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    United Methodists of Upper New YorkLiving the Gospel. Being God's Love.


    news article

    CF&A budget, report, added motion, and declaratory decision supported

    October 3, 2020 / By Shannon Hodson / .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

    On Oct. 3, 2020 at the UNY 2020 virtual Annual Conference, Holly Roush, Chair of the Conference Council on Finance & Administration (CF&A) presented the 2020 CF&A report via video. She explained that CF&A worked diligently on the 2021 budget, revisited the 2020 budget, and continued to provide resources on the Conference website.

    To prepare the budgets, Ministry Areas were asked a series of questions. Descriptions of Ministry Areas can be found in the Narrative Budget and Ministry Areas’ answered questions can be found here.

    Holly mentioned how the decrease in Ministry Shares coming in by this time (compared to prior years) due to the pandemic prompted CF&A to revisit the 2021 budget.

    Holly said, “The numbers in the budget do not look terribly different than prior years. This is not because we don’t know what’s going on or do not understand the difficulties that local churches are facing. We believe that we are all in this together. We believe that you, the local churches, will do all you can to continue to pay your Ministry Share dollars.”

    Rev. Colleen Preuninger requested a motion that all ministries receiving a significant budget increase ($5,000 or more) provide within three months a report on how their budget has and will be used.

    These ministries include:

    Camp and Retreat
    Hispanic and Latino Ministries
    District Operations
    New Faith Communities

    She also requested that Vital Congregations provide within three months more information on Spiritual Leadership Incorporated (SLI), including:

    The coaches hired to train leaders.
    How SLI helps grow and support a thriving United Methodist Church.

    The budget was supported by 91 percent of voters.

    Rev. Preuninger’s motion was supported by 89 percent of voters.

    The entire CF&A report was supported by 94 percent of voters.

    Once the budget, motion, and report were approved Kevin Nelson requested a declaratory decision be made.

    Kevin's request reads:

    “GCFA issued a communication on March 27th 2020, in which it stated in part, “GCFA does not believe it has any authority to alter prior actions taken by the General Conference in relation to general Church apportionments. As a result, the GCFA Board elected to continue to use the apportionment formula and allocations adopted by the 2016 General Conference. Using this approach, 2021 apportionments to the annual conferences will reflect the last General Conference actions related to general Church apportionments.”

    https://www.gcfa.org/news/2020/march/gcfa-board-acts-regarding-the-2021-general-church-apportionments-and-department-of-labor-guidelines/

    I request a declaratory decision regarding whether, pursuant to ¶ 16.9 of the Constitution, ¶¶ 614.1-4 and 615 of the 2016 Book of Discipline or any other applicable provision, are Annual Conferences permitted to include in their budgets numbers for general church apportionments that are not in line with the Conference’s obligations pursuant to the budget approved by General Conference?”

    Kevin's request only needed a 20 percent vote to be supported; his request was supported by 51 percent of UNY Annual Conference voters.

    Conference Secretary, the Rev. Jeff Hodge will submit this declaratory decision to the General Conference.

    TAGGED / Annual Conference 2020


    With more than 100,000 members, United Methodists of Upper New York comprises of more than 675 local churches and New Faith Communities in 12 districts, covering 48,000 square miles in 49 of the 62 counties in New York state. Our vision is to “live the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to be God’s love with our neighbors in all places."