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Guidance Regarding Positive Tests for COVID-19

REPORTING

As more people gain access to tests for COVID-19, clergy may have questions about who to inform if you, a member of your household or a parishioner receives a positive test result (i.e., a test result indicating infection).

The facility where the test is done will report positive results to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The person whose test result has come back positive, or a family member or friend assisting them, should seek guidance from their local health department about who to inform, and how.

Please note that the name(s) of any person(s) testing positive should not be made public to preserve the confidentiality of their medical information. Again, local health authorities will offer guidance about who must be informed and how.

Any clergyperson who tests positive for COVID-19, has a positive test result in their household, and/or learns of a parishioner testing positive, should likewise seek guidance from their local health department and also immediately contact the Rt. Rev. Sam Rodman or the Rt. Rev. Anne Hodges-Copple. The latter step will not only keep our bishops informed, but will also better enable them to offer you support through this challenging time. You can reach our bishops through their executive assistants: Elizabeth Dawkins (919-600-5301) for Bishop Sam Rodman, or Patricia Hamilton (919-600-5304) for Bishop Anne Hodges-Copple. Outside regular business hours, you can contact the staff member on call (919-600-2009) or any canon. You may simply tell the staff member you reach that you need to speak to a bishop about a COVID-19 diagnosis in your church.


WORKPLACE SAFETY AND COVID-19

As of late March 2020, there is no specific Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard covering COVID-19. The General Duty Clause, however, applies: It requires employers to furnish workers “employment and a place of employment, which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm.”[1]

Please note: while workers considered “ministers” are not covered by OSHA, other employees (e.g. administrative staff, maintenance workers) may be covered depending, for example, on the size of your workforce.

Contact OSHA directly with questions about your church or ministry’s specific situation, at (800) 321-6742.


CHURCH MEDICAL TRUST HEALTH BENEFITS AND COVID-19

We commend to you this update from CPG (late March 2020):

“Healthcare Out-of-Pocket Expenses
Pursuant to The Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which became law on March 18, 2020, The Episcopal Church Medical Trust (the Medical Trust) will waive all co-pays, deductibles, and coinsurance for its members for healthcare services relating to the evaluation and testing for COVID-19.1 In addition, the Medical Trust will waive all co-pays, deductibles, and in-network coinsurance for its active members for healthcare services relating to the treatment of COVID-19. We are in the process of updating the Summary of Benefits and Coverage, which is available at cpg.org.

Any cleric, lay employee, or other member with questions about benefits and coverage under healthcare plans offered through the Medical Trust should visit his or her provider’s website or call the toll-free number on the back of the health insurance card.

For retirees enrolled in a Medicare Supplement plan with United Healthcare, Medicare has announced that there will be no out-of-pocket costs for COVID-19 lab tests. For more information regarding Medicare benefits and additional information, please visit https://www.medicare.gov/medicare-coronavirus.”



[1] https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/covid-19/standards.html, accessed 30 March 2020

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Contacts

The Rt. Rev. Samuel Rodman
XII Bishop Diocesan of North Carolina
The Rt. Rev. Anne Elliott Hodges-Copple
VI Bishop Suffragan of North Carolina
The Rev. Canon David Forster Sellery
Canon for Congregational Mission
919-834-7474, ext. 5303 

The Rt. Rev. Samuel Rodman

XII Bishop Diocesan of North Carolina

The Rt. Rev. Samuel Rodman was ordained and consecrated as the XII Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina in Duke Chapel on the campus of Duke University in Durham on July 15, 2017. He was elected on March 4, 2017.

Prior to his election, Bishop Rodman served as the Special Projects Officer for the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, a role he took on after spending five years as the diocesan project manager for campaign initiatives, where he engaged congregations, clergy and laity, in collaborative local and global mission through the Together Now campaign, helping to raise $20 million to fund these initiatives. Prior to that, he spent 16 years as the rector of St. Michael’s in Milton, Massachusetts, during which the parish established a seven-year plan that included a capital campaign for a major renovation of the church school building.

