50 Methodist bishops agree to pay cut
INDIANAPOLIS - One of the country’s largest Christian denominations is addressing the nation’s financial crisis with what it hopes will be a spiritual teaching moment as well as a cost-saver.
Fifty United Methodist Church bishops in the United States will roll back their salaries by 4 percent next year in what Bishop Gregory Palmer of Springfield, Ill., president of the Council of Bishops, says is a gesture of solidarity with others hurt by the global economic downturn.
The salary cut is one of the strongest statements taken yet by a faith group as US churches respond to a recession that has left growing numbers of people jobless and hungry. Other denominations have eliminated jobs, frozen salaries, or canceled mission trips.
Only 17 of the 63 regional US Methodist conferences paid their full share of the denomination-wide expenses last year, down from 23 in 2007.
The bishops’ salaries will fall back about $4,700 annually to their 2008 level, $120,942, on Jan. 1 from $125,658 currently. The annual pay, based on a formula, is set by the denomination’s General Council on Finance and Administration, which voted in May to accept the bishops’ recommendation. The money comes out of denomination coffers. 