LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1962, Sheet 145

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PENSIONS 145

Church — Missouri Synod commend him for making his
experience available to the Board of Support and Pen-
sions as counselor and assistant to the newly appointed
Executive Secretary, and wish him God’s choicest bless-
ings in his continued service to God, his church, and
his fellowmen.

Action: This resolution was adopted.

Report of Pension Study Committee
RESOLUTION 10-02
Report 810, pp. 345348, Reports and Memorials

Wuereas, The 1959 synodical convention resolved to
authorize the President of the Synod to appoint a com-
mittee of representative personnel to study thoroughly
the possibility and advisability of instituting a more
comprehensive pension program for all qualifying lay
employees of the Synod, of all Districts of the Synod,
of colleges and seminaries, as well as lay persons serving
boards, agencies, and other organizational units, wholly
within the church; and

Wuereas, It was further resolved that this commit-
tee recommend to the next synodical convention a course
of action; and

Wuereas, In March 1961 Dr. Behnken enlarged the
scope of the work of the study committee by ruling that
the study committee “should concern itself also with
the study of the Pension Fund and its benefits, making
such recommendations to the synodical convention in
1962 regarding changes of improvements as seem to be
in order”; and

Whereas, Certain inadequacies are pointed out, for
present-day conditions, in the present pension program
for the professional workers of the Synod in the Report
of the Board of Support and Pensions (pp. 342 ff., Re-
ports and Memorials), which inadequacies were sub-
stantiated in open hearings; and

Wuereas, The recommendation of the Board of Sup-
port and Pensions as contained in its report (pp. 340 ff.,
Reports and Memorials) is contingent on the action on
Memorial 810; and

Wuereas, Representatives of the Board of Support
and Pensions were members of the Pension Study Com-
mittee; and

Wuereas, The Pension Study Committee has given
extensive study to this problem during the past tri-
ennium; and

Wuereas, The report submitted by the Pension Study
Committee was unanimously adopted by the committee
for presentation to this convention; therefore be it

Resolved, That the recommendations of the Pension
Study Committee (p.348, Reports and Memorials) re-
lating to the establishment of a new retirement and wel-
fare program, be hereby adopted, ratified, and approved
in principle, subject, however, to the provisions of the
following resolutions; and be it further

Resolved, That since a general convention cannot
give to the detailed provisions of such a retirement and

welfare program, within the time made available, that
degree of consideration and attention which will be
required for the establishment, the implementation, and
the administration of the program, the Board of Direc-
tors of the Synod is hereby authorized and instructed to
study and to review all aspects of the new program and
of the implementation and administration thereof as
recommended by the Pension Study Committee, and is
further authorized, before establishing and implement-
ing such a program, to make any and all changes in the
proposed program and in the proposed implementation
and administration thereof which the Board of Directors,
in its sole discretion, may deem advisable or desirable;
and be it further

Resolved, That the appropriate officers, boards, com-
mittees, and agencies of the Synod are authorized and
directed to take any and all action and to execute any
and all documents which may be necessary or advisable
to establish, implement, and administer the new retire-
ment and welfare program (herein sometimes referred
to as the “Benefit Program”) as the same may be modi-
fied or changed by the Board of Directors; and be it
further

Resolved, That at such time as the new Benefit Pro-
gram is established, the existing Pension Plan for Pas-
tors and Teachers (as set forth in the Handbook of the
Synod at sections 10.41 through 10.55) shall be amended
by the addition thereto of the following new section
10.57:

10.57 Integration with Benefit Program

On the date (to be determined by the Synod’s Board
of Directors) on which the Benefit Program (which was
submitted to the Synod at its 1962 convention in a Report
of the Pension Study Committee) becomes effective, the
Pension Plan for Pastors and Teachers, as set forth in the
preceding Sections 10.41 et seq., shall in all respects be
subject to the following provisions which shall take prec-
edence over any other provisions with which they might
otherwise be in conflict:

a. Contributions (either by the worker or by an em-
ployer) shall no longer be made to this Pension Fund,
and shall not be accepted by or on behalf of this Pension
Fund, for or with respect to any worker who, pursuant
to criteria established by the Synod in its adoption of the
Benefit Program: (1) is automatically precluded from
continuing as an active member of the Pension Plan; or
(2) elects to exercise the option, which the Benefit Pro-
gram may give him, to become an active member under
the Benefit Program.

b. Contributions from the worker and/or the employer
shall continue to be made to this Pension Fund only for
and with respect to a worker who, pursuant to criteria
established by the Synod in its adoption of the Benefit
Program, does not exercise an election to become an ac-
tive member under the Benefit Program and therefore
continues as an active member under the Pension Plan.

c. The term “active member,” as used herein, means
a member for whose benefit continuing contributions are
made.
and be it further
Resolved, That the Board of Directors and the Board
of Support and Pensions of the Synod hereby are au-
thorized and directed to study and’ to consider the
adoption of any other amendments of the present Pen-
sion Plan for pastors and teachers which may be neces-
sary or advisable as a result of the establishment of the