wfn.org | Annual conferences still awaiting share of $90M camping gift

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Feb. 14, 2000 News media contact: Linda Green·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-71B{062}

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) -- Annual conferences awaiting their share of a $90
million gift to help with camping ministries are receiving disappointing
news about the availability of the money.

For nine years, the 66 annual conferences in the United States have been
holding their breath in anticipation of each receiving $1 million from an
anonymous donor for camping in the United Methodist Church on Feb. 1, 2000.

A Feb. 7 statement from the Rev. Ezra Earl Jones, top executive of the
United Methodist Board of Discipleship in Nashville, reiterated a 1998
report that stated the investigation of the proposed donation "had failed to
identify the gift or the funds in any tangible fashion."

Maurice Wise, then a camp director in Arkansas City, Kan., announced in 1991
that in addition to the annual conferences receiving the donation, the donor
also would construct a national camp, conference and retreat center in
Texas, which would be affiliated with the Board of Discipleship.

The combined $90 million donation was reported to be the largest individual
gift ever offered to the United Methodist Church or one of its agencies.

Jones repeated the 1998 findings to give annual conferences an update and to
tell them "there is no further word to report."

"Because it had been indicated in 1991 that the gift would be available on
Feb. 1, 2000 ... (and) since we are now passed that date with no further
word, I wanted you to have this update," he said.

Wise had reported that the anonymous donor, before his death in 1991, had
inherited a fortune and decided to "give away what God gave to him."

The donor had visited the approximately 300 United Methodist camp and
retreat centers across the country to determine how to best use his fortune,
according to Wise.

The donor reportedly left the money with instructions for its use to another
anonymous United Methodist, who died in 1994. 

Jones' statement in 1998 also cautioned annual conferences about relying on
the gift for any reason. "The General Board of Discipleship cannot recommend
reliance upon this gift for any purpose and particularly for any financial
commitment."

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