lergy have historically lived longer than other white-collar professionals, primarily due to less suicide, accidents, and infectious disease. As the health challenge in the United States has shifted to obesity-related chronic disease, clergy have experienced rates of obesity and corresponding chronic disease that are even higher than those of non-clergy. One possible explanation is the interpla...

CONTEXT Although clergy interact with approximately half of U.S. patients facing end-of-life medical decisions, little is known about clergy-congregant interactions or clergy influence on end-of-life decisions. OBJECTIVE The objective was to conduct a nationally representative survey of clergy beliefs and practices. METHODS A mailed survey to a nationally representative sample of clergy com...

CONTEXT Community-based clergy are highly engaged in helping terminally ill patients address spiritual concerns at the end of life (EOL). Despite playing a central role in EOL care, clergy report feeling ill-equipped to spiritually support patients in this context. Significant gaps exist in understanding how clergy beliefs and practices influence EOL care. OBJECTIVES The objective of this stu...

Global statistics show persistence of alcohol and drug abuse despite the programmes religious organisations have come up with aimed at mitigating abuse. This study analyzed Biblical pastoral approaches used by Presbyterian Churches (PCEA) in addressing problem Multistage Cluster sampling technique was to select three PCEA regions from five regions. The had a total sample 144 respondents who wer...

This article analyzes the religious policy of USSR, discusses issues coverage in foreign press state religion, movement end 60-80s XX centuries on territory Soviet Union. The author relies archival documents Council for Religious Affairs under USSR Ministers, as this body collected and recorded articles information published outside Materials by leading journals publications countries, such USA...

We used self-reported data from United Methodist clergy to assess the prevalence of obesity and having ever been told certain chronic disease diagnoses. Of all actively serving United Methodist clergy in North Carolina (NC) 95% (n = 1726) completed self-report height and weight items and diagnosis questions from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS). We calculated BMI categorie...

BACKGROUND People with serious illness frequently rely on religion/spirituality to cope with their diagnosis, with potentially positive and negative consequences. Clergy are uniquely positioned to help patients consider medical decisions at or near the end of life within a religious/spiritual framework. OBJECTIVE We aimed to examine clergy knowledge of end-of-life (EOL) care and beliefs about...