
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 8, 1991                   TAG: 9104080342
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ARLINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

CHURCH OFFICER USED FUNDS HIS OWN WAY

Members of Arlington United Methodist Church were shocked to learn their longtime budget director, noted for giving away candy and college scholarships, used at least $650,000 in church funds to do so.

"He thought he was the pastor, the finance chairman and the board of trustees all rolled into one," the church's minister, the Rev. William Parrish, said of Jim McKinney.

McKinney, 74, died Dec. 11, the day after he and Parrish had a heated conversation about why McKinney wasn't paying the church's dues to the Richmond office on time.

The Methodist congregation will never know how much McKinney, its budget officer since 1957, spent.

After his death, church members went to his office, and the truth began to emerge.

A report presented to the congregation in February said McKinney spent $650,000 in church money on unauthorized items beginning in 1982, the last year for which sufficient records could be found.

During the same years the church boiler broke down, the exterior paint peeled and the church begged Methodist authorities for a financial boost, McKinney apparently spent $383,000 on scholarships, wrote $210,000 in checks to "cash" for unknown purposes, and spent $53,000 on supplies, according to the accountants.

by CNB