The United Methodist Church is facing a more than 40% cut in its four-year budget due to the exodus of thousands of congregations over policies on LGBTQ issues, according to UM News, the church’s official news service.
The church is dealing with a $346.7 million budget for 2025-2028 — a 43% decline from its previous four-year spending plan of $604 million, UM News reported.
The budget reduction stems from the exit of 7,673 of congregations from America’s second-largest Protestant denomination. In 2022-2023 alone, 7,432 congregations left the United Methodist fold.
Most have left over how the church should handle LGBTQ issues, including same-sex marriage and ordination to the ministry. A large number have joined the Global Methodist Church, which brands itself as a more traditional body.
The United Methodist Church, which had roughly 10 million members worldwide in 2022, said 675 congregations were discontinued, abandoned, merged or closed for financial reasons in 2022-2023.
All UMC ministries will feel the impact of what the news service called “significant” spending cuts, including general agencies and United Methodist bishops.
The church’s Episcopal Fund supports the activities of UMC bishops, or regional administrators. It would receive $78 million — a 15.2% decrease, church officials said in an online statement.
The General Administration Fund would drop by 27.5% to $26 million, and the General Council on Finance and Administration would see a 59.1% allocation reduction. Funds overseen by the Connectional Table would get $238 million — a 49% decline.
“With great sacrifice, our general agencies, like our local churches and annual conferences, continue to offer creative leadership, programming, and mission with just five loaves and two fish,” Judi Kenaston, chief connectional ministries officer for the UMC, said in a statement.
An annual conference is the United Methodists’ equivalent of a diocese.
Proposed cuts to the Episcopal Fund would provide money for 32 bishop positions in the United States, a sharp drop from the 39 currently serving. The initial budget proposal would have slashed the number of U.S. bishops to 22, but Council of Bishops President Thomas Bickerton argued against such a dramatic cut.
“In this critical period of time in the church, to go that low in the number of bishops in the United States would not be helpful — in terms of bridging the transition, providing effective leadership in the midst of all the changes happening and serving as a bridge to the connection,” Bishop Bickerton told UM News.
The bishop said the church hopes to trim its U.S. numbers through “natural attrition.”
The proposed UMC budget will be the smallest in 40 years.
The church’s policymaking assembly, called the General Conference, is expected to vote on the budget at its business session, which will be held April 23-May 3 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
At that session, United Methodist regional bodies in Africa, Asia and Europe may seek authority for congregations in their regions to disaffiliate, again over LGBTQ issues. If UMC churches in those areas depart, it would mean a further shrinkage of membership numbers and funding shortfalls.
Correction: A previous version of this article mischaracterized the United Methodist Church’s Connectional Table. It also misstated the amount and duration of the previous budget and the number of bishop positions to be funded.
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.
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