Mission board dismisses chief executive

United Methodist News Service
STAMFORD, Conn.—Elected directors of the United Methodist mission board abruptly dismissed the agency’s chief executive Oct. 9.
The decision not to renominate the Rev. R. Randy Day as general secretary was recommended by the personnel committee of the General Board of Global Ministries during the annual directors meeting in Stamford. The dismissal was effective immediately.
Directors then approved the appointment of retired Bishop Felton May as interim general secretary. He took over immediately.
Day, who took office Jan. 1, 2003, had led the mission board staff for nearly five years. He was nominated by a search committee led by Bishop Joel N. Martinez of San Antonio, currently the mission board president, and elected during the October 2002 annual meeting.
The dismissal “does not diminish our appreciation for the many talents and skills of Randy Day but indicates that directors are looking for a different style of administrative leadership to take us into the future,” Martinez said in an Oct. 10 statement.
Martinez acknowledged Day’s “energetic service” to the board and that he “made many new friends for mission and strengthened mission partnerships around the globe.”
A committee to search for a permanent replacement was to be named before the annual meeting ended Oct. 11, Martinez said.
Day declined comment on the board’s decision.
Before becoming chief executive, Day had served for two years as the mission agency’s staff executive in charge of evangelism and church growth. He is a clergy member of the New York Conference.
At the time he became general secretary, the mission agency had suffered through staff layoffs, program cuts and a reduced budget. At this month’s meeting, board treasurer Roland Fernandez reported that operating expenses, both in 2006 and the first eight months of 2007, were the lowest in several years and that an operating surplus—$2.9 million in 2006—had occurred “for the first time in many years.”
Day had a mission emphasis on children, poverty and global health care and had encouraged the board to look beyond financial limits to find ways to do mission.
At his first board meeting as chief executive in April 2003, Day said he considered global mission partnerships, with congregations, conferences or even other denominations, to be “among our best options for growing the United Methodist investment in mission.”
May, a former vice president of the mission board, is dean of the Harry R. Kendall Science and Health Mission Center at UM-related Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark. He is chairman of the United Methodist Holistic Africa emphasis.