When the trained and salaried ministry became more or less usual in Dutch Mennonite congregations, the matter of supplying pensions for aged and disabled ministers and ministers' widows became a real problem; and so a number of pension funds were established. The oldest fund is the Widows' Fund in North Holland, which dates from 1794 (see Fonds ter ondersteuning). Soon after this, funds were founded in Friesland for the pensioning of retired ministers and widows. The Groningen conference founded a widows' fund in 1835; the Zwolsche Fonds was organized in 1810. The Algemeen Emeritaat en Invaliditeitsfonds, usually called Zaansche Fonds, was founded in 1848. In 1917 the Groningen conference established a fund for disabled and retired ministers. The Pensioenverhogingsfonds was created in 1929 to supplement inadequate pensions of retired ministers and widows. The functions of all these funds, except those founded by the Groningen conference, are now administered by a new pension fund founded in 1945 by the Algemene Doopsgezinde Sociëteit (ADS), called the Algemeen Pensioenfonds.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 144. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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