Lutheran (EL C S*A) Ping!
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Christ is Born, Glorify Him!
Posted on 01/07/2010 3:24:07 PM PST by SmithL
St. Paul, Minn. — The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's publishing house is telling retirees and workers that it is shutting down its pension because of stock market losses and a business downturn, and it could leave scores of retirees without a regular income as of April.
The crisis at Augsburg Fortress is exposing an obscure loophole in federal pension law and the financial stress religious institutions have been under during the economic downturn.
Fifty years ago, Joyce Ostrem graduated from college and went looking to do the Lord's work.
"I considered myself a Christian, and I wanted to, you know, serve the church in some way," Ostem said.
The clergy wasn't really an option for a woman at the time, so Ostrem got a job at Augsburg Fortress, the Minneapolis-based publishing arm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It prints and distributes everything from church bulletins to packages of authentic palm ash.
Ostrem worked at Augsburg Fortress for 45 years, mostly as a billing clerk. She retired five years ago, and has been living in Richfield, on Social Security and a pension from the publisher.
"It was really a wonderful organization for a lot of years," she said.
But on New Year's Eve, she got devastating news. Augsburg Fortress's pension fund owed more than the company could pay -- and maybe even more than the publisher was worth. Augsburg Fortress plans to shut the pension down and dole out what's left this spring. Ostrem and about 500 people are affected.
(Excerpt) Read more at minnesota.publicradio.org ...
A church spokesman said Tuesday that the 4.5 million member ELCA had decided it had no legal obligation to the Augsburg Fortress retirees.Who does the ELCA think they have an obligation to?
Everyone who is retiring is going to “take it in the shorts” because of the crash and the Great Depression that we’re entering. It looks like the “books will be balanced” on the backs of a whole lot of retirees, in many different areas...
That’s how things will be made right again, taking all the money away from retirees. The people who continue to work will be okay, because they will be getting future retirement benefits based on how their salaries are after we slowly get out of this Great Depression.
“Who does the ELCA think they have an obligation to? “
1. Marxism
2. LGBT coalition
3. Global Warming
4. Obama
5. Abortion Clinics
Lutheran (EL C S*A) Ping!
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Christ is Born, Glorify Him!
"This is another fine mess you've gotten me into, Stanley"!
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