AME Church announces retirement settlement agreement during general conference

The African Methodist Episcopal Church announced a settlement agreement with a number of its clergy who had sued the denomination, accusing it of mishandling their retirement funds.

The settlement, which must still be approved by a judge, came Monday as delegates to the AME Church general conference are meeting in Columbus, Ohio, for their quadrennial meeting that concludes on Wednesday. Prior to and during the meeting, AME Church members were calling for action after the former director of the Department of Retirement Services, Jerome Harris, and others were accused in a 2022 class-action litigation of a total loss of $90 million.

“The agreement reached today demonstrates the Church’s ongoing commitment to its clergy and the determination to hold those truly responsible accountable,” Douglass P. Selby, the AME Church’s general counsel, said in the announcement. “The prayer of the Church is that this settlement, and the reforms to which the Church has committed itself, will help to close a painful chapter in the denomination’s history, and begin the path towards healing and recovery of faith and trust among its members and in the systems of the Church.”