By RJ Walters, Editor
The number of districts will be reduced from seven to six no later than July 1, 2011 thanks to legislation passed May 22 at the Detroit Annual Conference.
Laity and clergy members voted down amendments asking that the number of districts be reduced from seven to “six or five” or “five”.
The reduction of one district superintendent and all associated expenses will save the district approximately $210,000 in the first year, according to Council on Finance and Administration (CFA) chairperson Carol Johns.
Johns said the CFA analyzed a significant amount of data and had lengthy discussions to determine it was in the best interest of the DAC.
Conference church membership has fallen from 186,851 in 1970 to 94,679 in 2009, but the number of districts has remained unchanged and the number of clergy has actually risen.
“We believe the time has come to right-size our conference,” Johns said when presenting the resolution. “Our present setup was created to fit the needs of the conference in 1970.”
Bishop Jonathan Keaton will have the final say on how the districts are re-drawn to accommodate the change.
Rev. Jack Harnish of Birmingham FUMC prompted the discussion about the possibility of amending the resolution to state that the conference be to “six or five” districts, in hopes of providing more room for creativity in the future.
“Twenty-five years ago there was a plan to go from seven to six and while that exact plan probably wouldn’t work today, I believe we should give leadership and the Bishop some freedom and flexibility as they consider the reorganization of the districts,” he said. “We have all kinds of technology, from video to various ways of communicating that makes it much different than 1970.”
Several other people spoke in favor of the amendment, but Rev. Charles Boayue of Second Grace UMC thought the current superintendents should be afforded more time to work with their congregations that “have many needs right now.”
“How much more work can we expect them to do on top of what they already do and do we then have to redefine their jobs,” he said. “I do like the spirit of the amendment, in being more effective with our resources and money, but not the actual amendment.”
John Hart of the FUMC of Troy was on the other side of the spectrum, offering up the idea that the language simply be changed to read “five districts.”
“I want a number that’s proactive,” he said. “Let’s have the opportunity to implement some new ideas and this conference.”
When asked, Johns admitted the CFA had not researched or discussed the implications of reducing the number of districts to five.
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