At Grace UCC, Uniontown, plans are being made for construction of a new family activity center. Congregation members can purchase a brick for a center wall to show support for this new venture and help fund construction.

June 16 was a very special Sunday for St. Paul’s UCC, Middletown. Their service was conducted by people with mental retardation and developmental disabilities, their families and friends. Pam Long, Communications Coordinator for the Butler County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, delivered the sermon. St. Paul’s has renovated their building to make most of it handicap accessible. On June 16 the congregation had the opportunity to appreciate the gifts offered by people with disabilities.

First UCC, Sugarcreek has collected funds to purchase more than 280 pairs of shoes to be donated to people in Eastern Europe through SARA, Sharing America’s Resources Abroad.

Trinity UCC, New Lebanon are being invited to ‘adopt a resident’ at the Trinity Retirement Community. Congregation members will be matched with residents who receive few visitors and will visit, pray, bring gifts, make telephone calls, send notes, or run errands for that resident.

The confirmation class at Christ Church, Ft. Thomas, Kentucky traveled to The Kiln in Hyde Park to create personalized chalices for use in their first Holy Communion as a group. The chalices were used on June 2 during the Celebration of Confirmation.

Beginning in June, Pilgrim UCC, Toledo added a new insert in the worship bulletins. It is a Bible study aid which will take the reader on a weekly pilgrimage into the culture, land, people, places and events of the Bible. The set of 260 study aids will take about five years to collect, with faithful attendance in church.

East Market Street UCC, Akron has adopted the nearby Safe Landing Youth Shelter for girls as a neighborhood outreach project. Opportunities for members to get involved range from responding to crisis calls to collecting items that the shelter needs. The shelter, that provides help to girls between ages 10-17, offers training for volunteers who wish to serve.

St. Paul UCC, Cincinnati is planning to include a Victorian Tea Room in November’s Gingerbread House Bazaar. Organizers are asking for contributions of unneeded china cups, saucers and teapots as well as lace tablecloths to give the tea room an authentic look.

Zion UCC, Norwood contributed a float to the Norwood Day Parade on July 23. The parade theme was ‘Norwood’s Heroes,’ and Zion’s float was ‘Our Hero, Jesus Christ.’

Over Memorial Day weekend, groups from three Central Southeast Association churches traveled to Holland, Michigan to build playgrounds for children who will spend part of their summer at migrant worker camps in the area while their families pick blueberries.

The project, spearheaded by Pastor Ed Miner of St. Paul’s UCC, Columbus, was organized through Pastor Miner’s home church, Plymouth Congregational UCC, in Grand Rapids. Members of the church provided overnight housing for the group from Ohio. Jenny Miner, sister of Pastor Miner, works with the migrant workers’ children for Project Head Start in Holland. She located farmers who were willing to allow the UCC group to construct the play equipment for their workers.

The groups from St. Paul’s; David’s UCC, Canal Winchester; and Westerville Community UCC arrived in Michigan on Friday night and were ready for work on Saturday morning. After a brief training session provided by Ms. Miner about the lives of migrant workers, the groups headed out in a chilling rain to three farms where piles of lumber, boxes of hardware and sheets of instructions awaited them.

Work began immediately and continued non-stop into the evening, when everyone re-assembled at Ms. Miner’s home, where she and her family hosted the group for dinner. The workers compared notes on construction techniques and problems, enjoyed a meal and drove back to Grand Rapids to sleep.

Employee Benefits Liability coverage protects the employer against claims by employees or former employees resulting from negligent acts or omissions in the administration of the insured’s employee benefits program. It is intended to cover the "administration" of group life insurance, group accident and/or health insurance; profit sharing plans; employee stock subscription plans; and workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, social security benefits, disability benefits, etc.

The word "administration" is defined as giving counsel to employees, interpreting the program, handling records and effective processing of enrollment, termination or cancellation of employee benefits provided all are acts that are authorized by the Named Insured – the church.

Churches are facing many of the same employment issues that organizations in the non-religious sector face, including letting employees go. One-third of those who have lost private insurance and become uninsured either left or lost a job. When individuals leave their jobs, they frequently lose their health insurance coverage as well. The employee may qualify for COBRA, allowing the employee to pay to continue with the group coverage for a designated period of time. One of the most overlooked elements of benefit administration is to assure that the employee is notified of their rights under COBRA. Make sure your church is knowledgeable not only from a liability standpoint, but from a caring standpoint – reaching out to the families this will affect.

Many church insurance policies do not offer Employee Benefits Liability as a standard coverage.

The UCC Insurance Board Program includes $2 million of Employee Benefits Liability Coverage at no additional cost.

Be sure to review your church property and liability policy to see if you have this fundamental coverage.

Or contact Ben Rupp (Columbus 614-486-5911) or John Bouhall (Westlake 440-835-4800) our Conference Agents, for a competitive proposal from the UCCIB.