very now and then a major council of the Seventh-day Adventist Church confronts the participants with a moment of truth. The procedure followed and the actions taken often shape the future for good or for ill.

Leaders from North America came to such a fork in the road at the recently concluded Year End Meeting. Two emotionally charged items coalesced in a potent brew�retirement and race. The potential for anger, words that would leave long-lasting scars, and even separation was high.

In the church as in society, the security of retirement benefits carries heavy weight. For many years the North American Adventist church has followed a defined benefits plan: retired ministers, teachers, and other workers receive monthly benefits according to their years of service, with maximum benefits being calculated on 40 years.� By design this plan was never fully funded: contributions flowed in, mainly from conferences, and disbursements flowed out. To fully fund the plan would require many hundreds of millions of dollars and the division has all along considered that funds should not be tied up in this manner. Instead, it keeps funding at about a three-year level�that is, about three times the funding for a single year.

This longstanding plan was �frozen� as of December 31, 1999. In its place a defined contributions scheme was introduced: the employer makes basic tax deferred contributions for each eligible employee, with an additional matching amount for those employees who choose to make voluntary contributions of their own through payroll deduction. It is now up to the worker to manage the account individually.

Under the new plan the division does not have to set aside funds in a long-term account. The old, defined benefits plan has to be maintained, however, to keep checks flowing to the 14,500 or so retired people who currently receive benefits and those many more who will retire under this plan in the future. Thus, since January 1, 2000, conferences in North America have continued to make payments into the old plan (these will decrease over time) as well as provide basic and matching contributions for employees under the new plan.

This sets the stage for the defining moment.

Eight conferences do not like the new plan because it puts the onus for retirement on the worker rather than the employer; they have developed a separate, defined benefits plan. Further, they have prepared careful studies that show that these conferences have contributed far more to the funding of the old plan than the benefits received by retired workers from those conferences. These eight conferences therefore state that they will not contribute the full nine percent of tithe expected of conferences to keep the old plan viable.

The eight conferences are all regional (African�American). The remaining regional conference has not so far joined with the eight.

A potent mix indeed. On one side, long standing feelings of inequities coupled with anxiety over adequate retirement. On the other, dismay and anxiety over keeping the old plan secure. A volatile situation ripe for accusations and counter�accusations, for circling the wagons and separating into camps of �us� and �them�. The immediate casualties would be mobility of workers from one conference to another, and so on; the larger fall�out would be the unraveling of the North American Division as a smooth, functioning body of conferences operating under the same terms.

Going into the Year End Meeting division president Don Schneider and other leaders had grave concerns about the impact of this item. Schneider sought counsel from all sides, especially from revered figures in the Black community like Elder Charles E. Bradford. Prayer and fasting became the backdrop of this year�s meeting.

And Schneider and his associates changed the format for discussion of this explosive issue. Instead of the usual procedure where leaders introduce actions to be discussed, amended, and voted up or down, they called for a town�hall forum. Presentations were made, reactions from the body entertained, and questions�oral or written�asked. But no motion could be introduced: the purpose was informational, so that the various aspects and feelings could emerge in a free, open setting.

Schneider, chairing the meeting, declared that he did not have the answer, but that together the delegates would try to find the answer. He made clear that the meeting would provide the basis for subsequent meetings with the conferences involved until a solution was found. Referring frequently to counsel from Ellen White in Testimonies, vol. 8, pp. 10�12, he drew particular attention to her admonition: �My brethren, allow nothing to come in that will separate you from one another or from God� (p. 12).

A wonderful spirit prevailed throughout. The meeting worked just as the leaders had hoped�probably better than they had hoped. Information was shared, possibilities raised, concerns aired, hurts and suspicions laid bare. And key leaders across the racial lines publicly expressed their determination that this issue must not be allowed to destroy or damage the unity of the church.

One year ago the NAD convened a summit on race. It was an important beginning, but only a beginning. Words and speeches have to be translated into systemic change. We Adventists are a people on the move, journeying toward the light on the hill where people of all races and backgrounds are treated with respect and dignity, and feel that they are. The defining moment of� this year�s council was an important milestone along that journey.���������������������

_________________________
William G. Johnsson is the Editor of the Adventist Review.