Church of the Redeemer voted to resume Apportionment payments after keeping them in escrow for five years.

On September 22 members of Church of the Redeemer met for an all church meeting to decide whether to resume apportionment payments, in light of the joyful and Christ-filled decisions made at the last United Methodist General Conference in April.

The congregation voted unanimously to resume apportionment payments, and to pay all outstanding apportionments for the last 5 years to the East Ohio Conference.

Apportionments are the fair share all church in the Methodist connection are asked to pay to the denomination. In 2019 the United Methodist Special General Conference took steps to hurt and harm both the LGBTQIA+ members of the church and the church as a whole.

In deep pain and grief over the decisions made at the Special General Conference in 2019, Church of the Redeemer voted to withhold the apportionments from the East Ohio Conference, as church members felt it immoral and wrong to send support to a church body that intentionally had voted to cause harm to its members. At this time in 2019, Church of the Redeemer had been designated Reconciling Congregation for 25 years, welcoming LGBTQIA+ members and working for further inclusion in the life of the United Methodist Church, making the decisions at the Special General Conference especially hurtful.

In a letter to the presiding bishop of the East Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church in 2019, the church leadership wrote that the church anticipated to resume payments when there would be a true way forward for LGBTQIA+ and affirming United Methodists. During the time of withholding payment, the church would continue to learn and educate the community about issues facing the LGBTQIA+ community and pray for those who have been unjustly excluded from full participation in the United Methodist Church.

At the United Methodist General Conference in 2024 all the hurtful decisions from 2019 were reversed and harmful language about the LGBTQIA+ community and LGBTQIA+ people were removed from UMC Book of Discipline. The Social Principles of the denomination were also revised to remove harmful language.
And so, at an All Church Meeting on September 22, the Church of the Redeemer voted unanimously to resume apportionment payments, and to pay all outstanding apportionments for the last 5 years to the East Ohio Conference, slightly over $90,000.

Some members at the All Church Meeting expressed their hope that the United Methodist Church and the East Ohio Conference would designate some of the money to restorative work for the LGBTQIA+ community and mentioned the Reconciling Ministry Network and Reconciling Congregations as appropriate vehicles for such work.