Hoosier United Methodist, July/August, 1992

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SJER UNITED METHODIST
July/August tt.
Volume 22, Number 7 2
Last rites for Indiana Council of Churches?
By Mary Matz
Assistant editor
The deadly tight-money disease that
has afflicted UM apportionments and
budgets has spread to the UM-supported
Indiana Council of Churches.
And the executive committee of the
Indianapolis-based ecumenical council has
announced to its 25 denominational mem-bers
that its life support system will be
gradually disconnected, beginning next
December.
The Indiana United Methodist
Church is one of the largest financial con-tributors
to the Indiana Council of
Churches. According to Don Smith, con-ference
treasurer, North Indiana Confer-ence
will contribute about $31,000, and
South, about $32,000 in actual dollars to
the council's $118,000 budget for 1992.
Smith said the budget figures from
each conference are discounted according
to the percentage of World Service contri-butions
actually received via local church
apportionments. For example, North Con-ference
budgeted $33,000 for its 1992 con-tribution,
but because the apportioned
amount received is actually about 86%, the
actual contribution is $30,703.
The UM church contribution repre-sents
over half of the $118,000 income
budget received from member denomina-tions.
The contribution figures out to
about a third of the council's total $153,000
budget which includes grants, donations,
and contributions from a variety of sourc-es.
Smith said overall financial support
for the council began a "rapid, noticeable
decline" last year, as the weakened econo-my
began to affect donations from corpo-rations,
individuals, and churches. The fi-nance
committee apprised the council's
board of the situation last February.
For fifty years the Indiana Council of
Churches has provided a climate for more
than two dozen Christian church repre-sentatives
to work together on common
concerns, including networking Christian
education, broadcasting religious news,
influencing state government, working
for justice and peace, assisting farmwork-er
self-determination, and assisting and
encouraging refugee resettlement
Recently, in fact, the Indiana Coun-cil
of Churches and North UMC, India-napolis,
helped bring a refugee family
from Haiti to the city (see story, page 14).
In a brief memo issued in late June,
the council's executive committee recom-mended
that all council staff be immedi-ately
notified that their positions termi-nate
as of Dec 31. Leased office space in
the Indiana Interchurch Center in India-napolis
would be terminated.
Also, the council's active Refugee
Resettlement/Immigration Program
would become an independent entity.
And the council would continue as a vol-unteer
organization through 1993, with
members continuing 1993 funding com-mitments
in order to liquidate indebted-ness
and make plans for the future.
The executive director's position,
among those to be terminated, is held by
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1992
Annual Conference
controversies
Special section 3-6
INSIDE:
Missionary News 15
National Issues 16
News to Use 17
What's Happening 19
Viewpoints 21
People 23
Hello retirement!
Bishop Leroy C. Hodapp looks
toward relinquishing his episcopal
robes this month, after 50 years of
service to the church. This issue,
his recollections, his views on
ministry and friends "remembering
Leroy" are on pp 7 -10.
PHOTO BY LESLE LANE.
MCOUIRE STUDIO
the Rev. Scott Schiesswohl, an ordained
UM minister. Schiesswohl could not be
reached for comment at press time.
In a press release issued after the ex-ecutive
committee's recommendations
were made, Edith Jones, president of the
council's board of directors, said volun-teers
will be substituted for secretarial,
clerical, and mailing projects, and the of-fice
will be relocated.
Yet some of the council leadership
seemed unshaken by the announcement
This is nothing new," Jones told the
Hoosier United Methodist News. "We all gb
through these ups and downs."
"The question here is, what is the fu-ture
of ecumenism in Indiana?" said UM
Bishop Leroy C. Hodapp. "No doubt it'll
survive, but this is a transition time.
'This is not the death of mainline
church ecumenism in Indiana, but merely
the death of the Council of Churches in a
form and style as it had existed," he said.
Much of the council's work can be handled
by volunteers, he added.
"Lots of things have to die to be re-born,"
the bishop said. "Let it die so we
can find something more relevant and
adaptable to our times."
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