wfn.org | United Methodists address NCC budget crisis

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

Oct. 6, 1999 News media contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York
10-21-71B{513}

NOTE: This report is accompanied by a sidebar, UMNS #514.

NEW YORK (UMNS) -- United Methodists will seek denominational approval for a
$700,000 contribution to help alleviate the budget crisis facing the
National Council of Churches (NCC).

"This is not a pledge but a statement of intention," said Bishop William
Boyd Grove during the NCC executive board meeting Oct. 5. Grove, an
executive board member, is the ecumenical officer of the United Methodist
Council of Bishops.

During the meeting, a financial recovery plan was adopted to meet approved
but unbudgeted one-time expenses of nearly $4 million for 1998 and 1999. The
plan asks for a $2 million commitment from the ecumenical agency's member
communions to help fill the gap. Another $1.45 million is expected to be
raised by the council's Church World Service and Witness unit.

In his formal statement to the board, Grove noted that $700,000 represented
35 percent of the request, a slightly higher percentage than the United
Methodist share of the Ecumenical Commitment Fund. "These funds will be
given contingent upon the participation of the other communions to provide
the balance of the $2 million," he said.

Three United Methodist bodies also must consider the grant - the Commission
on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, the Board of Global
Ministries and the General Council on Finance and Administration. If
approved, the money would come from the Board of Global Ministries.

"I believe this is an appropriate share for our church to provide and is
consistent with the historic commitment of the United Methodist Church and
its predecessor bodies, the Evangelical United Brethren Church and the
Methodist Church, to the ecumenical movement and to the National Council of
Churches," Grove stated.

The council's budget crisis is attributed to the depletion of unrestricted
reserves in 1998 and to 1999 expenses that were authorized by the executive
board but not part of the regular budget. "We have been stung in this
executive board by unanticipated expenses that occurred without warning,"
said the Rev. Margaret J. Thomas, a Presbyterian from Bloomington, Minn.,
who is chairwoman of the executive board's administration and finance
committee.

About half of the extraordinary expenses are attributed to the cost of a
consulting firm hired to review and redirect the council's fiscal management
policies and practices. Other items included a pension contribution
adjustment of $680,000 and a contribution to the council's burned churches'
fund. 

Thomas stressed that the council's regular budget - outside these expenses
-- is not expected to be in deficit at the end of the year.

A future financial issue involves potential liability resulting from the
fact that former and current NCC employees are provided with permanent
health insurance benefits after retirement. To help meet concerns regarding
that issue, executive board members instructed that a change in policy
dropping the benefit for future staff be presented at the council's General
Assembly in November. A report and recommendation on options for reducing
the costs of this benefit for those currently covered by it also will be
provided in November.

In addition, the administration and finance committee was told to develop a
five-year plan for the rebuilding of unrestricted reserves.

Executive board members approved the creation of a "management transition
team" to assist senior staff executives with an analysis of a possible
restructure of the council. That team would implement recommendations
formulated by an earlier transition team that met this summer.

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