Thursday, March 4, 2010

Seeking a "New Normal"

I just returned from one of the "District Days" being offered around the region for clergy and laity to share information about where we are in the planning process and what the Health and Pension Benefits picture looks like moving forward. This was the first event I've attended and I was impressed by the attention given (it was all clergy and we're easily distracted!), the good questions asked and the helpful suggestions offered.

In particular I appreciated the way people acknowledged the huge challenges we're facing as we put together a region-wide health benefits plan for clergy. Meeting the needs and expectations of hundreds and hundreds of clergy who've lived under very different systems is proving harder than anyone expected. For years our current annual conferences have met those needs in ways that worked in that situation, creating a set of expectations we naturally came to accept as "normal."

But now we're all being asked to live into a "new normal" and its no wonder some of us are experiencing not a little anxiety and discomfort. Although much of the tension I'm hearing about now seems focused around the new health care plan, I'm certain other issues will emerge even as this one settles down. Its the nature of the journey we're on.

Regarding the new health care plan, I'd offer just a few reflections:
1. the whole country is wrestling with this issue, so it is no wonder Upper New York United Methodists are struggling with how to care for it.
2. some good, smart and faithful people have put this new program together AND some good, smart and faithful people are raising questions about it. If we continue to talk with one another like sisters and brothers in Christ, we'll get to the place we need to.

Keep checking uppernewyork.org for updates on this issue. Work's still being done. Your prayers, comments, goodwill, sense of humor and adventure are welcome and needed.

3 comments:

  1. HI Bill and New ACT team
    --I am wondering why we need to have a single, uniform health care provider and plan. I am wondering if it is truly necessary--or if it is just convenient, but very expensive.

    I think of the health care professionals in hospitals admissions offices who have to know the benefits of many programs--and I wonder if it would be cheaper to hire part time one of those professionals who already knows all those programs, and allow clergy to keep the health care plans they have now--and offer them a selection each time they are moved around.
    it seems worth investigating if local churches would be more willing to spend a grand total of $20,000-30,000 ( which comes to $1000, more or less, per charge) for such a professional, perhaps one that works evening hours (so that no extra money is spent for office space) than the $5000 more per charge that apparently many will be paying.

    I would be interested to know if the pastors and laity of other district meetings decided that uniformity of salaries and benefits was the top priority--as it apparently was in the meeting I attended--or if something else was.

    thank you for all the hard work you and the team have been doing; I understand that all members of it are serving in local churches in various capacities, clergy and lay, and that this time of year makes the NEW ACT work even more tough to keep going...
    May God continue to bless you all with your work; I keep praying for our new conference, and for all the people with all the fears...
    living into a new normal is very tough, and nobody really likes it much.

    grace and peace
    fran hemstreet
    pastor, harrisville and natural bridge umcs
    northern flow district

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  2. I am so glad I took Holly Nye's advice and am now "hooked-up" to your blog. This is cool! Already I'm encouraged by the material you're offering and reading the comments from my sisters and brothers.

    I thought the Feb. BOM retreat was exceptionally energizing and engaging as we gathered to wonder about our identity (what will be our "new normal?").

    At the March 11 Troy clergy gathering, the video presentation and Q & A session that followed were very well done. Honesty seemed to be the central theme as all of us are in this "wilderness" journey (with it's distinctive "promised land" - our new conference).

    I hope that as our saints experience the anxiety (while still breathing!), the local church leadership will shift from anxiety-reduction to confidence-building. There are ways to do that that are simple, affordable, and already present within each congregation.

    Thank you and all the folks that are so hard-at-work in discovering this "new thing" that God has delivered to we Upstate New Yorkers.

    Ray Stees (Embury [the "New" Albany] District)

    'Living Faithfully Forward into Our Future'
    www.theedgeoftomorrow.com

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  3. My wife and I are two persons who have become part-time local pastors through circumstance rather than choice. We began as full-time pastors and have served churches in a variety of settings that were tenuous at the time and more often than not experienced great resistance as we sought to help aging congregations develop a vision for the future. We have served the UMC faithfully for 2 decades and have always enjoyed the benefit of quality health care coverage - which made more palatable the demotion to part-time status. Today, I am one of the co-conveners on the CQ Leadership team. It will be a sad irony if the Upper New York Area begins life as a new and visionary conference by marginalizing an entire group of persons who have given up so much to serve Jesus. The moral and justice issues alone are staggering. If we are to get off on the right footing, all of us will have to work together to ensure that we do not create or recreate a structure comprised of an elite class of clergy (full time elders and staff) and a marginalized class (part time clergy and staff). Speaking in a general way for the conveners of the CQT, this was our mutual response to the health care proposal. And I know that any future response that avoids the above scenario that can only stain the new conference image, we must work tirelessly, not only to provide quality health care options for all our clergy and staff, but examine as well how we utilize and deploy the gifts and graces of those of us called to a full time life of ministry in the name of Jesus and under the auspices of the United Methodist connection.

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