Pastoral Care

Family Visitation - Retirement can be a challenge for our United Methodist pastors and their families. After a lifetime of work in which we move into and out of instant and often intense community immersion, we are left to our own devices with no strong roots, housing arrangements or support systems. It is quite an adjustment. Our staff visits regularly, at least once a year, in the homes of retirees living in the New England area. These visits allow us to help retirees keep connected with the Church and with their colleagues.

Emergency Assistance - On occasion, when families are faced with financial emergencies we are able to help address those needs by advocating for our pastors, connecting people to resources, or providing needed financial assistance in the form of grants or loans. The most common concerns we find are connected with unanticipated medical bills, hearing aids, and winter fuel expenses causing one with a restricted income to choose between heat and groceries.

Housing

Affordable Housing - Preachers' Aid has 36 single family cottages in two communities:

Wesley Woods located in Gilford, New Hampsire is a Deaconess Abundant Life Community in which the Society manages eight homes for our retiree families.

Wesley by the Sea, a community developed and managed by the Society, provides twenty-eight homes in Wells, Maine for retired clergy families.

Each home in the original development is about 1200 square feet  with one bedroom, a den, and a single car garage. The six units completed in 2020 are approximately 1500 square feet with two bedrooms, a den, a dining room and a two car garage. These are mixed income rental homes that are subsidized by the Society based on need.

Green Loans - Retired pastors may draw up to $10,000 (over a period of ten years) in order to make improvements in homes they own which are designed to cut energy costs for that home. Specific uses for these funds may include:

• Replacement Windows

• New Furnaces

• Solar Heating Installations

• Insulation

• Energy Efficient Appliances

• Insulating Window Treatments

• Auxiliary Heating Systems

Health Care

All of us know too well the dramatically escalating rise in health care costs. Annual health care insurance premiums for clergy families in the New England Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church are well over one-third of the minimum salary for full time pastoral appointments. Ensuring affordable healthcare for our retirees is a priority that we take very seriously.

Medicare Support - Retired clergy depend on Medicare and the Conference currently provides a Medicare supplement to help contain medical costs. The benefit is based on a formula proportionate to years of ministerial service within the Conference. The Preachers’ Aid Society, in the past, has made a major commitment to ensuring that this benefit continues. We have given over $3,500,000 toward this end.

Methodent - A combination cost containment and loan payment program for retired clergy and their spouse's dental expenses. Payments made by the Preachers’ Aid Society to one's dentist will be converted into a low interest loan for the retiree/spouse.

Learn More About Methodent  →