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Praying for AIDS Help
Local church event asks God to assist in those afflicted
POST-STANDARD
Syracuse, NY
March 14, 2004
By Sara Errington
Staff Writer
Several dozen people offered prayers at Hopps Memorial CME Church on Saturday, asking God to help people, families, communities and nations affected by AIDS.
"We have things to discuss. We have things to pray on. We have work to do," said Melody Holmes-Mena, who moderated the Syracuse service honoring the 15th annual Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS.
Wives of the ministers of Southern Missionary Baptist Church, Tucker Missionary Baptist Church and Bethany Baptist Church were among the guest speakers.
Holmes-Mena said she asked the "first ladies" of the churches to speak because HIV increasingly affects women and because the Bible has many accounts of God answering the prayers of women.
The three women asked the audience to pray with them.
"Dear Lord, who is our balm in Gilead, our master physician, we come into your presence knowing that you are an able God. We also know that you know AIDS is running rampant to and fro in the city of Syracuse, and, oh, Lord, it's touching people in all walks of life. Lord, right now we are especially troubled by the death toll and the transmission rate in the minority community," prayed Wandalyn Griffin, of Southern Missionary Baptist Church.
Michael V. Francis, of AIDS Community Resources, read facts about the AIDS pandemic.
"People of color represent the majority of new HIV infections and new AIDS cases, and AIDS is now the leading cause of death for African Americans age 25 to 44," he said.
Francis said it's more important to focus on the cure than the cause.
"It doesn't matter how a person got infected, but on what can we do to help them, to move them on, to make their life understandable," he said.
Members of Delta Sigma Theta sorority an African-American women's organization, also participated.
"As a nation, as an organization, as a church, as a community, we need to commit ourselves and make certain this disease does not transcend my generation, myh children's, their children's and their children's. I believe this disease can be stopped," said Delta Sigma Theta member Marsha Senior.
Carol Tyrell, from the AIDS Institute's Faith Communities Project in Albany, said she was thrilled to see the churches speaking out.
"Many of our consumers have said they do not feel welcome in their places
of worship," she said. Larry S. Howard, minister of Hopps Memorial,
said homophobia is as morally wrong as racism." We must find compassion
to heal our wounds and the scars keep us from doing what needs to be done
to stop this epidemic," he said.
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