wfn.org | Finance agency to propose $526 million budget for 2001-2004

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

May 25, 1999	News media contact: Joretta Purdue*(202)546-8722*Washington
10-21-71B{293}

NOTE: This report is accompanied by a sidebar, UMNS story #294.

NORCROSS, Ga. (UMNS) - With the United Methodist Church's highest
legislative assembly less than a year away, the denomination's financial and
administrative agency settled on a bottom-line figure for the 2001-2004
budget that it will send to the event.

At a May 17-20 meeting, voting members of the General Council on Finance and
Administration (GCFA) decided to propose a budget of $526 million for
churchwide ministries and administration during the 2001-2004 quadrennium.
This figure represents a 3.4 percent increase over the $508.26 million total
authorized for the current four-year period. Successive yearly increases
would be 0, 0, 1 percent and 2 percent under this proposal.

The budget will be presented to the denomination's General Conference, which
will meet May 2-12, 2000, in Cleveland. The lawmaking body meets every four
years.

The increased funding in the proposed budget will come through
apportionments - the budgeted amounts asked of each of the United Methodist
Church's regional bodies and, through them, of each congregation.

Most of the proposed growth will go to funds other than World Service. These
include the General Administration Fund, which supports General Conference
and other administrative costs, and several other line items. 

Up to a 1 percent increase will be allocated to the World Service Fund,
which provides the basic financial resources for the core ministries of the
denomination. It includes program boards and commissions as well as United
Methodist Communications (UMCom), several small funds and a contingency
reserve.

The GCFA's voting members also approved a policy regarding the holding of
reserves by United Methodist boards and agencies that will affect the
distribution of World Service funds. Each agency will be asked to evaluate
the size of its reserves within guidelines provided by GCFA and to give a
rationale with its report.

GCFA is instructing agencies to use the new process for their 2000 budget
reviews and in preparing for General Conference. The division of World
Service funds will be decided cooperatively by GCFA and the General Council
on Ministries (GCOM), based on individual reserve levels of the agencies.

"If, as a result of these calculations, the agency determines that their
unrestricted net assets are greater than the level needed for operating cash
flow, sustaining of fixed assets and providing for major building repairs,
the agency shall provide a plan for using such reserves in future years to
impact the mission of the United Methodist Church through their ministry,"
the GCFA members stated in a resolution.

Funding for projects included in the current Focus 2000: Mission Initiatives
- an Asian-American Language Ministry Study, a Korean-American Task Force
and Shared Mission Focus on Young People - expires at the end of the
quadrennium unless the 2000 General Conference decides otherwise. Focus 2000
also funded the Connectional Process Team (CPT), a group looking at the form
and function of the denomination for the coming millennium. The CPT will
give its report to the 2000 General Conference.

None of these decisions is final unless accepted by the General Conference.
GCFA will complete its budget recommendations at its Nov. 12-16 meeting, to
be held jointly with GCOM, in Chicago. 

At the 1996 General Conference, GCFA's proposed budget was altered in the
legislative committee, and funds for new programs and ministries introduced
on the conference floor were also added. Originally proposed with increases
of 0, 0, 2 percent and 2 percent respectively in each of the years
1997-2000, the apportionments were changed by delegates with the addition of
the Focus 2000 initiatives to increase 1 percent, 0, 2 percent and 2 percent
over the current quadrennium.

Touted as a catch-up period by proponents of the 0, 0, 2, 2 budget, the
current quadrennium has so far yielded a higher return on askings. Giving to
the churchwide apportioned funds, which had been 86 percent of the amount
asked in 1996, rose to 88 percent in 1997 and 89 percent last year. Many
GCFA members spoke of continuing this growth by keeping the budget down.

General Conference will be seeing proposals coming out of Strengthening the
Black Church, Focus on Young People and others. UMCom will propose a $22.7
million initiative to make and distribute television ads in an effort to
inform people inside and out of the church about United Methodist
ministries.

Funding to the Iglesia Metódista Autonoma Afiliata de Puerto Rico is
scheduled to expire at the end of the current quadrennium, but a resolution
to continue support for another four years is expected.

In an effort to consolidate and simplify the churchwide budget, several
older, smaller funds were absorbed by World Service agencies, which had
agreed to take on the financial responsibility.
Items given to the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries included
pension and salary aid for former Evangelical United Brethren missionaries
and pensions earned before 1982 in the Oklahoma Indian Missionary
Conference.

GCFA accepted the report of the United Methodist Connectional Ministries
Funding Task Force at this meeting and will forward it to General
Conference. The task force's recommendations include continuing the
apportionment system with some changes in formula and reducing the number of
churchwide "special Sundays with offerings" from six to four. 

The final repayment of funds advanced by several church agencies in the
settlement of the Pacific Homes litigation has been received, plus interest.
The lawsuits stemmed from financial difficulties that beset Pacific Homes
retirement communities in Arizona, California and Hawaii. With the bulk of
the money, about $5.5 million, the GCFA members decided to create "a center
for conflict transformation, mediation and restorative justice" to provide
an ongoing ministry to the annual conferences and local churches. Nearly
$2.7 million was returned to two funds: $1.5 million to the General
Administration Reserve and $677,840 to the World Service Contingency Fund.

In other business, voting members of GCFA:

*	approved phase 2 of the capital campaign for renovating the United
Methodist Building in Washington, which houses offices of several church
agencies and other nonprofit groups;
*	heard a presentation from the CPT, which is preparing a plan for the
church's ministry and structure in the coming century; and
*	approved financial plans for Forum 2000, an event sponsored by the
Board of Discipleship for workers with youth, to be held Feb. 2-6.

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