Methodists Seek to End Forced Retirement

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Methodist Church’s mandatory retirement age of 70 discriminates against gifted and qualified pastors and should be repealed, the church’s Committee on Older Adult Ministries said.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 laypeople elected to church agencies retire at age 70.

The panel cites 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.