A Message from the Chair

A Message from the Chair is published after each regular meeting of The Church Pension Fund (CPF) Board of Trustees. It reflects actions taken by the CPF Board that impact the products and services administered by CPF, as well as other highlights of the meeting.

Fall 2026

Dear Friends:

Earlier this month, the Board of Trustees of The Church Pension Fund (CPF) met to discuss several important topics, including the rising cost of healthcare, corporate goals, strategic planning, enterprise risk management, and the financial strength of the CPF portfolio.

The Benefits Policy & Design team provided an update on the upcoming Annual Enrollment and on healthcare industry trends driving rising rates. The Episcopal Church Medical Trust (Medical Trust), like other employer-sponsored health plans, continues to face significant healthcare cost pressures, largely driven by rising prescription drug prices, higher reimbursement rates, and increased healthcare utilization associated with an aging population. In an effort to lower rate increases, the Medical Trust has made some difficult decisions, including plan design changes and the exclusion of coverage for GLP-1s for weight loss. As a result, the projected increase in rates for all participating groups decreased from 22.5% to 13.3%, with the average Denominational Health Plan participant seeing a rate increase of approximately 12.6%. It remains a challenging time for healthcare, and we are confident that the Medical Trust is doing its best to manage rising healthcare costs. I encourage you to view a Q&A with John Servais, SVP, Benefits Policy & Design, that appeared in the recent edition of CPG Connect, which offers additional insights into how the Medical Trust is navigating this challenging market.

Senior leaders provided updates on CPG’s progress on its strategic planning, 2026 corporate goals, and the organization’s priorities for 2027, including their ongoing work to develop a vision-relevant point of view on the future needs of our Church. Following a series of conversations and listening sessions with clergy, lay leaders, and others serving in diverse ministries, the company is surveying active clergy and lay employees to vet the emerging findings. We’re excited for this work, which will help CPG anticipate future needs and identify opportunities to serve faithfully and effectively. Our discussion also covered enterprise risks, including cybersecurity, led by the company's Enterprise Security team. Given the volume of cybersecurity incidents worldwide today, we appreciated the timeliness of this conversation.

We received our annual update on the company’s annual stress testing of the CPF portfolio, which continues to show that it remains well-positioned to meet its current and long-term financial obligations. This stochastic forecasting measures how well the CPF portfolio would perform under more than 10,000 different market scenarios. This testing provides assurance that The Church Pension Fund Clergy Pension Plan (Clergy Pension Plan) remains in a strong financial position but requires ongoing caution and disciplined oversight. The testing also showed that, while The Episcopal Church Lay Employees’ Retirement Plan also remains in a strong financial position, it is not as well-funded as the Clergy Pension Plan, due in large part to the plan's age and size. We also heard from the head of CPG’s Hong Kong office, who provided an update on the team's work and investment trends in Asian markets. We are grateful for the dedication of the entire Investments team, who work to ensure CPG remains well-positioned to meet its financial obligations, today and for decades to come.

Finally, we enjoyed meeting leaders from CPG’s Human Resources and Facilities teams who joined us for dinner. We remain grateful for the opportunity to serve our Church as CPF Board members.

Faithfully,

Canon Anne Vickers (retired)  
Chair, The Church Pension Fund Board of Trustees

View past editions of  A Message from the Chair.

The next meeting of the CPF Board will be from December 9 to 11, 2026.