bishops gathered Thursday and continue to meet this weekend in New Orleans to discuss the dissension, including a face-to-face meeting with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Would Fr. McClaskey’s pension actually have been in any danger?
I wonder about that myself Irenaeus, I think he got some bad advice. None the less, it is sad that many decisions these days are based on pensions and property, not faith.
… and it is equally sad that even the threat of impoverishing an elderly/retired/retiring priest is something a lifetime of faithful proclamation could even be considered in the Body of Christ. The sin is the institutional one; that this man has that level of concern because he stands “outside” the norm of TEC’s apostacy.
Maryland Brian
I am only about 1 hour from the quad cities and would like to visit one of the churches sometime. I have a great respect for Bishop Ackerman though I am rather low-church, myself.
I would like to worship with them but I also would like to find out how the man-in-the-pew is taking the current events.
If anyone wants to pass along any info/recommendations on any of the congregations in the quad-cities area can contact me at:
daviddel@mhtc.net
Very strange article. The only way I can see a Church Pension Fund pension being in any way involved is if the parish failed to pay the premiums or if the priest were to leave the ministry of the Episcopal Church. If the Diocese decides to leave as a unit I expect pensions to be frozen, but not in any danger.
Tom Rightmyer in Asheville, NC
Thanks, Tom. My understanding (from a former member of the Executive Council) is that if a priest leaves TEC, assuming payments to his pension fund are stoppped thereby, his account would be frozen and put in escrow until the age when these funds can be drawn upon, and then he would receive them.
There is something really fishy about this report, to my suspicious mind on all dissident spinning. It sounds like this reporter has been suckered into making TEC look horrid again. The more serious issue is whether Quincy will try to leave TEC and take the Church’s property as they split.