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For Immediate Release
Contact:Teresa Lyles Holmes
914-282-5317
tlhcomm@aol.com
The Balm In Gilead, Inc. Mobilizes
17th Annual Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS
March 5-11, 2006
Bishop
Gregory G.M. Ingram, Bishop George W.C. Walker, Bishop Marshall
Gilmore,
Rev. Stephen John Thurston, Rev. Dr. Major Lewis Jemison, Rev. William J. Shaw,
Rev. Canon Nelson Pinder and Other Prominent Ministers Unite Millions of Parishioners
Against HIV/AIDS
NEW YORK, January 25, 2006 -Some of the nation’s
most prominent voices from African American pulpits are uniting
against HIV/AIDS for the 17th annual Black Church Week of
Prayer for the Healing of AIDS, March 5-11, 2006. These
ministers are the voices for millions of parishioners across the
nation who will participate in what is now today, the largest AIDS
awareness campaign targeting the African American faith community.
“United We Stand Against HIV/AIDS,” is this year’s
theme for The Balm In Gilead’s flagship campaign, The
Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS. It
is during this Week that the organization mobilizes thousands of
faith institutions to champion AIDS awareness, prevention and education
in the African American community. Although the campaign is in its
17th year, this is the first time that The Balm In Gilead has united
7 historical Black church denominations as well as the leaders of
6 other national denominations and caucuses to take “action”
against HIV/AIDS within the African American community.
“I believe this historical joining together of our national
religious leaders to address HIV/AIDS will come to be known as the
moment in our history when the African American Church really began
to unleash its own shackles of stigma, ignorance and a multitude
of phobias that have afforded our great institution (The Black Church)
the ability to ignore the devastating realities of HIV/AIDS in our
community,” said Pernessa Seele, Founder
and CEO, The Balm In Gilead.
“The Balm In Gilead, along with our national spokespersons,
invite all congregations to join the crusade for AIDS education,
prevention, service and compassion. Stand Up! ACT Now! The epidemic
is worsening in our communities because we have not yet fully organized
ourselves to survive!”
This year’s spokespeople for the 17th annual Black Church
Week of Prayer represent millions of churchgoers across the nation.
They include: Bishop Gregory G.M. Ingram, president,
Council of Bishops African Methodist Episcopal Church; Bishop
George W.C. Walker, senior bishop, African Methodist Episcopal
Zion Church; Bishop Marshall Gilmore, senior bishop,
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church; Rev. Stephen John
Thurston, president; National Baptist Convention of America;
Rev. Dr. Major Lewis Jemison, president, Progressive
National Baptist Convention; Rev. Dr. William J. Shaw,
president, National Baptist Convention, USA; Rev. Dr. Arlee
Griffin, president, American Baptist Churches, USA; The
Rev. Canon Nelson Pinder, president, Union of Black Episcopalians,
The Episcopal Church; Dr. Dory Lingo, immediate
past president, United Black Christians, United Church of Christ;
Bishop Melvin G. Talbert, president, Black Methodist
for Church Renewal, United Church of Christ and Bishop Carl
Bean, Archbishop, Unity Fellowship of Christ Church.
“I concur that education is the most important key in eliminating
this dreaded disease,” said Bishop George W.C. Walker, Sr.,
senior bishop/presiding prelate, Piedmont Episcopal District. “And
the church is certainly one major medium through which this can
be accomplished over a period of time.”
Since its inception in 1989, The Black Church Week of Prayer
for the Healing of AIDS has engaged Black Churches to become
centers for education, compassion and care in the fight against
HIV/AIDS. The organization is encouraging Black churches across
the United States to host educational workshops, seminars, prayer
vigils, or simply distribute information during the Black Church
Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS. Churches are also being
encouraged to assist in getting more African Americans to take the
HIV test and to give compassionate care and support to persons living
with HIV. Today, many churches in both rural and urban African American
communities have begun an appropriate response to the AIDS epidemic.
The Balm In Gilead’s Faith-Based HIV/AIDS Capacity Building
Model has resulted in the development of many congregational-based
HIV/AIDS programs. These congregational programmatic responses range
from consistent distribution of brochures during Sunday Morning
worship to full-scale direct HIV service programs.
According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, AIDS
is the fourth-leading cause of death among women in this country
between the ages of 25 and 44, and is the leading cause of death
among African American women ages 25 to 34. HIV infection has been
designated the fifth largest leading cause of death for people 25-44
years old in the United States, and the leading cause of death for
African-American men ages 35-44.
As reported in the HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report (2002), Vol. 14,
African Americans accounted for the majority (54%) of new HIV/AIDS
diagnoses in 2002. The rate of AIDS cases among African American
adults or adolescents (76.4 per 100,000) was nearly 11 times greater
than that of Whites (7.0 per 100,000) and nearly three times that
of Latinos (26.0 per 100,000) in 2002.
The Balm In Gilead is a 501(c) (3), not-for-profit organization
based in New York City whose mission is to improve the health status
of people of the African Diaspora by building the capacity of faith
communities to address life-threatening diseases, especially HIV/AIDS.
As The Balm In Gilead continues its work in the African American
faith community, including the recently launched African American
Denominational Leadership Health Initiative –a historical
partnership between the Balm In Gilead and the women’s missionary
societies and council of the African Methodist Episcopal Church,
The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and The Christian Methodist
Episcopal Church, it also continues its international mission of
building the capacity of faith communities in Cote d’ Ivoire,
Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya and Zimbabwe.
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