Disbursement of 2024 separation fees announced
Trustees Chair Shannon Bullion shares where the 2024 church separation fees will be disbursed. Photo by Matt Brodie.
By Jessica Brodie
GREENVILLE—One year after 112 churches left the South Carolina Conference, United Methodists got to hear where their separation fees will be disbursed.
Conference trustees offered Annual Conference a detailed report sharing where the funds would go. Given during their report on the last day of Annual Conference, the announcement saw one amendment to the fund distribution that received much debate but was ultimately defeated.
“We have sought to uphold sacred trust and fiduciary responsibility, holding ourselves to what it means to be Christian and to the Wesleyan standard to do no harm, do good and stay in love with God,” said Trustees Chair Shannon Bullion told the body, noting that with funds from the 225 separations, they have worked hard to do many good things.
What are separation fees?
Separation fees were those fees paid by the 112 churches that separated in 2024 (and 113 in 2023) from the South Carolina Conference of The United Methodist Church. The separation process has now ended as the UMC Judicial Council ruled that conferences could no longer use Discipline Para. 2549 to allow churches to separate.
As part of the 2023 and 2024 separation process, each church agreed to certain financial obligations, including a tithe equal to 10 percent of the appraised value of all church property and liquid assets; all unpaid apportionment giving for the prior year, as well as for the year of closure up to the date of the Annual Conference vote to close the church; an additional 12 months of apportionment giving; all unpaid salary and benefits for clergy appointed to the church; a withdrawal liability equal to the church’s proportional share of any unfunded pension obligations; and satisfaction or transference of other financial considerations and legal liabilities of the local church, such as the disposition of any debts, loans, leases, endowments, foundations and cemeteries.
The 113 churches that separated in 2023 also had to do the same. (For where those funds went, read https://advocatesc.org/articles/2023-separating-church-funds.)
Where are the 2024 fees going?
The trustees reported in their addendum that the 2024 separating churches paid $12.1 million in separation fees.
Of that $12.1 million:
Trustees approved the disbursement of approximately $2.2 million for 2024 and 2025 apportionments, $27,306 for unpaid direct bill balances and $42,742 for unfunded pension liability.
Trustees also set aside approximately $4.5 million for its litigation fund, noting 56 churches are seeking to separate from UMC and are in litigation with the conference. Combined with funds from 2023 separating churches, this will bring the total available for litigation expenses to $6 million.
Trustees set aside $1 million for its operating fund, as they recently paid about $1 million of outstanding mortgages on church properties it received in the last 12 months through ad interim closure.
Trustees set aside about $800,000 to continue the payment of compensation and benefits for displaced pastors (displaced pastors are those serving a church that has entered litigation with the conference but the pastor is remaining with the UMC).
Trustees granted the remaining approximately $3.5 million to the Cabinet for their Hope Fund with the request that the Cabinet use 75 percent of the funds to assist BIPOC congregations with no matching requirement and use the remaining 25 percent to assist congregations as they deem appropriate. (BIPOC is an acronym that stands for Black, Indigenous and People of Color.)
Trustees will invest a portion of the funds it holds in Wespath’s Short Term Investment Fund.
“Every church in the conference has benefitted in some way from these monies,” Bullion shared.
Bullion also noted that the litigation fund not only covers the 56 churches in litigation with the conference but also the unresolved Boy Scouts litigation.
Amendment proposed, rejected
While trustees had specified that 75 percent of the $3.5 million going to the Cabinet’s Hope Fund would go to BIPOC congregations as determined by the Cabinet, Dr. Reginald Lee offered an amendment to this plan.
Lee proposed that the funds would instead be deposited with the Office of Congregational Development, with a grant approval process to include standard application and interviews and with decisions made by South Carolina Black Methodists for Church Renewal, Congregational Development, the Ethnic Local Church Concerns Committee and the Committee on the Status and Role of Women.
“We believe minority self-determination is an extremely important part of the new United Methodist Church,” Lee said. “We need an opportunity to do things and make decisions for ourselves.”
Several spoke both for and against the amendment.
The Rev. Stephen Taylor, who opposed the amendment, said the conference already has a very good office of Congregational Development that’s doing what this motion calls for.
“I don’t see the need for another group to do what we’re already doing,” he said. “It seems like we’re fragmenting the church instead of working to improve unity.”
Joseph James proposed a friendly amendment, requesting that the funds go to the BIPOC committee of the conference.
But Bishop Fairley confirmed there is no BIPOC committee, so the friendly amendment was deemed out of order.
The Rev. Matthew Alexander proposed the funds be held with Connectional Ministries instead of Congregational Development, but that was not approved.
The Lee original amendment also failed.
BIPOC committee to help guide Cabinet
After the amendment was defeated, Fairley noted he would name a group of BIPOC individuals to work with the Cabinet to make decisions on the grant distribution.
With that, the trustees report as a whole was approved..