INTRODUCTION The HIV/AIDS epidemic in America is rapidly progressing in certain subpopulations, including African-American and Hispanic communities. Churches may provide a means for reaching high-risk minority populations with effective HIV/AIDS prevention. We report on a series of focus group interviews conducted with Utah clergy who primarily serve African American and Hispanic congregations....

BACKGROUND There is a heightened interest in spiritual and religious interventions in clinical settings, an area marked by unease and lack of training by physicians. A potential resource for generalists is specialty consultation and referral services, although little is known about the prevalence and patterns of involvement of clergy or pastoral professionals in patient care. OBJECTIVES To id...

Seminary educators must negotiate two often disparate expectations in the formation of an ethical professional identity among their students. The first expectation runs deep in the traditions of professional education. It emphasizes the development of expertise—especially the expertise of critical reflection. This leads seminary educators to focus attention on developing among their students ca...

cholars have shown that clergy work can be stressful, and that these occupational strains can lead to negative physical and mental health outcomes. Despite the fact that nearly one third of all congregations in the United States are rural, little work has examined how occupational conditions and clergy experiences might vary systematically by geographical context. This study uses recent data fr...

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE Healthcare investments should consider short and long-term demands. The objectives here were to compare the average tenures of ministers of health in Brazil and in another 22 countries and to evaluate the relationship between ministers' tenures and a number of indicators. DESIGN AND SETTING Descriptive study conducted at Centro Paulista de Economia da Saúde (CPES). MET...

Pastoral counselors who provide premarital counseling must address the topics that are most relevant to couples as they prepare for marriage. This article presents the results of a survey of clergy who provide premarital counseling, demonstrating the relative importance that clergy ascribe to premarital counseling topics, as well as the relationship between religious affiliation and ratings of ...

THE 1954 amendments to the Social Security Act, which first extended the coverage of the oldage, survivors, and disability insurance program to ministers, made coverage available to them on an individual voluntary basis. Since clergymen are the only group whose coverage is on this basis, information about their participa,tion in the program is of special interest. The experience provides a uniq...

As religious organizations contribute increasingly to community mental health, counseling by clergy acquires greater significance. As a result, clergy confront from time to time ethics challenges resulting from the need to balance a commitment to clients and an obligation to follow the requirements of religious doctrine. The recent New York case of Lightman v. Flaum highlights an example of thi...