Ordained in 1988, Bishop Rodman is a graduate of Bates College and Virginia Theological Seminary. He and his wife of 32 years, Deborah, live in Raleigh. They are the parents of two adult daughters. In his free time, Bishop Rodman enjoys basketball, golf, kayaking, crosswords and creative writing.

The Rt. Rev. Anne Elliott Hodges-Copple

VI Bishop Suffragan of North Carolina

Anne Elliott Hodges-Copple was elected the Diocese's sixth Bishop Suffragan and the first female bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina on January 26, 2013, at the 197th Annual Convention. She was consecrated on June 15, 2013, in Duke Chapel on the campus of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

Bishop Hodges-Copple grew up in Dallas, Texas, and attended Duke University, where she received her Bachelor of Arts in 1979 with a major in public policy. She earned her Master of Divinity from Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California, in 1984.

In the years between college and seminary and then seminary and ordination, Hodges-Copple worked as a community organizer in Massachusetts and Appalachia and as a shelter director for victims of domestic violence in North Carolina. She was ordained a deacon in 1987 and a priest in 1988.

Bishop Hodges-Copple has served her entire ordained life in the Diocese of North Carolina, working 13 years in parish ministry and 13 years as a campus minister. She served as the rector of St. Luke’s, Durham, until she was elected to the episcopate. Bishop Hodges-Copple has a particular passion for shaping mission and ministry to be attuned to the voices, needs and wisdom of disempowered communities.

In her role as Bishop Suffragan, Bishop Hodges-Copple has particular responsibilities in campus and young adult ministries, new mission starts (Galilee ministries), the Racial Justice and Reconciliation Commission, the ordination process for the diaconate, global partnerships for mission, ecumenical and interfaith collaborations and the pastoral care of retired clergy, their spouses and surviving spouses. In the spring of 2018, she led a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, her third such pilgrimage, and plans another in 2020.

Hodges-Copple is currently a member of the Executive Council for The Episcopal Church, the Board of Historic Black Colleges & Universities and the Task Force for Social Advocacy. She served on the Special Legislative Committee for Marriage at the 2015 General Convention in Salt Lake City and chaired the House of Bishops’ Legislative Committee on Social Concerns at the 79th General Convention in Austin, Texas. She is also a member of the Bishops United Against Gun Violence.

During the transition between the 11th and 12th Bishops of North Carolina, she served as Bishop Diocesan Pro Tempore, the ecclesiastical authority of the diocese.

She and her husband, John, have three adult children. John is Director of Planning for the Triangle J Council of Governments.

The Rev. Canon David Forster Sellery

Canon for Congregational Mission
919-834-7474, ext. 5303 |

Before joing the staff of the Diocese of North Carolina, Sellery served as priest-in-charge at St. John’s, Salisbury, Connecticut. He successfully opened the doors of St. John’s to the community, particularly to young people and families, through the “WiFi Café” program he hosted every week in the parish hall. As part of his community outreach mission, Sellery actively served as an emergency medical technician with the Salisbury Volunteer Ambulance Service.

In addition to extensive parish work, Sellery served as the director of institutional advancement for two of New York's premier not-for-profit organizations, focusing in the areas of community development and healthcare. While working in portfolio and investment management, he continued his active ministry serving as visiting clergy to parishes in Connecticut and New York and on Long Island. His experience as a commuting executive informs his perspective in serving families in commuter communities. He later returned to full-time parish work to which he brought his enhanced administrative, communications and stewardship skills.

Born in Norwood, Massachusetts, Sellery was educated in public schools in Darien, Connecticut; Malvern, Pennsylvania and Woodland Hills, California. He majored in English Literature and received his B.A. from the University of Connecticut (1989), Masters of Divinity from The General Theological Seminary in New York (1992), and Certificate in Appreciative Transitional Ministry (2013) and Certificate in Appreciative Coaching via The Clergy Leadership Institute (2015). Sellery serves as a director of Nazareth Friends, Inc. a family foundation that owns and operates four homes for people with developmental disabilities in Florida.

Sellery is married to Jane Muir Sellery. They have two sons, Robert and William.

Website: davidsellery.org
Podcast: Fr. Sellery Presents This Week’s Focus

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