Administrative Support

The Diocese of Tennessee provides support for all parishes across Middle Tennessee. Whether they need assistance with employment, financial services, or benefits, we have the resources to help.

Enrolling New Employees

The Employee Roster (found on the Church Pension Group website) contains a roster of all clergy and lay employees within the diocese. New clergy and lay employees, whether part-time, full-time, hourly, salaried, or even unpaid, are to be added to this roster upon hiring.

To facilitate the process upon hiring a new employee, please complete the information collection from below and send to:

Benefits Administrator, Diocese of Tennessee
3700 Woodmont Boulevard
Nashville, Tennessee 37215

Or you can email the completed form to Susan Abington.

When clergy or lay employees retire or cease their employment, they need to be removed from the roster. Please inform the diocese when an employee leaves, is terminated, or retires.

Background Checks

Churches are responsible for running background checks on all paid employees and most volunteers, including vestry members and those working with vulnerable populations (children, youth, seniors, disabled). All job positions within the Diocese must agree to undergo a background check..

Contact Sandra Beld for more information at backgroundcheck@edtn.org.

Click below to download the authorization form to conduct a background investigation.

Insurance Benefits

A list of insurance benefits for 2023 may be found here. More in-depth summaries of health benefit plans are available under the Schedule of Medical Benefits tab.

When enrolling in medical or dental benefits during the annual enrollment period, please go here. For a change of dependents, address change, employee termination, or other qualifying life events, please complete the Medical and Dental Change Form. If an employee needs to be enrolled outside of annual enrollment please fill out and submit the Group Enrollment Form.

Completed forms may either be emailed to Susan Abington or mailed to the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee, 3700 Woodmont Blvd., Nashville, TN 37215. If the employee qualifies for medical coverage, but declines coverage for a reason such as having coverage under a spouse’s plan, have the employee notate “I decline medical coverage” on the group enrollment form. It is imperative to validate each employee was offered insurance coverage when eligible.

To enroll in life and disability insurance benefits upon hiring, the church administrator will complete the Group Term Life enrollment form and the Disability Coverage form. Email the completed forms to Susan Abington or send by mail to the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee, 3700 Woodmont Blvd., Nashville, TN 37215. Upon enrollment, the new employee will receive information on the policy from Church Pension Group.

Group Term Life insurance is offered to active employees who are compensated for a minimum of 20 hours. The Enrollment forms must be completed within 31 days of hire or eligibility. The policy amount in the Diocese of Tennessee is $40,000. The beneficiary form may be found here. The rate billed to employers is $10 per month.

Schedule of Medical Benefits

The medical plans offered in the Diocese of Tennessee are the Anthem BCBS PPO 90 Plan and Anthem BCBS PPO 80 Plan and 2 Anthem BCBS Consumer Directed Health Plans (CDHP). The Cigna dental plans being offered are Preventive, Basic and Dental/Ortho. Congregations may also choose to enroll eligible employees in a standalone Employee Assistance Program. Benefits summaries for these plans are below.

2023 Plans:

A comparison of the 2023 plans may be found here.

Our Annual Enrollment for 2023 will run from October 26 to November 16 – AE member brochures were mailed October 13. For help with Annual Enrollment please refer to the 2023 Annual Enrollment Guide or call Susan Abington at 615-251-3322.

Clergy & Lay Pension

Pension plan information may be found on the Church Pension Group site under the headings below:

Financial Services

Business Manual

2023 Financial Deadlines

Church Audits

Requesting Budgeted Diocesan Support

Diocesan Audit