wfn.org | Three more annual conferences pay apportionments in full

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

Feb. 23, 2000	News media contact: Joretta Purdue·(202)546-8722·Washington
10-71B{092}

By United Methodist News Service

Three annual conferences have been added to the list of 14 who paid last
year's apportionments in full, even though the books have already been
closed on 1999's accounts.

The Dakotas, Kansas East and North Carolina recently joined the list of
annual conferences that paid 100 percent of general church apportionments.
Although the closing date for 1999 receipts had passed, payments totaling
$271,000 from all three annual conferences were sent in February for the
unpaid balances of their general fund apportionments.

Seventeen annual conferences have now supported 1999 apportionments at the
100 percent level. A new record for financial support of general church
ministries was set, with 14 annual conferences previously giving 100 percent
support to general church apportionments. In addition, the autonomous
Methodist Church of Puerto Rico paid 100 percent.
  
"This is marvelous news," said Sandra Kelley Lackore, top staff executive
and treasurer of the General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA) in
Evanston, Ill. During the past 15 years, about a half dozen conferences
fully paid their apportionments annually, she said. "We were pleased with
the increase to 10 last year. To have the number jump to 17 for 1999 is very
exciting. It reflects a real effort on the part of annual conferences to
meet the financial commitments made at the 1996 General Conference."

This was the second year for the Dakotas to pay 100 percent of all
apportionments, and the third year that it has paid 100 percent of its World
Service commitment.

For Kansas East Annual Conference, the decision to pay its apportionments in
full was the first time it had done so since 1988. The Kansas West
Conference had already fully paid its 1999 apportionments. 

Bishop Marion Edwards of the denomination's Raleigh (N.C.) Area acknowledged
the help that his storm-stricken state received last year through the United
Methodist connection.  

"For the North Carolina Annual Conference, paying 100 percent of our
apportionments is one way to say 'thank you' for the incredible examples of
connectionalism which flowed into our annual conference during our crisis,"
he said.  

"The Greenville District, hardest hit by flooding, paid 100 percent of their
apportionments," Edwards said. "The Sanford District also paid 100 percent,
raising overall giving in the annual conference to 96 percent of all
apportionments. In gratitude, our Council on Finance and Administration
decided to use reserves to move to the 100 percent level."

GCFA is proposing that General Conference approve percentage increases in
general church apportionments of 0-0-1-2 for the 2001-2004 quadrennium. The
council anticipates that the minimal increases will allow more annual
conferences to participate at 100 percent, continuing the trend of recent
years.

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United Methodist News Service
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