N.J. WOMAN URGES NEWARK CHURCH LEADERS TO USE PULPIT TO PREACH
HIV/AIDS PREVENTION

NEWARK -- Safe sex and sanitary drug use are not subjects most people
expect to hear about in church, but in Newark, where one in 47 people
have HIV/AIDS, one woman is urging local pastors to put aside their
discomfort and start using the pulpit to preach about AIDS prevention.

"We talk about basic HIV transmission and the role the congregation
can play in stemming the epidemic," said Deloris Dockery, who is HIV
positive and heads the program "One Conversation," a part of the
Hyacinth AIDS Foundation.

For three years, Dockery, of Summit, has lobbied pastors and bishops
throughout Greater Newark to counsel their congregations on safe-sex,
needle exchange programs and early detection. While the bulk of
churches have not been responsive, Dockery said her persistence has
begun to pay off.

"In the churches that we have worked with, the response is good,"
Dockery said, but adds, "It could be greater. It could always be greater."

According to the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services,
one in 62 African Americans in New Jersey is living with HIV/AIDS
compared to one in 705 whites. While African Americans make up 14
percent of the state's population, they make up 55 percent of the
population living with HIV. And among those living with HIV/AIDS in
New Jersey, 67 percent are children, according to the state health officials.

For Dockery, the mission is deeply personal. The 50-year-old single
mother contracted HIV in 1994 after having unprotected sex. While she
described the news as "devastating," she was determined to finish her
education and get treatment.

"No matter how long God gave me, I really needed to secure the
well-being of my son," who was still in her native Jamaica, she said.

Fifteen years later, she put her son through school in the U.S. and
earned a master's degree in public health from the University of
Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Thanks to early diagnosis and
treatment, Dockery said she leads a healthy productive life, with a
normal life expectancy.

"That is the message that I bring to churches and to our community,"
Dockery said.

A full-time employee at Hyacinth, Dockery spends her weekends
traveling to churches in the greater Newark area giving presentations
and organizing testing centers.

"Rain, sleet or snow, I'm out there like the post office," she said,
and adds that she is grateful for every congregation that has opened
their doors to her and her message.

Dockery has sent brochures to hundreds of churches, following each
mailing with a phone call. Only about 13 churches have responded
according to Dockery, who blames "fear and denial and stigma" for the
lack of a greater response.

But with support from congregations like the New Hope Baptist Church,
the Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church, and the Shekinah Glory
Christian Church, Dockery is seeing her message reach thousands of worshipers.

"When you keep doing funerals of loving, caring people who have been
infected by that disease, all of that stigma goes away," said Joe
Carter, New Hope's pastor. With 2,500 congregants, it is one of
Newark's biggest churches and has been an important ally in Dockery's
quest to raise awareness.

New Hope administers to hundreds of people with various needs,
according to Francis J. Dixon, director of the church's Vision of
Hope Community Development Corporation. Along with meals and
counseling, the church offers on-site, confidential HIV testing, in
partnership with UMDNJ.

According to Dixon, the church's HIV ministry would not have been
possible without Dockery's efforts.

"There couldn't be a better ambassador," Dixon said. "She has been
faithful. She doesn't mind getting down and doing the grunt work."

While medicine has made great advancements in HIV/AIDS, the disease
is still a scourge on poor urban communities and experts blame
ignorance about the disease for its permeation.

"In this country there are over 250,000 patients who do not know they
have the disease," said Jihad Slim, a physician at St. Michael's
Medical Center in Newark who treats infectious diseases. Citing the
importance of testing, Slim said those 250,000 "are responsible for
50 percent of the transmissions."

The medical community has actively sought out community leaders,
sometimes paying them to encourage people to get testing and to
practice safe sex, according to Robert Johnson, dean of the medical
school at UMDNJ. While a pantheon of celebrities have taken up the
cause of AIDS awareness over the decades, Johnson said they were not
as effective as familiar faces.

"People who we have regular contact with - barbers, people who run
beauty parlors, coaches - the evidence is there that they are more
important than the celebrities," in connecting with communities, Johnson said.

According to Johnson and Dockery, churches and church pastors are
often the most influential leaders in black communities.

"The church, from the early years of the Civil Rights movement, has
played a pivotal role," Dockery said.

Because of the weight that pastors carry in the community, Dockery
and her supporters feel that to ignore the epidemic is a sin.

Pastor Carter encourages ministers resistant to working with Dockery
and providing their congregations with AIDS/HIV education to look to
scripture as a guide.

"I would tell them the story of the Good Samaritan - how that man was
laying in the road and even the religious leader overlooked him and
walked by," Carter said. "These churches ought to be ashamed of
themselves for turning their back on such a deadly disease."