c. 2000 Religion News Service

Law Allows Patients to Stay in Religious Care Facilities

WASHINGTON (RNS) Jewish leaders are praising a bill passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton on Thursday (Dec. 21) that will allow senior citizens to stay in religiously affiliated nursing homes even if the homes are not covered by their health-maintenance organizations.

Clinton signed the measure as part of the final spending bill for the next fiscal year sent to him by Congress. The “Return to Home” legislation had languished on Capitol Hill for several years and was revived this year by a coalition of religious groups.

Under the legislation, Medicare patients who suffer an acute illness _ such as a stroke or broken hip _ and need rehabilitative care will be allowed to return to their care facilities for rehabilitation, even if that facility is not covered under their HMO plans. Supporters said the current system forced many patients to be transferred to facilities far away from friends, family and their own doctors.

The bill was a top priority of United Jewish Communities. UJC Washington office director Diana Aviv said the bill is a victory “for all of America’s seniors” but especially elderly Jews.

“The result for Jewish patients is that they will be able to heal in community skilled nursing facilities that comply with Jewish dietary laws, holiday observances and other essential religious or cultural practices that are central to their mental and spiritual well-being,” she said.

Supporters of the bill said recovery can be hindered by sending a patient far away from family or friends. The UJC provided testimonies from elderly couples who had been separated because of the law, such as an elderly Jewish woman in Florida whose care deteriorated when she was moved far away from her husband, who couldn’t drive to see her. She eventually died at the facility.

The bill received wide support from across the religious spectrum, including the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Catholic Health Association.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Presbyterian Executives Look for `Third Way’ Through Gay Debate

(RNS) With the Presbyterian Church (USA) badly divided over the issue of homosexuality, the church’s regional executives have asked for a “third way” to work through the issue that will, they hope, please both liberals and conservatives.

During the church’s General Assembly meeting in June, delegates narrowly voted to ban same-sex unions and sent the vote to the church’s 173 regional presbyteries for approval. As presbyteries gear up for the vote, 113 presbytery executive directors asked for some sort of compromise.

“We believe the church we love has a future, but it will not be by determining winners and losers,” the executives wrote in a letter to the church. “It will be determined by seeking a third way. We envision a third way which can come only from an openness to the Spirit.”

The executives did not say what a “third way” might mean, but they said it cannot be “dictated by deadlines” nor by “judicial or legislative actions.”

A similar vote to ban same-sex unions failed in 1995 when enough presbyteries voted “no action” instead of an up or down vote. At the church’s meeting next year in Louisville, delegates will again be asked whether openly gay people can serve as church officers.

The letter was drafted and signed during a meeting of the Association of Presbytery Executives in San Antonio, but it is not an official statement from either the group or the church. The executives pleaded with the church for prayer and dialogue on both sides of the issue, and they pledged together to find a “third way” among themselves.

“In each of our presbyteries and with each other, we will gather at a common table to pray and talk together,” they said. “We promise not to leave the table before a direction emerges.”

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Church of Scotland Leader Finds West Bank `Desperate’

LONDON (RNS) The situation of Palestinian Christians in many parts of the West Bank is “desperate,” the moderator of the general assembly of the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) said Friday.

“The (Israeli) closure policy, which means that whole towns are completely cut off and no one can enter or leave, has had a terrible effect on the people in these towns,” the Rt. Rev. Andrew McLellan told reporters after a brief visit to the Holy Land at the request of the church’s Jerusalem congregation.

“On the day we arrived at the Church of Scotland Hospice in Jerusalem, some of the staff were able to come in for work for the first time since early October. Unemployment in Bethlehem as a result of the closures is 70 percent,” McLellan said. “`We are living in a big jail,’ a Palestinian church worker told me.”

McLellan said the delegation met church leaders, both Palestinian and Israeli politicians, people from both West Bank towns and Jewish settlements, and British government representatives.

McLellan said the mayor of Bethlehem told him, “Our Christmas has been stolen from us.”

Illustrating the “devastating” impact on the town of the absence of tourists, McLellan said whereas normally one had to line up for up to two hours to enter the Church of the Nativity, his party last week walked straight in and were almost the only people there.

