BOB ABERNETHY: And now the ministry of parish nurses or congregation nurses. They're sent out by their faith communities to provide health services to fellow parishioners. Working 20 to 25 hours a week, they provide care at no charge. The nurses themselves are paid either by their congregations or, in poorer communities, by hospitals or foundations. The idea has caught on. There are now 10,000 to 15,000 parish nurses in this country. From Chicago, Judy Valente reports.

Ms. YORUBA SIDDIQ (United Church of Christ): I pray all day every day. I pray as I walk. I pray as I talk. Prayer is a living thing for me.

Ms. LORETTA CALDWELL: Come right on in.

JUDY VALENTE: Yoruba Siddiq often visits the ill and the elderly members of her congregation on Chicago's South Side. She spends time with them in prayer.

Ms. SIDDIQ: Most gracious and eternal God, I thank you for this day.

VALENTE: But these visits aren't merely social or even pastoral. Yoruba Siddiq is here primarily as a registered nurse, sent by her church to check on the physical, as well as the spiritual well-being of her fellow parishioners. With hospital visits getting shorter and medical bureaucracy more complex, churches, mosques, and synagogues are becoming an important health resource. More and more religious groups are trying to get their members to look at health as a gift from God. The parish nurse helps by serving as health counselor, liaison to the medical community, and role model for showing the connection between faith and health.

Reverend DELOIS BROWN-DANIELS (Advocate Health Care): As time went on, we kind of gave our bodies to the medical community, we gave the minds to the psychiatrist, and we kept the spirit in the church. When you come to worship on Sunday morning, you don't leave your body outside the doors.

VALENTE: Congregation nurses are almost always RNs, but to avoid liability issues, they aren't expected to perform complex medical procedures. They focus on simple forms of screening, wellness education, and helping people find proper medical care.

Ms. ANN SOLARI-TWADELL (International Parish Nurse Resources Center): They're not going to be monitoring medications, monitoring IVs, that sort of thing. That is the role of the home care nurse or the community health nurse. The real key is that they're meeting people earlier in their disease process, just someone listening to them and helping them figure out what is going on in their life.

VALENTE: Starting with just six Chicago area nurses in 1985, parish nursing has now spread to nearly every state and four foreign countries. Three thousand congregation nurses were trained in just the past three years, not just at churches but at a mosque and synagogues. A thousand parish nurses gathered in suburban Chicago recently for a series of workshops covering subjects like health and prayer, men's health, and the healing power of music.

VALENTE: This nurse plans to introduce parish nursing in Swaziland, an African nation where nearly 25 percent of the population is HIV positive.

Ms. THANDIWE DLAMINI (Swaziland): My church has got 25 parishes and about 10 other outstations, so it really increased the coverage of the government and non-government organizations who work in HIV and AIDS.

VALENTE: In the U.S., parish nurses play a vital role in impoverished communities.

Reverend LEROY SANDERS (United Church of Christ): Those who come, who have no insurance, who have no job, who are homeless and jobless, then she's able to minister to them.