[3] His father was elected to the United States Senate in 1956 and served four terms, until January 1981.

[1] On February 4, 2008, Church sent a letter to the members of his congregation informing them that he had terminal cancer.

He told them of his intention, which he successfully realized, to sum up his thoughts on the topics that had been pervasive in his work in a final book, entitled Love & Death.

Church died of esophageal cancer in New York City on September 24, 2009, a day after his 61st birthday.

These include technical studies of Christian and Gnostic literature, as well as over a dozen books addressing a wider audience.