Title: ELCA Council Receives Update on Insurance Alternatives for Congregations ELCA NEWS SERVICE
November 16, 2006
ELCA Council Receives Update on Insurance Alternatives for Congregations 06-177-MRC
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) received an update from a task force exploring the possibility of creating a "captive insurance" or risk-sharing program to offer property and casualty insurance coverage to congregations and synods of the ELCA.
The Church Council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as the legislative authority of the church between churchwide assemblies. The council met here Nov. 11-13. Assemblies are held ever other year; the next is here Aug. 6-11, 2007.
The 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons had a "dramatic effect" on congregations, particularly those that lost property, said Mark S. Helmke, San Antonio, Texas, council member.
Helmke, a member of the ELCA Insurance Alternatives Task Force, told the council that, in the aftermath of the last year's storms, many insurance companies abandoned congregations in Florida and the U.S. Gulf Coast, while other insurance companies severely restricted what property would receive coverage or greatly increased premiums at "expensive, impractical" levels.
The task force met in September to begin developing alternatives for insurance coverage, said Helmke. At the meeting it named an insurance brokerage firm to conduct a study of insurance alternatives, he said. The study is expected to be completed in early 2007. The task force will review the findings of the study, and it will deliver a report with possible recommendations to the Church Council at its April 2007 meeting.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org http://www.elca.org/news ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog