Bishops forgo pay raises to shore up funds

Key Points:

• The United Methodist Church’s ministries are dealing with deep budget cuts.
• That includes bishops, who are trying to help bolster the Episcopal Fund by going without a salary increase next year.
• The board of the denomination’s finance agency approved the bishops’ request as well as much smaller spending plans next year for the denomination’s agencies.

At a time when many in The United Methodist Church are grappling with deep budget cuts, the denomination’s bishops also are tightening their belts.

At the bishops’ request, the board of the denomination’s finance agency unanimously passed a 2025 spending plan on Dec. 11 that does not include raises for the episcopal leaders. This comes at a time when the number of active bishops currently serving in the U.S. has decreased from 39 to 32 with the result that most U.S. bishops now lead more than one conference — and thus have a bigger workload.

To help bishops’ office staff in this time of consolidation, the GCFA board also approved a one-time grant of $20,000 to each of the 15 U.S. episcopal areas that have expanded to include what previously had been separate areas. The total cost of the grants will be $300,000 for those 15 areas. The funds will not go to the bishops themselves but their episcopal areas to be used as needed for the transition.

With the approval of the 2025 Episcopal Fund spending plan, the General Council on Finance and Administration board completed its work on next year’s spending plans for 23 denominational ministries that rely on giving for funding or the finance agency for administration. In a previous online meeting Nov. 22, the board approved the other spending plans.

“Let us be purposeful that mission drives finance,” the Rev. Moses Kumar, top executive of the General Council on Finance and Administration, told the board.

He complimented the board’s General Agency and Episcopal Matters Committee for the long hours members spent reviewing the spending plans before presenting them to the full board. “May our collective efforts be blessed as we embark on this new quadrennium with hope and conviction,” he said.

General Conference, The United Methodist Church’s top lawmaking assembly, passes the overall budget for denomination-wide ministries over the next four years. That total amount is then apportioned to annual conferences, regional bodies that in turn ask for apportionments — shares of church giving — from their local churches. U.S. annual conferences fund the bulk of general-church ministries.

But ultimately what General Conference passes is an estimate. No one expects 100% apportionment collections each year. Other developments, like a drop in the number of churches, also can decrease the total apportionments the finance agency requests from an annual conference.

With all that in mind, the denomination’s general agencies, bishops and other ministries embark on a multistep process each year to develop the following year’s spending plan based on expected collections. The GCFA board gives the final approval to those spending plans.

This year’s spending-plan process has been especially challenging for all denomination-wide ministries, including agencies and bishops. That’s because after the disaffiliation of about a quarter of U.S. churches, this year’s General Conference passed a historically low four-year budget of between $353.6 million and $373.4 million, depending on collection rates in 2025 and 2026. The 2025-2028 budget represents about a 40% reduction of the previous denominational budget that General Conference passed in 2016.

The hope is that the decreases in the new budget will relieve the financial burdens on annual conferences and local churches alike. Meanwhile, just about every United Methodist ministry is adjusting to the deep budget cuts.

The sustainability of the Episcopal Fund that supports the work of bishops has long been a particular concern. At GCFA’s recommendation, General Conference reduced the overall number of bishops and reduced the planned addition of bishops in Africa from five to only two more. At the end of bishop elections in April next year, The United Methodist Church will have 52 total active bishops.

The full Council of Bishops plans to reduce its in-person meetings to one a year, with its second annual meeting being held online.

The bishops themselves suggested they forgo a pay raise in the coming year. The GCFA board also made no change to the bishops’ housing allowance.

Bishops’ salaries vary by region. In 2025, as with this year, U.S. bishops each will make $180,900. In Africa and the Philippines, the bishops will each make $88,888. The European bishops’ salaries will range from $67,051 to $140,551.

Going forward, pay increases for bishops could be tough to manage. The Episcopal Fund budget proposed by GCFA and approved by General Conference inadvertently did not include potential salary increases for the denomination’s active bishops. An increase in revenue in the Episcopal Fund, however, could make raises possible.

General Conference also established that the number of annual grants to support episcopal office staff will not exceed the number of bishops. That’s where this year’s grants come in to help reduce the episcopal offices to one per bishop.

“When we talk about the office allowance, I want to make sure that everyone understands that we’re talking about people,” the Rev. Sheila Ahler told the finance agency board. She is a former accountant and the chair of the board’s General Agency and Episcopal Matters Committee that deals with budgetary matters.

“Any time you have a merger, there is always a reduction somewhere in staff, and that’s difficult,” she said. “And it’s especially difficult whenever it’s the bishops’ staff and the staff has been with the bishop for years.”

Next year’s Episcopal Fund is budgeted with the expectation of an 85% apportionment collection rate. Even with that collection rate and overall reduction in bishop expenses, GCFA staff still project next year’s Episcopal Fund spending plan will require using about $2.1 million of the fund’s reserves, leaving a reserve balance of about $13.36 million. 

Each additional 1% above 85% collections represents $200,000 in revenue.

The denomination’s 10 general agencies that rely on church giving, including GCFA, agreed to having their budget allocations reduced even further at General Conference to help shore up the Episcopal Fund.

In particular, Church and Society, Global Ministries, Higher Education and Ministry, Discipleship Ministries, United Methodist Communications and GCFA itself are each seeing budget cuts of more than 50%. United Methodist News is part of United Methodist Communications.

During its Nov. 22 meeting, the GCFA board also approved a change in hopes of helping agencies deal with their budget crunch. The board voted for $9.3 million distribution of the denomination’s Benefit Trust, used by agencies to cover the employer costs related to active and retiree health care plans. This year’s General Conference closed benefit plans no longer in use, with the result that the Benefit Trust received the remaining unused funds — basically an additional $17 million.

Recipients of the Benefit Trust include not only agencies that receive general funds but also United Women in Faith and The Upper Room.

Next year’s agency spending plans assume apportionment collection rates between 70% and 85%. Almost all agencies also plan to dip into their reserves to cover next year’s expenses. However, Ahler noted that each agency has enough in reserve to avoid being in a tenuous situation.

The agencies, Ahler said, “did an incredible job in preparing their spending plans. Their narrative writeups were so informative. It really helped us understand what the agencies were doing, and they are doing great work — both in terms of fulfilling their mission and being fiscally responsible.”

Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or [email protected]. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free daily or weekly Digests.