ORLANDO, Fla. — Wesley United Methodist Church is a congregation of
\na few hundred members in Marco Island, Fla. It is an active congregation
\nwith ministries to the homeless, students and the elderly, and every
\nyear it sends missionaries to Guatemala.
\nThe congregation enjoys a prime location less than two miles from
\nFlorida’s Gulf Coast and pays for it — $47,000 this year alone on
\nproperty insurance, which is about half what it would pay on the open
\nmarket.
\nWith help from a statewide insurance plan of the United Methodist
\nChurch, the congregation is able to invest more in local ministries and
\noutreach, said Ernie Stevens, chairman of the congregation’s finance
\ncommittee.
\n“Everybody is subject to something, tornadoes or floods or
\nhurricanes or mudslides or all these things that we hear happening to
\npeople. So if we can share each other’s burdens,” he said, “it would be
\na very beneficial thing for all of us.”
\nAcross Florida, hurricanes have pushed property insurance rates
\nsky-high, forcing some homeowners from their homes and prompting new
\nlegislation that aims to reduce rates. Churches have not been immune to
\nthe burden, but United Methodist congregations are finding relief in a
\nplan that spreads risk among churches statewide, making insurance
\navailable to coastal congregations like Wesley and alleviating costs for
\nall.
\nNow United Methodist leaders are joining with Catholics, Lutherans,
\nPresbyterians, Seventh-day Adventists and others to explore whether such
\na plan could work nationwide.
\nThe idea is actually fairly simple — the likelihood of a
\ncatastrophic event devastating such a large area is not as great, so
\nwhen hurricane-prone churches share risk with churches in
\nearthquake-prone and tornado-prone regions, premiums go down.
\n“When we first met last year, I was astonished. I thought we would
\nall be talking about wind storm damage,” said Mickey Wilson, treasurer
\nof the Methodists’ statewide conference. “It’s just as difficult for
\nsomeone within a certain distance of the Missouri River to get
\ninsurance. … It’s not just about wind storms. It’s about all sorts of
\nother catastrophes.”
\nThe conversation began after the Catholic Church confronted its sex
\nscandals, said Peter Persuitti, managing director of Arthur J. Gallagher
\n& Co., an Itasca, Ill.-based insurance brokerage and consulting firm
\nspecializing in religious organizations. Churches are unique and
\nmisunderstood by some insurers, he said. They are nonprofits serving
\ncommunities on small budgets but are very accountable to their
\ncommunities.
\n“If I (as an insurer) think I’m underwriting a bad risk I will
\ncharge more,” he said.
\nEventually denominations began creating their own insurance
\ncompanies. Seven years ago, denominational leaders met to discuss common
\nissues. After Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and so many others swept across
\nthe Southeast in 2005, these leaders began exploring the idea of
\nspreading risk, Persuitti said.
\nHe explains it this way: If you could choose between insuring
\nchurches in Florida and insuring churches in Florida, California and the
\nMidwest, you would choose the latter. That’s spreading risk.
\nInsurance rates have surged in recent years all across Florida. Now
\nFlorida Gov. Charlie Crist is pushing the idea of a national catastrophe
\nfund. Policyholders nationwide would pay into a pool that would help
\ncover costs no matter where a disaster occurred — a hurricane in
\nLouisiana, an earthquake in California or a tornado in Oklahoma, for
\nexample. A similar fund already exists for floods.
\nThe idea has gained some traction as disasters in recent years have
\ndevastated areas well beyond Florida. Hurricane season started June 1,
\nand forecasters are predicting an above-average season, part of a
\ndecades-long upswing in activity.
\nIn Florida, the United Methodist Church insures all its
\ncongregations through a plan that spreads risk statewide. Rather than
\nlet congregations seek insurance on their own, the denomination’s
\nFlorida Annual Conference takes all its congregations to market for a
\n$20 million annual fee. The fee is up from $4 million three years ago,
\nand the rest of the conference budget is only $12 million. But Wilson,
\nthe treasurer of the statewide conference, said some churches couldn’t
\nget insurance on their own.
\n“It’s affected our ability to minister. It’s affected our ability to
\ndo outreach,” he said of the climbing costs. “Having the entire nation
\ncome into this would be just huge.”<\/p>\n
\nAmy Green<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ORLANDO, Fla. — Wesley United Methodist Church is a congregation of a few hundred members in Marco Island, Fla. It is an active congregation with ministries to the homeless, students and the elderly, and every year it sends missionaries to Guatemala. The congregation enjoys a prime location less than two miles from Florida’s Gulf Coast…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n