(RNS) Bishops in the United Methodist Church have voted themselves a pay cut after “recognizing the financial challenges facing the church.”
The UMC’s 50 active U.S. bishops voted to give up their planned pay raises for next year and instead reduce their salaries to the 2008 level, dropping their annual pay from $125,650 to $121,000 according to United Methodist News Service.
“The current global crisis has uncovered our hesitancy to act, but it has also gifted us with a sense of urgency and an opportunity to lead courageously,” the bishops said in a May 8 statement at the conclusion of their annual spring meeting. The bishops also said they will cut their semiannual council meetings from five days to four to save money.
The UMC, which has about 8 million U.S. members, is suffering through the same budget pressures besetting most U.S. churches as the spiraling stock market cuts into endowment funds and donations decline.
The Methodist bishops said their church faces “an unprecedented moment in our history,” with church membership, worship attendance, baptisms and funding for certain ministries all declining.
Meanwhile, the bishops said, the church suffers from “institutional inertia” and “the structure we live with is not sufficient, nimble, or responsive to the fast-changing 21st century world we inhabit.”
The church is studying ways to “radically refashion and reorder the life of the United Methodist Church,” the bishops said.
By Daniel Burke
Copyright 2009 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.
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posted May 12, 2009 at 6:10 pm
“…dropping their annual pay from $125,650 to $121,000 …”
Anyone in the US Congress reading this, and do we have to fly the most premium model private jets and fly to Vegas while telling everybody else about making concessions?
posted May 12, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Good for them.
posted May 12, 2009 at 9:06 pm
What about all those CEO’s who got us into this mess? They are the ones getting hundreds of times what they’re worth.
$121,000 isn’t bad in a lot of places but no doubt it’s a sacrifice coming down from more. So, good for them.
posted May 12, 2009 at 11:46 pm
It’s a fine gesture, but it is only a 3% cut. I realize they are not the criminals and fools who got the country, and the world, into this mess. But in the face of the incredible shortfalls in giving, is 3% really going to make a difference? At best, given that the cost of living continues to rise, I guess the real value is about 5%.
posted May 13, 2009 at 1:04 pm
I believe it makes a huge difference. It can set off a chain reaction whereby people reading this will be inspired to put their selves aside for the good of the whole. Does voting in an election make a difference being only one vote (rumored Adolf Hitler made it by a vote)?
Practically speaking it doesn’t seem like a big difference, yet a bunch of small sacrifices can compile to equate one huge sacrifice. One could equate it with unplugging electrical appliances at home, using hand cloth shopping bags instead of paper or plastic at a grocery store, recycling, clipping coupons, etc. In and of themselves insignificant but all together buko differencio. Perhaps you’ve gotten a little smug with your shady palm down there in So Fla but don’t forget about Jonah
posted May 13, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Tom,
Which part of Jonah’s story? Ninevah is still a dangerous place to go (modern day Mosul). I love the sea but have never seen a whale in the wild (so Shamu does not count, though he is a jawed whale). Plenty of folks have threatened to throw me off the boat, vote me off the island, send me packing, hold the door out, etc… Or is it that Joanh was successful even when he thought he had made a mminimum effort and done a marginal job?
It is indeed easy to be smug under a palm (or a fig tree – is that the joke?). But life in the slow lane has that effect on a person. Join us – the water is warm, the breezes are gentle, and the sun shines every day (though we are in desperate need of rain).
posted May 13, 2009 at 5:37 pm
I was referring to when the worm ate the plant God saw fit to give Jonah (yes, it’s a joke).
We’ve been getting rain every other day roughly for the past month and a half fortunately though I could do without the humidity. I’m afraid it will be quite some time before I get to enjoy life in the slow lane but I may consider stopping by the next time I’m in the neighborhood.
posted May 14, 2009 at 12:20 am
Tom
WE GOT RAIN! O the joy! You can almost hear the grass sucking up the puddles. It looks like we may be getting back on schedule – sun in the morning, rain between 3 and 5 pm, moonlit nights. It ain;t Camelot, but it sure is nice. COme on down to sw FL and look for a UCC congregation. You will be WELCOMED like the showers in May – as is everyone who comes to one of our churches.