In Martha's Vineyard, Clinton Pays Heed to Sermon on Relaxing

PRESIDENT Clinton attended services Sunday at an open-air tabernacle in Oak Bluff, Mass., and promptly became a convert of the minister, who stressed the need to balance work and play, ``even if you're the president.''

Mr. Clinton, on the second day of his vacation on Martha's Vineyard, later had breakfast at a restaurant with Hillary Rodham Clinton and their daughter, Chelsea and then went directly to a golf course.

Near sunset, the Clinton family went sailing around Vineyard Haven Sound for about two hours aboard a 72-foot yacht named Zorra.

They were accompanied by singer-songwriter James Taylor.

At the tabernacle, the Rev. Edward Vander Hey of the First Baptist Church in Red Bank, N.J., delivered a sermon that stressed the need to balance the pressures of work with the need to relax.

The minister acknowledged that when his friends heard he might speak in front of Clinton, they ``had all kinds of things to tell him, but they were neither Christian nor kind.''

The difficulty of Clinton getting away from his troubles was underscored a few minutes after leaving the church.

The president was walking along, shaking hands with well-wishers, when he was asked about an alleged marital affair.

Clinton, who spent much of Saturday playing golf, participated in a foursome with actor Paul Glaser, television producer George Stevens, and lawyer Vernon Jordan, who helped head Clinton's transition team after he won the presidential election. US, Cuba to resume talks on refugees

DESPITE calls for wide-ranging, high-level negotiations, the United States and Cuba will discuss only refugees when mid-level talks resume this week, Secretary of State Warren Christopher said.

``On other subjects, we really don't have very much to say to Castro. He knows what he needs to do,'' Mr. Christopher said Sunday on CBS.

He also said the United States would respond in a ``carefully calibrated way'' should Cuban leader Fidel Castro Ruz take steps toward democracy, such as allowing free elections.

This week's discussions continue US-Cuban negotiations that generally have taken place twice yearly for a decade. The goal is a compromise through which the United States would allow more legal immigration from Cuba if Mr. Castro stops the illegal flight toward Florida, Christopher said. Southern governors meet in Nashville

WHEN it comes to health-care reform, Congress should leave it up to the states, Mississippi Gov. Kirk Fordice (R) said Sunday at the start of the annual Southern Governors' Association meeting in Nashville.

``I don't believe we should rush ahead at the federal level without seeing what's working on the local level,'' said Mr. Fordice.

Southern governors held their 60th annual summit here through today. Health-care reform is high on the agenda, which also includes prison reform, education reform and, as always, griping about federal mandates.

Tennessee Gov. Ned McWherter (D), host of the summit, said President Clinton's health-care reform plan couldn't achieve the level of coverage his state has. Mr. McWherter's aides said his TennCare health-care reform plan, combined with private insurance and government plans, now provides health insurance coverage to 94.1 percent of Tennesseans.

Georgia Gov. Zell Miller, the Democrat who is chairman of the Southern Governors' Association, said he is more inclined to see what develops in Congress before proposing sweeping health reform in his state, though a bipartisan committee is studying the prospect.