(RNS) — When the Rev. Carieta Cain-Grizzell reached age 75, she had anticipated to retire after a lifetime as an African Methodist Episcopal Church member who endedupbeing a pastor of anumberof of its churches.
Instead, the Washington, D.C., native-turned-Californian is now “on loan” to the United Methodist Church, veryfirst pastoring a Fair Oaks parish and justrecently designated to one in Oakland.
“Pastoring is my ministry,” stated Cain-Grizzell, whose familytree in the traditionally Black AME denomination traces back 5 generations. “It was something that I desired to do,
although I had to do it even if I didn’t desire to do it.”
Cain-Grizzell is one of thousands of pastors, seniorcitizens and staffers of the AME Church who lost significant parts of their retirement costsavings due to an declared mishandling of the accounts. A class action claim submitted in 2022 versus the church computed the overall loss at $90 million. As of Wednesday (Aug.21), church management has not exposed a clear course to bringback the funds.
The Rev. Carieta Cain-Grizzell. (Courtesy image)
As the AME Church opened its weeklong quadrennial General Conference on Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio, individuals like Cain-Grizzell questioned how the fallout from the monetary crisis may be dealtwith at the conference, which concludes on Aug. 28.
In the veryfirst company session of the conference, the church’s basic counsel offered an upgrade on the examinations and lawsuits associated to the “legacy retirement strategy” and there was an “intense dispute” inbetween 2 bishops as the Department of Retirement Services was wentover, reported The Christian Recorder, the church’s authorities publication.
Douglass Selby, the church’s lawyer, stated the church hasactually been dealtwith as a victim rather than a subject of examinations by the U.S. Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“The AME Church is objectively in a much morepowerful position in liability than 12 months ago,” he stated, according to The Christian Recorder.
The bishops discussed how cash may be broughtback to strategy individuals, with one lookingfor a path that did not boost the denomination’s financialobligations and another intending to safeguard its legal techniques, the paper reported.
A 3rd bishop, who co-chairs the retirement services commission, stated strategy individuals who haveactually revealed issues would have a newbie “full rundown” in an Aug. 30 webinar.
As of Thursday, 2,100 delegates were participatingin the event of the denomination that dates to 1816.
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At the opening praise service, the list on the conference’s style — “The Pandemics, The Promise, The Plan” — spoke of department in the AME Church’s ranks.
Bishops procedure in throughout the opening of the African Methodist Episcopal Church quadrennial General Conference on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. (Video screen grab)
“We admit that our fellowship hasactually been fractured,” read Bishop E. Anne Henning Byfield. “Some feel betrayed and hurt, a situation with the prospective to tear us apart, fragmented and weak. Was the Vision offered to our age-old creator simply myopic?”
The reaction in the list for other worshippers was: “A thousand conditions to vex our souls, yet we are the Church, we are called to Hope.”
Later on the veryfirst day of the General Conference, the church’s AME bishops launched their quadrennial episcopal address, a summation and commentary on what had tookplace within and outside the denomination because their last conference — consistingof the retirement problems.
“Investigating the retirement department has resulted in the requirement to reconstruct trust from the church’s stakeholders — both laypeople and clergy,” they stated. “Although we have established a brand-new strategy that charts a brand-new course and supplies more openness, the future of the AME Church will likewise depend on our a