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Faith groups are vital to the social safety net. But volunteers they rely on are aging and ...
Last edited Sun Nov 22, 2020, 09:42 AM - Edit history (1)
I was at the library yesterday and saw this in Saturday's print edition of the Washington Post.
Religion
Faith groups are vital to the social safety net. But volunteers they rely on are aging and their denominations are shrinking.
By Bob Smietana
November 20, 2020 at 3:56 p.m. EST
CRAB ORCHARD, Tenn. — On a Tuesday morning in early November, Sister Mary Lisa Renfer, dressed in a full habit, the wind whipping her veil behind her, stood in the parking lot of Crab Orchard Christian Church, where the mobile clinic she runs out of a 40-foot-long truck was parked. ... “I am a rebel,” said Renfer, a Catholic nun and family practice physician, before bursting out in laughter. ... “Just kidding!”
Renfer, a member of the Religious Sisters of Mercy, may not be much of a rebel. But she’s definitely an outlier. The 32-year-old begins every day with prayer and Mass, then heads out to serve God and to try to make the world a better place as director of the St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic in East Tennessee. ... Among her millennial cohort, the Nones — those who claim no religion as their own — far outnumber Catholics. Only about half of millennial Americans identify as any kind of Christian, according to Pew Research. By contrast, 84 percent of Americans of the so-called Silent Generation, those born from 1928 to 1945, identify as Christians. Only 10 percent are unaffiliated.
The decline in religious affiliation is part of an overall decline in organized religion, which affects not just houses of worship but also religious nonprofits such as the St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic, the mobile rural health clinic where Renfer serves as director. It’s part of a faith-based safety net of charitable work, funded and staffed mostly by religious Americans. ... Those organizations, which serve their local communities and rarely make headlines, face a future in which their traditional sources of funding and volunteers are shrinking. But they aren’t ready to give up yet.
St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic serves about 300 patients, scattered over six rural communities. Most have no insurance. Many have chronic conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension, and had been without regular medical care for years before coming to the clinic, Renfer said.
{snip}
This story is part of a series produced by the Religion News Service in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.
Faith groups are vital to the social safety net. But volunteers they rely on are aging and their denominations are shrinking.
By Bob Smietana
November 20, 2020 at 3:56 p.m. EST
CRAB ORCHARD, Tenn. — On a Tuesday morning in early November, Sister Mary Lisa Renfer, dressed in a full habit, the wind whipping her veil behind her, stood in the parking lot of Crab Orchard Christian Church, where the mobile clinic she runs out of a 40-foot-long truck was parked. ... “I am a rebel,” said Renfer, a Catholic nun and family practice physician, before bursting out in laughter. ... “Just kidding!”
Renfer, a member of the Religious Sisters of Mercy, may not be much of a rebel. But she’s definitely an outlier. The 32-year-old begins every day with prayer and Mass, then heads out to serve God and to try to make the world a better place as director of the St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic in East Tennessee. ... Among her millennial cohort, the Nones — those who claim no religion as their own — far outnumber Catholics. Only about half of millennial Americans identify as any kind of Christian, according to Pew Research. By contrast, 84 percent of Americans of the so-called Silent Generation, those born from 1928 to 1945, identify as Christians. Only 10 percent are unaffiliated.
The decline in religious affiliation is part of an overall decline in organized religion, which affects not just houses of worship but also religious nonprofits such as the St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic, the mobile rural health clinic where Renfer serves as director. It’s part of a faith-based safety net of charitable work, funded and staffed mostly by religious Americans. ... Those organizations, which serve their local communities and rarely make headlines, face a future in which their traditional sources of funding and volunteers are shrinking. But they aren’t ready to give up yet.
St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic serves about 300 patients, scattered over six rural communities. Most have no insurance. Many have chronic conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension, and had been without regular medical care for years before coming to the clinic, Renfer said.
{snip}
This story is part of a series produced by the Religion News Service in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.
11 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Just because Creflo Dollar needs a 4th private jet does not justify your criticism....
Control, Witness, and CBR (Cash Based Religion)
