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Show MILLIONS PLEDGED FOR CLERGY FUND Pensions to Be Provided for Aged Ministers and Families. : ; . i ' NEW" YORK, Jan. 1. Success in ob taining pledges for ;4,0io.nno toward the SS.OOO.OOO church pension fun-1 being rained for Piotrstaiit KpincopM rlcrpy-nifn rlcrpy-nifn and their dependent families was announced an-nounced here to In y by Bishop YTillkun bawrence of Massachusetts, chairman of (he fund committee. "This ercat sum of money is the largest larg-est the eh turn has ever raised In so snort a. time," sa id Bishop La wrence. "The campaign, wlii-.h began March 1, IfU. will end on Mareh 1 of this year. On that day the entire ?S.0nn,ufifj must ' c in hand ; ot lit r wise, we are not entitled to keep the $4,000,-100 now rfledped. Wc are eon t id en t. however, that i he exi ra jl.iWi.noO viM be raised and that this pension system will be formally estab- , lished to provide substantial life an- j nuities for need and disabled r)ergy and the widows and dependent orphans of de- reaped ele-gv." j Tiie plan, as deserihed In an annonn- i ment by the cominiltee. is "hased on thorough thor-ough investigation and recognized ac- j tnarlal principles." It is calculated to provide a minimum ; old age pension of 00 to clergymen whu voluntarily retire at the age of 6. while the maximum is to be half the average salary. A disability pension also is tn be pro- vided. available nt any awe. reckoned o:i ; the basis of AO per cent of the averse salarv for the years of service preiedin.g' involuntary retirement, with a. minimum 1 of $t0u. Under the plan, widows will receive half of the pension the husband would have hern entitled to if he hail lived, reckoned from th lime of r,i;.t- riage, which must have been contracted before retirement, the minimum being i Orphans' benefits are to be on a flat hasis of Sinu annually up to the ace of 7 von rs, S2uij m those between 7 and 14 and $:inO to those a-bove 14 until t Nv rea- h maV'irlty. all such benefits cii'lins. however, when the recipient ceases to be dependent. The sr.. Oftfi, ooo being collected now is to enable i he fund to commence immediate immedi-ate payments to clergymen wiio will retire re-tire during the early years of its operations. opera-tions. The perpetuation of the system is to be maintained through annual payments pay-ments by each parish of 7 ' per cent of the rector's salary. Pensions for ministers, it is explnined, is socia I instil1 and it is "a si range unomaly that the church has lagged behind be-hind business corporations and governments govern-ments in this matter." |