Bishops in the United Methodist Church have voted themselves a pay cut after “recognizing the financial challenges facing the church.”
The UMC’s 50 active U.S. bishops voted to give up their planned pay raises for next year and instead reduce their salaries to the 2008 level, dropping their annual pay from $125,650 to $121,000, according to United Methodist News Service.
The United Methodist Church’s highest court has ruled that clergy may not officiate at same-sex unions, even in states where such marriages are legal.
The church’s nine-member Judicial Council rejected separate resolutions passed by the California-Nevada and California-Pacific conferences that voiced support for clergy who officiate at such unions.
Last year, the denomination upheld rules in its Book of Discipline, or constitution, that Methodist churches cannot be used to host same-sex unions and that clergy are prohibited from officiating at them.