THE levy for Methodist Church members has been increased from $10 to $15 after consultations on the last day of the Methodist Church Conference.
However this increase has been predicted to still not meet the needs of the Methodist church.
The 201,884 membership last year has decreased to 197,226 this year.
This was confirmed by the Methodist Church general secretary Reverend Tevita Nawadra yesterday.
"All Methodist church members will now be levied at $15 per year to help run the church, before we had a levy of $10 as you know but that was initiated in 1986," Mr Nawadra said.
"And the value of that $10 in today's valuation is about $37, what we were able to buy in 1986 with that $10 today we can buy that with $37."
Mr Nawadra said the Methodist Church was pleased with the slight increase.
"We are glad there has been a slight increase but probably that will not meet the required needs of the church but there has been an increase."
Mr Nawadra said the church was also looking at other means of financing the church.
"We will look to use our resources, not only from levies but as you know we have quite a few lands and we will look at how to utilise that to satisfy the needs of the church."
He added the Methodist Church was not just about levies and tithes saying the church was looking to place more focus as well on one of its root causes — helping the poor.
"We would also like to emphasise that we are finding our feet again in areas that were normally strong points of the church and that is helping the poor.
"We would like to continue to serve the poor of this land because that is how John Wesley began in England," Mr Nawadra concluded.