Skip to main content

Retirees

Retiree Chaplains Program

The Board of Benefits Services (BOBS), through the assistance program, maintains a network of retired pastors and ordained elders who are geographically spread throughout the United States and Canada. These retired pastors and ordained elders maintain faithful and pastoral contact with retired missionaries who served ten years or more, with retired ministers and their spouses, and with the surviving spouses of ministers. 

The retiree chaplain’s role is not to replace a retiree’s own minister or circle of support but to ensure that the retiree has such a circle of support, including a local church, family connections, and a classis of membership. The retiree chaplain is the primary way for BOBS to identify those who are most in need of assistance. If a crisis arises, the retiree chaplain can facilitate the necessary care and offer suggestions and guidance about how best to provide assistance (financial or otherwise).

View retiree chaplains list

The Beekman Memorial Home

The Beekman Memorial Home, located in Bedminster, New Jersey, is a three-apartment, rent-free house for retired RCA ministers. If anyone is interested in staying at the Beekman Home, please contact Lourdes Burke (504-354-5329 or Lourdes.burke@hancockwhitney.com).

RCA Directory

A quick reference to all RCA personnel as well as regional synod and classis meetings. The General Synod Directory contains contact information for RCA congregations, ministers, missionaries, elected leaders and more.

View the directory

Assistance Fund

RCA pastors, their spouses, and long-time missionaries give to the church in countless ways. Yet in retirement, some find themselves in extenuating financial circumstances.

The assistance program provides grants to eligible ministers and their surviving spouses and dependent children. Financial assistance is primarily awarded for needs related to housing and utilities, on-going medical insurance premiums, funeral grants to surviving spouses, retirement contributions for disabled ministers and other emergency needs deemed acceptable by the assistance grant approval team. Missionaries with ten or more years of service and former employees of the Southern Normal School are also eligible for grants from the assistance program. (The RCA operated this boarding school in Brewton, Alabama, for 86 years.)

Retirees, surviving spouses, missionaries (10+ years of service) or former Southern Normal School employees requesting assistance must complete an application, which is reviewed by a staff committee. Recipients must resubmit an application annually to continue receiving assistance.

Applications are available by contacting the retiree chaplain, the BOBS’ office at 866-221-5480, or emailing mrich@rca.org.

Hands place dollar bills into a brown leather wallet.

In 2014, General Secretary Ed Mulder and wife Luella gave a generous donation to endow the BOBS assistance fund. Every year, proceeds from that endowment contribute to the funding of the assistance fund.

Donate to the Board of Benefits Assistance Fund

Man with counselor

Free counseling

The Employee Assistance Program provides free confidential counseling services to eligible RCA Ministers of Word and Sacrament, retirees, denominational staff, missionaries, and their households. In addition to counseling, many other services are available at no additional cost to the employee.

See a full overview of benefits

On the Fidelity NetBenefits website, you can manage your account, view your investment portfolio, set up a consultation with a retirement planner, and access a resource library.
Having trouble with NetBenefits? Call 1-800-343-0860

Visit Fidelity NetBenefits

In Touch Newsletter Articles

The views and opinions expressed in the InTouch Newsletter are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Board of Benefits Services or the Reformed Church in America.  Any content provided by authors are of their opinion and views alone. 

by Sherwin Weener edited by Bob Terwilliger, fall 2023 I grew up on my grandparents’ farm in western Michigan. I Read more...
by Arthur (Bud) Van Eck edited by Bob Terwilliger, fall 2023 My journey began in the early fall of 1924; Read more...
by Karl Overbeek edited by Bob Terwilliger, fall 2023 I remember entering Hope College in 1962, looking at four years Read more...
by Dick Otterness edited by Bob Terwilliger, fall 2023 I’ve always believed a primary pastoral role is helping others discover Read more...
by Terry Nyhuis edited by Bob Terwilliger, fall 2023 One way to understand my journey is to identify how I Read more...
by Gloria McCanna edited by Bob Terwilliger, fall 2023 As 2017 rolled around, there was a “little tap on my Read more...
Have a question?

We are here to help!

Contact Mornier

Mornier C. Rich

Coordinator of Retiree Chaplains and Assistance Programs/ Executive Assistant

Board of Benefits Services
475 Riverside Drive, Suite 1606
New York, NY 10115
retirement@rca.org
866-221-5480