Councils support agencies' budget increases for 2005-08
9/11/2003
By Joretta Purdue
General Council on Finance and Administration. Photo number W03005, Accompanies UMNS #434
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LOS ANGELES (UMNS) - Each of the United Methodist
Church's program agencies stands to get at least a modest funding
increase for the next four years, despite the tough economic times,
under a proposal that will go to the denomination's legislature.
The
church's General Council on Finance and Administration had earlier
decided to recommend to General Conference that $222 million be approved
for these agencies during the 2005-08 period. Voting members of the
finance council and the General Council on Ministries approved a plan
for dividing the money at a joint meeting Sept. 8.
The $222
million is channeled through the World Service Fund, the church's
largest account for funding worldwide mission and ministry. The fund is a
primary source of support for the four program boards and four smaller
commissions, but the agencies also receive income from other sources.
The
joint meeting also voted to recommend moving Heritage Sunday from its
current April date to Aldersgate Day, May 24, or the Sunday preceding
it. The groups decided to ask General Conference to continue the six
churchwide Sundays with offerings and Laity Sunday without an offering,
to discontinue Organ and Tissue Donor Sunday, and to retain four special
Sundays for observance by annual conference designation.
All these decisions are recommendations to General Conference, which will meet in Pittsburgh April 27-May 7.
Effects
of the economic crunch are evident in the denomination's decline in
revenues last year and in 2003, but members of the councils reminded one
another that their budget for the next four-year period won't begin for
another 15 months.
Members of the finance council's World
Service Task Group were "trying to understand what would resource the
program agencies" to keep up current ministries and add new ones, said
Bishop Robert E. Fannin, who heads the group.
The agencies
received almost $186 million in World Service funds for the 2001-04
period, but that amount was augmented by reserve funds and other sources
of income that are no longer available.
Part of the financial
squeeze results from the fact that General Conference instructed the
program boards to spend down their reserves during the 2001-04 period.
That financial hit was worsened by the stock market downturn, which
socked the agencies' portfolios. The market's fall also hurt the
denomination's trust fund income, budgeted to help fund retiree health
insurance, so agencies had to make up the lost revenue from other parts
of their budget. Projected income from that source is being budgeted for
the 2005-08 period at half the amount specified for the current period.
The
proposed spending allocations that the two councils approved reflected a
restoration of spending power to the agencies, along with an increase
of less than 2 percent.
"When money's tight, people are uptight,"
Fannin said, as he introduced the budget. He noted that the eight
program agencies had originally requested $265 million, but they cut
their proposals to $230 million at the finance council's request. The
finance agency reduced that further to $222 million.
If General
Conference approves the operating budget breakdown as prepared by the
two councils, the four-year totals in World Service Fund money for each
agency will be: · Board of Global Ministries, $126 million. · Board of Discipleship, $31.75 million. · Board of Higher Education and Ministry, $25.7 million. · Board of Church and Society, $11.7 million. · Commission on Religion and Race, $7 million. · Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, $5.5 million. · Commission on the Status and Role of Women, $3.04 million. · Commission on United Methodist Men, $1.5 million.
The
$222 million budget also includes allocations for several funds
administered by the agencies. The Board of Discipleship oversees two
efforts - the Shared Mission Focus on Young People, $3.1 million, and
the United Methodist Youth Organization, $900,000. The Hispanic, Asian
and Native American (HANA) Scholarships, $2.2 million, are awarded by
the Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
The Commission on
Religion and Race administers the Minority Group Self-Determination
Fund, $3.45 million, and the denomination's contribution to Project
Equality, $160,000.
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