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UNY pays 100 percent of General Church apportionments

January 22, 2020 / By Shannon Hodson / .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Your church’s Ministry Shares enable the UNY Conference to pay General Church apportionments, which support the World Service Fund, the Ministerial Education Fund, the Black College Fund, the General Administration Fund, the Africa University Fund, and more.

On Saturday Jan. 11, the UNY Conference Council on Finance & Administration (CF&A) voted to once again pay 100 percent of General Church apportionments for the fourth year in a row. This decision was made even though the percentage of churches who paid their Ministry Shares in full declined slightly.

Over the past two years, Ministry Shares paid to the UNY Conference have declined by nearly 3.4 percent. Despite the decline between 2018-2019 (83.5 percent to 82.23 percent), the percentage of decline between 2018-2019 was less than that of 2017-2018 (85.6 percent to 83.5 percent).

The Rev. Susan Ranous, Chair of CF&A, said, “While we had hoped that ministry share collection would be greater, we were still delighted by the generosity of many of our churches, even in light of the decisions of the Special Session.”

Some speculated that the Special Session of General Conference would have resulted in a much larger decline in Ministry Shares, but most people and churches remained faithful in paying their Ministry Shares.

UNY Treasurer, Bob Flask, said, “It is pleasant to know that many churches are continuing to pay their Ministry Shares and that the political atmosphere has not been a huge detriment.”

Even in challenging times, the vast majority of United Methodist Churches in Upper New York value the shared ministry that allows for ministry far beyond what any single church can do on their own. That has been reinforced by CF&A in their decision to pay General Church apportionments at 100 percent.