c. 2005 Religion News Service
Presbyterian Church in America Drops Health Plan for Employees
(RNS) Citing rising costs for premiums, the Presbyterian Church in America _ the second-largest Presbyterian denomination with about 400,000 members in the United States and Canada _ will discontinue its health plan, which provides benefits for 858 of its employees.
The board of directors of the PCA Retirement & Benefits Inc. announced in a Dec. 30 letter that its health plan will end Feb. 28, and employees will need to find new health insurance.
Unlike many other denominations, the PCA did not require its ministers and church employees to be enrolled in its program, said Dominic Aquila, PCA news officer. The number of participants dropped as premiums increased, he said.
“This is symptomatic of the crisis of health insurance costs in the entire country,” Aquila said.
William Kuh, president of PCA Retirement & Benefits Inc., said that the plan was no longer financially viable.
“It was simply a case of healthy participants being able to find better rates elsewhere,” Kuh said. “After prayerful consideration, the board elected to discontinue the plan.
“There was disappointment and sadness,” Kuh said. “The plan has been with the denomination since our founding in 1973.”
Aquila said the employees who will be most affected by the termination of the health care plan are those with pre-existing conditions and immediate health concerns such as heart problems or cancer.
_ Celeste Kennel-Shank
Greek Orthodox Consider Candidates to Replace `Building Bishop’
(RNS) The unexpected Dec. 25 death of Metropolitan Anthony Gergiannakis, head of the Greek Orthodox community in seven Western states, has church members wondering who will fill the dynamic leader’s vestments.
Metropolitan Anthony, nicknamed “the building bishop” in honor of the growth of West Coast parishes under his 25-year tenure, passed away less than six weeks after being diagnosed with a rare lymph node cancer. He was 69.
His successor will preside over the Metropolis of San Francisco, overseeing 150,000 members in Alaska, California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii. He will be the first appointed under the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America’s new charter, approved in 2003, which recognized metropolitans as heads of the country’s eight regions, above bishops.
Archbishop Demetrios, leader of America’s Greek Orthodox Christians, and the seven remaining metropolitans have 40 days from Metropolitan Anthony’s death to send three names to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. There, the head of the world’s Greek Orthodox faithful will appoint a successor.
With plans to retire at the end of 2005, Metropolitan Anthony often spoke of the kind of man he hoped would take his place, said the Rev. Stephen Kyriacou of the Annunciation Cathedral in San Francisco.
“He wanted somebody that could continue his kind of progressive vision,” Kyriacou said, noting the metropolitan’s tenure saw the development of 20 new parishes, three monasteries and the world’s largest annual exhibition of Greek folk dance. “He was hoping his successor would espouse his building projects and the various ministries to the young people.”
Church leaders expect the archdiocese to release the list of qualified bishops _ estimated at fewer than 30 _ this month. Candidates must be at least 35 years old and celibate, fluent in English and Greek and distinguished graduates from an accredited Orthodox school of theology.
The new charter allows for input from clergy and laypeople on the nominees, but Kyriacou said the Metropolis of San Francisco would not make any endorsements.
“We don’t express support for one or another candidate,” Kyriacou said. “The Holy Spirit will indeed guide the process.”
_ Nicole Neroulias
Rural Michigan Board Rejects `Bible in History and Literature’ Class
Board of Education members in a rural Michigan district have rejected a proposed “Bible in History and Literature” class on grounds that it teeters too close to religion and too far from history.
“It appears to be more like the Bible `as’ history and literature,” said Frankenmuth Superintendent Michael Murphy after the decision was made Monday (Jan. 10). “It goes beyond talking about religion and becomes faith-based.”
Paul Gehm, a senior at Frankenmuth High School, which is about 75 miles north of Detroit, said administrators are overlooking a historical gem.
“The school board is making a huge mistake in denying students the right to learn from a piece of literature that was used by our founding fathers to start this country,” said Gehm, 18. “This is about historical facts, not one religion over another.”
Board members rejected the program overwhelmingly. The only dissenting vote came from Gary Pickelman, who prefaced his remarks with his personal religious convictions.
“Why is it that students can’t read the Bible in school when prisoners can in prison?” he said. “Why do I have to swear on a Bible in court, when the Ten Commandments cannot be displayed on federal grounds? Our society is messed up.”
The concept of a Bible study class dates to January 2004 when Robert and Marcia Stoddard of Frankenmuth proposed an elective “Bible in History and Literature” course to school administrators.
The couple, who had heard about the class through the Greensboro, N.C.-based National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, said the focus was on studying the Bible’s role in history and literature in an academic, not devotional, manner.
In defense, they said the country’s founding fathers were influenced heavily by Judeo-Christian beliefs, giving the Bible particular significance in understanding American history.
The Stoddards presented board members with a petition containing the names of nearly 1,500 adults and students who favored the program.
Arlene Marie, Michigan state director for the American Atheists, said the board had little choice but to refuse it on constitutional grounds.
“To even consider offering a course focused exclusively on the Bible in the public square is not only constitutionally unlawful, it arrogantly ignores the religious diversity in America and around the world,” Marie said.
“I wonder if they would have spent a year on it if it were on the Quran,” she said.
_ Jeremiah Stettler and Jessica Soule
Survey: Majority of Doctors Call Some Medical Results Miracles
(RNS) A national survey of U.S. doctors finds that a slim majority say they have seen treatment results in patients that they would consider to be miracles.
Fifty-five percent of doctors said they would describe some results that way, compared to 45 percent who did not, according to a survey released in December by the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.
HCD Research, a Flemington, N.J.-based market research firm, conducted the survey of 1,100 physicians using a random sampling of office-based doctors that they have used in previous research for pharmaceutical companies.
Glenn Kessler, co-founder of the research firm, said he was surprised at how high the percentage was of doctors who believe some treatment results were miraculous.
“Physicians, who are scientists, seem to have very traditional views on religion and the Bible,” he said of the overall findings.
Doctors, in answering a multiple-choice question about their faith, said they represented a range of religions including various segments of Christianity and Judaism as well as Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and a category titled “other.”
Seventy-two percent of the physicians surveyed said they believe religion provides a necessary and reliable guide to life. Asked about prayer for patients, 59 percent said they pray for individual patients and 51 percent said they pray for their patients as a group.
More than half _ 58 percent _ said they attend worship services at least once a month and 46 percent said they believe prayer is very important in their own lives.
“The picture that emerges is one where doctors, although presumably more highly educated than their average patient, are not necessarily more secular or radically different in religious outlook than the public,” said Alan Mittleman, director of the seminary’s Louis Finklestein Institute for Religious and Social Studies, in a statement.
The survey, conducted Dec. 9-10, had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: President Bush
(RNS) “I don’t see … at least from my perspective, how you can be president without a relationship with the Lord.”
_ President Bush in an Oval Office interview with editors and reporters of The Washington Times on Tuesday (Jan. 11).
Bush also told the newspaper that he believes it is the duty of the president to protect the rights of those who choose to worship and those who do not.
MO/PH RNS END