The moderator said some 350 Palestinians had been killed and 10,000 wounded in the last three months as Palestinian-Israeli violence flared.

“Of course it is true that Israelis have been killed and wounded, and the death of any one is as important as the death of any other, and brutal behavior is always wrong,” he said.

But, he added, for him the situation was dramatically shown in a poster he had brought home showing a 13-year-old boy with a stone in his hand facing down a tank. “Two weeks after the picture was taken, the boy (Fores Odel) was shot dead,” he said.

Recalling that Christians believe that God’s will for the world is healing and peace as well as justice, McLellan said current negotiations to restart the peace process are vitally important.

“It is important that an agreement is reached, that it is reached in a way that clearly is just to all parties, and it is important that the whole world _ and not least Britain _ plays a part in helping any agreement to work,” he said.

Update: Judge Allows Prayer Meetings in Home for Now

(RNS) A Connecticut judge has issued a temporary restraining order that will allow a couple to hold a Christmas Eve prayer meeting in their home, overruling a zoning commission prohibition.

The American Center for Law and Justice, the law firm representing Robert and Mary Murphy in their suit against the New Milford commission, announced the order by a Bridgeport federal judge on Thursday (Dec. 21).

“I can’t think of a better Christmas present than the court issuing an emergency order to protect the constitutional rights of our clients,” said Vince McCarthy, senior counsel of the ACLJ.

The Catholic couple has held weekly prayer meetings and Bible studies in their home since 1995, and they say as many as 25 people attend the gatherings.

After receiving complaints about traffic from the neighbors, a zoning enforcement officer ordered them to stop the meetings. In response, the couple filed suit Dec. 1.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Cathedral Seeks Protection From Vandals

LONDON (RNS) Liverpool’s Roman Catholic cathedral is applying to the Historic Churches Committee for permission to install some kind of protection over its narrow stained glass windows that reach down to ground level.

Alterations to historic buildings require permission from the commission.

Regarded as an outstanding example of postwar ecclesiastical architecture, the cathedral was consecrated in 1967 and has been nicknamed variously “Paddy’s wigwam” and “the Mersey funnel.” It is a circular building with a conical roof.

Thieves or would-be thieves have smashed the stained glass to get into the building.

According to reports, there have been three burglaries and two attempted burglaries in the past several months, causing $37,500 worth of damage. Repairing the stained glass is very expensive, while each successive break-in is apt to lead to higher insurance premiums.

_ Robert Nowell

`Pop’ Staples, Founder of Staple Singers, Dead at 85

(RNS) Roebuck “Pop” Staples, founder of the Staple Singers gospel and blues group, died Tuesday (Dec. 19). Staples had recently suffered a concussion in a fall during a walk near his Dalton, Ill., home. He was 85. A native of Winona, Miss., Staples taught himself how to play blues guitar and began performing with the Golden Trumpets gospel quartet in 1931. He and his children made their first recording in 1953 and their first gospel hit was “Uncloudy Day” in 1956. The Staple Singers began performing protest songs along with their gospel repertoire after Staples met the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and heard him speak in Birmingham, Ala. “If he can preach this, we can sing it,” Staples said. Later, their pop hits included “Respect Yourself” and “I’ll Take You There.” The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999. Bishop Carlton Pearson, a Tulsa, Okla., pastor who has recorded traditional gospel albums, praised Staples’ contribution to the industry. “He was a gospel music icon,” Pearson said. “He was a great man who led a wonderful family of powerful communicators of the gospel in music.” _ Adelle M. Banks Quote of the Day: Nazareth Village Executive Director D. Michael Hostetler (RNS) “Christians all over the world act out the story. For us this year, it will be a symbol of hope in the midst of so much absence of hope.” _ D. Michael Hostetler, a former video producer from Ohio who is executive director of Nazareth Village, a reconstructed first century community in Nazareth, Israel, where a Nativity play will be staged Christmas week. He was quoted in the Friday (Dec. 22) edition of USA Today. DEA END RNS