Delegates to the United Methodist Church's top lawmaking body, in an effort to revitalize congregations in the denomination, voted to shrink agency boards but came up short in efforts reorganize them.

The nearly 1,000 delegates meeting in Tampa Fla. for a two week conference which ended on Friday voted this week to reduce membership in eight of 13 agency boards by nearly half. However an effort to create a new agency with broad oversight authority was declared unconstitutional by the church's top court, saying it created a conflict with existing authorities.

The church, facing a financial crisis, is seeking ways to deal with a steep decline in membership in coming years as its older generation passes away.

Bishop Larry M. Goodpaster, the president of the Council of Bishops, tried to comfort delegates who wanted to see broader changes.

"God always provides a way," he said according to the United Methodist News Service.

Plan UMC, a set of proposals to consolidate agencies and shrink their boards, was declared unconstitutional by the denomination's nine-member Judicial council.

The proposal to create a "General Council for Strategy and Oversight" under Plan UMC intruded on the constitutional authority of the Council of Bishops for general oversight of the denomination, according to the court.

"It creates an overlapping authority for which no constitutional authorization exists," the court said.

The votes by delegates cut board membership by a total of 266 members.

Petitions to reduce board members came from : United Methodist Boards of Discipleship, Global Ministries and Higher Education and Ministry, General Council on Finance and Administration, United Methodist Men and the churchwide Commissions on Religion and Race; the Status and Role of Women; and Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns.

Another approved proposal folded the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns into the Council of Bishops.