Pension covers 'hardly anything,' retired Mozambican pastor says
11/14/2003 News media contact: Linda Green · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn
Photographs are available.
By Nancye Willis*
Retired
United Methodist pastor João Tene Ngale and his wife Serafina visit
with Jerald Scott, a staff member of the General Board of Global
Ministries and other members of a fact-finding group in Mozambique to
gather information to inform study of the feasibility of establishing a
viable pensions system in the United Methodist Church’s central
conferences outside the United States. Ngale died soon after the visit
by representatives of the denomination’s Global Pensions Task Force.
UMNS photo by Nancye Willis, Photo number 03-477, Accompanies UMNS 559,
11/14/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
Retired
United Methodist pastor João Tene Ngale and his wife Serafina visit
with a member of a fact-finding group in Mozambique to gather
information to inform study of the feasibility of establishing a viable
pensions system in the United Methodist Church’s central conferences
outside the United States. Ngale died soon after the visit by
representatives of the denomination’s Global Pensions Task Force. UMNS
photo by Nancye Willis, Photo number 03-476, Accompanies UMNS #559,
11/14/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
Houses
like this are often shared by several generations in Mozambique, where
retirees cannot afford to live independently. Retired United Methodist
pastor João Tene Ngale and his wife Serafina lived with their son and
his family here until Ngale’s recent death. The Ngales shared insights
about living conditions with members of a fact-finding group visiting
Mozambique to gather information to inform study of the feasibility of
establishing a viable pensions system in the United Methodist Church’s
central conferences outside the United States. UMNS photo by Nancye
Willis, Photo number 03-478Accompanies UMNS #559, 11/14/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
MAPUTO, Mozambique (UMNS)-Retired United Methodist
pastor João Tene Ngale never saw a self-sustaining pensions system in
his home country of Mozambique.
He died just weeks after meeting
with a fact-finding group studying the feasibility of standardizing
pension support for United Methodist clergy and other church workers
outside the United States.
The church in Mozambique provides
pensions to its retirees, but the depressed economic system causes the
amount to vary. Ngale, who served 35 years as a pastor and district
superintendent in this southeastern African nation, was receiving a
pension of about $100 a year at the time he spoke to members of the
United Methodist Global Pensions Task Force and other visitors.
"It
is an amount that covers hardly anything," he said. Like many retirees,
he and his wife depended on family to help support them as they aged.
They
were living in a son's home because of Ngale's failing health and a
lack of funds to maintain a home of their own. "It's not just a matter
of having children, but of having good children," Ngale noted.
The
dire poverty of about 90 percent of Mozambique's residents make
preparing for retirement a low priority for most, and church members
often are unable to contribute to pastors' salaries.
A pastor's
salary averages the equivalent of $48 a month, an amount that is covered
largely by the denomination's Missouri Annual (regional) Conference,
which has a covenant relationship with the church in Mozambique.
Ngale
told the task force of the hardships clergy endure. "It's like the
pastors are preparing for hell while they are preaching the gospel," he
said through an interpreter. "If you went up to Inhambane, where the
church is much more rural, to visit the pastor there, you'd have tears
in your eyes."
Ngale served several parishes in Mozambique, and
he spent five years in South Africa, ministering to miners. "In the
early years, when I was assigned an area where there was no school," he
said, "part of my job was to teach people how to read and write."
His
wife Serafina, a trained midwife, "helped a lot of women give birth,"
he said. She also led study groups and worship services for women.
In
fact, when rebel forces captured him during Mozambique's civil war, his
wife was at a women's conference in another community. "When she got
home from her conference," he said, "she discovered that I had been
kidnapped." After his escape, he was sent to a hospital in Maputo, where
he was able to join his wife again.
In mid-September, Ngale was
still being called upon to serve Communion and conduct parts of
services. However, his failing health had made him reluctant to use his
"preaching voice," because it drained his sagging energy.
Ngale is survived by his wife, six children and 20 grandchildren.
# # #
*Willis is a staff member of United Methodist Communications
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