General Agencies

Bishop Sally Dyck presides over a discussion of the church budget during the 2016 United Methodist General Conference in Portland, Ore. With the next General Conference delayed until 2021, the board of the denomination’s finance agency decided it had no choice but to continue with the apportionment formula approved in 2016. File photo by Maile Bradfield, UM News.

Wrestling with budget after GC2020 postponed

Finance leaders decided they had no choice but to maintain the 2016 General Conference’s budget actions. But they also recognize the financial challenges caused by COVID-19.

General Church

Bishop Pedro M. Torio Jr., Baguio Area, Philippines, takes part in the Spring 2017 meeting of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries at its Atlanta headquarters. The coronavirus outbreak prohibited Torio and his fellow board members from gathering there for their most recent meeting. Instead, they met online March 20. File photo by Cynthia Mack, Global Ministries.

No travel? Not a problem for mission board

Across time zones, directors of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries made a virtual trip to Atlanta for their spring meeting.

General Church

Christine Dodson and the Rev. David Bell, General Council of Finance and Administration board members, raise their hands during a meeting at Scarritt Bennett Center in Nashville, Tenn. The board voted to send the smallest budget the General Conference in more than 30 years. Photo by Kathleen Barry, UM News.

Potential split leads to deep budget cuts

The United Methodist finance agency’s board narrowly approved reductions to an already slashed denominational budget. The result would be the smallest budget since 1988.

Mission and Ministry

L. Dale Patterson, archivist-records administrator at the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History, examines film, one of thousands of carefully filed items at the agency housed on the campus of Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. A 2013 file photo by Kathleen Barry, UM News.

Taking church archives from hi-fi to Wi-Fi

Dale Patterson looks backward and forward as he contemplates retirement from the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History.

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