NOTE: For related coverage, see UMNS story #435. Audio clips are also available.
By Joretta Purdue
General Council on Finance and Administration. Photo number W03005, Accompanies UMNS #434
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LOS ANGELES (UMNS) - A United Methodist agency is proposing that the church reduce its number of U.S. bishops next year.
That
proposal surfaced as directors of the General Council on Finance and
Administration worked on the 2005-08 budget for the denomination. The
$586 million budget proposal will go to General Conference, the church's
highest legislative assembly, when it meets April 27-May 7 in
Pittsburgh. The finance and administration council also approved other
legislation and reports during a Sept. 4-8 meeting.
The budget
sets spending limits and projects income for all of the church's general
agencies. It also includes administrative costs, such as General
Conference, and supports other ministries and churchwide needs.
The
spending plan will include a projected increase of more than 20 percent
for the Episcopal Fund, which supports active and retired bishops
around the world. In light of that, the finance council will ask General
Conference to change the formula used for determining how many bishops
are elected.
"Every part of the church is being pressed to
restructure and streamline," said Sue Sherbrooke of Seattle, in favor of
the proposal.
The church has 50 active bishops in the five U. S.
jurisdictions and 18 in the central conferences - regional units
outside the United States. In addition, the Southeastern Jurisdiction
could elect an additional bishop based on the current formula. With
expected retirements next year, officials predict the retiree list could
reach 92.
The new formula would reduce by one the number of
bishops each of the five U.S. jurisdictions is eligible to elect. If
enacted as written, the change would become effective at the end of
General Conference, reducing the number of bishops elected next year.
Each jurisdiction would still elect one or more bishops to fill
vacancies created by retirements next year. All of the jurisdictional
conferences will be held in July.
Proponents of the plan point to
a potential reduction of about $1 million per bishop for the next four
years in costs for salary, benefits, office, support staff and travel,
as well as additional savings in what annual (regional) conferences
contribute to expenses such as the parsonage and office.
The Rev.
Reuben Wilbur, Missouri Conference treasurer, opposed the proposal.
Instead, he called for a four-year study to clarify the bishops' role
and reconsider the jurisdictional structure. Some metropolitan areas --
such as St. Louis and Washington -- have more than one bishop because
the city straddles annual conference and even jurisdictional boundaries.
Effective urban ministries must deal with a metropolitan area as a
whole, he said.
The Rev. J. Philip Wogaman of Washington said he
supported the change not only because of the $5 million in savings per
four-year period but for the savings in future pension obligations. The
growing number of retired bishops makes providing adequate support for
all difficult, he said.
"This is a rare opportunity for equal
impact to all the jurisdictions," he said. Members who worked on the
plan said they did not think the 2008 election would provide the same
opportunity to allow each jurisdiction to elect at least one new bishop
while at the same time decrease the number of those serving in an
equitable way.
Robert Meyers, treasurer of the Oregon-Idaho
Annual Conference, objected to the proposed change. "I think we need to
look past the numbers (and) at the ministry.
"I'm not sure that
even with advance notice this is possible that a jurisdiction can
reorganize itself in two months," he said. "It's not only a matter of
losing a bishop, it's a matter that a jurisdiction is going to have to
reorganize itself." He suggested having a task force study what bishops
do and what their job descriptions ought to be.
In explaining
the proposal, the committee wrote that the change "establishes church
membership and financial stewardship as measures of jurisdictional and
central conference effectiveness in fulfilling mission."
The
number of central conference bishops is fixed at the current numbers for
2005-08, but the legislation also specifies additions or reductions in
those areas based on increases or decreases in church membership.
The
income for the $586 million budget will be supplied through seven funds
that are apportioned - that is, supported by each annual conference in
amounts set by a formula.
General Conference sets the "base
percentage" used to compute the apportionments that are asked of each
annual conference and, through the conferences, of each congregation.
In
other business, the council continued discussing the possible move of
its headquarters from Evanston, Ill., to its offices in Nashville,
Tenn., where the cost of living could result in eventual savings.
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