At Union Seminary in 1998, the Rev. Anthony Lee helped lead a worship service on World AIDS Day. Tony (as he was called back then) described the pressures of violence and poverty, along with AIDS, in his African-American community in Washington, D.C., and called for a holistic medical, social and spiritual cure.
Today, Lee is back in the D.C. area as the founding pastor of a thriving church called Community of Hope, located in Prince George’s County. He is again working in a largely African-American community that suffers from rates of HIV/AIDS similar to some countries in Africa.
Nearly half of the 1 million people in the United States infected with HIV are black men, women and children — even though African Americans make up just 12.6 percent of the population.
Lee is on the AIDS working group for the Prince George’s County Executive Health Commission, but his most powerful, effective and radically spiritual work happens within the context of his church.
Four times a year, Lee steps onto the pulpit and gets tested for HIV in front of his entire congregation. It is just one of the ways that Community Of Hope is a place of healing, and Lee offers a model of ministry that every church can learn from.
In connection with the 19th International AIDS Conference that starts on July 22, HuffPost caught up Lee to learn about his church and its Gospel-centered approach to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
How long has Community of Hope been around, and who are the people who worship there?
Community of Hope started six years ago in a night club right on the D.C.-Prince George’s border, in an area with some of the worst statistics around violence, schools and HIV/AIDS. We felt that the church was at its best when needs were at their most
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article courtesy of TheHuffingtonPost.com
