wfn.org | United Methodist Church Lifts Suspension of NCC Funds

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

20-December-1999 
99431 
 
    United Methodist Church Lifts Suspension of NCC Funds 
 
    by Linda Bloom 
    United Methodist News Service 
 
NEW YORK - The temporary suspension of United Methodist funding to the 
National Council of Churches (NCC) has been lifted. 
 
    The Rev. Bruce Robbins, chief executive of the United Methodist 
Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, said the 
commission's executive committee approved the action during a Dec. 14 
conference call. 
 
    He told the United Methodist News Service that he was "relieved and 
glad" to resume the funding. "I'm appreciative of the hard work that staff 
members of the council have done to address the issues at stake," he added. 
 
    In response to the commission's action, the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, 
the NCC's top executive, said council leaders have "identified historic 
problems in the financial infrastructure of the NCC and have recognized 
severe difficulties in making much-needed changes." 
 
    "The United Methodists, quite rightly, pushed us to complete this 
task," she said. "Their concern for fiscal stability of the council is 
appropriate for a member communion." 
 
    In October, the commission had voted to temporarily suspend NCC funding 
from the United Methodist Church's Interdenominational Cooperation Fund 
until it received answers from the ecumenical body about questions of "past 
and future fiscal policies and management." At that point, the NCC had 
received a little less than half of the $670,000 to be allocated from that 
fund this year. The money was designated for the council's Ecumenical 
Commitment Fund, budgeted at $1.5 million for 1999. 
 
    The NCC's executive board and general assembly addressed financial 
issues during the agency's 50th-anniversary celebration in November, and 
Robbins said he was hopeful that funding would resume before the end of the 
year. He noted then that the executive committee "made large strides" by 
adopting a financial framework for 2000 that included making staff 
reductions and setting aside 10 percent of projected income in a reserve 
fund. 
 
    In a statement issued on Dec. 16, the commission said the lifting of 
the suspension was effective immediately. "The executive committee received 
regular reports on progress over the past two months, and believes that the 
(council) ... is now essentially in compliance with these requirements," it 
said. 
 
    A mutual agreement between the commission and NCC leadership also has 
been reached "regarding continuing implementation of policies and practices 
providing assurance of the future health of the council." 
 
    Campbell said the council has dedicated time and money to answering the 
"difficult questions" posed by United Methodists. "We are grateful that we 
are able to close 1999 with the blessing of one of our major contributors," 
she added. 
 
    Robbins said the executive committee asked him to work with other 
denominational leadership "to search for ways to provide our share of 
support for (financial) recovery of the National Council." 
 
    During an Oct. 5 NCC executive board meeting, Bishop William Boyd 
Grove, ecumenical officer for the United Methodist Council of Bishops, made 
a "statement of intention" to seek denominational approval for a $700,000 
contribution to the NCC's financial-recovery plan. 
 
    The plan was adopted by the NCC executive board to meet approved but 
unbudgeted one-time expenses of nearly $4 million in 1998 and 1999. It asks 
for a $2 million commitment from member communions to help meet the debt. 

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