wfn.org | Finance agency lists apportionment amounts for 2001 on Web

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

May 30, 2000 News media contact: Joretta Purdue ·(202) 546-8722·Washington
10-71B{254}

By United Methodist News Service

The United Methodist Church's financial administration agency has posted a
list of the dollar amounts that the annual (regional) conferences will be
asked to pay next year in support of the denomination's programs and other
costs.

The General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA) has computed 
apportionments for 2001 to reflect the actions of the 2000 General
Conference, the church's highest legislative body. General Conference acted
on budget matters during its May 2-12 meeting in Cleveland. The budget
includes increases proposed by GCFA, reflecting the additional mission and
ministry items approved by delegates.

GCFA had proposed changing the apportionment formula based on the work of
the Connectional Ministry Funding Patterns Task Force. The proposed formula
took into account data about the economic health of areas where conference
congregations are located. The formula also included categories of
expenditures by local churches.

In the General Conference's legislative committee on finances, delegates
supported amending the apportionment formula to subtract all congregational
benevolences, not just those that went to churchwide ministries (as the
original proposal had done). They also supported subtracting the interest
that congregations are paying on their mortgages.

In addition, General Conference added the costs of more than 20 projects and
programs that came out of the legislative process to the budget. By votes of
more than 90 percent, delegates approved each of the reports, as amended,
for the apportioned funds.

Both the 2001 apportionments and the 2001-2004 budget for the denomination
have been added to the GCFA Web site (www.gcfa.org) and can be downloaded
from there. "The General Fund Apportionments to Annual Conferences, 2001"
has its own link on the home page. The quadrennial budget may be found under
"General Conference Resources" or "General Church Financial Data."
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United Methodist News Service
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