Passion as faithfulness

12-01-2022

HIV/AIDS Clergy and Lay Leadership Virtual Summit Saturday, Dec. 3 from 10 a.m. to noon CST

Nineteen years ago, Sylvia Jo Oglesby found purpose and passion in serving the needs of those around her, especially individuals living with HIV/AIDS. She teamed up with McCormick’s commitment to serve its communities, and together, they’ve worked to increase awareness and offer support to individuals, churches, and communities impacted by HIV/AIDS.

Before there was McCormick’s HIV/AIDS Clergy and Lay Leadership Summit, there was Sylvia Jo Oglesby’s desire to be faithful to her call. During her 85 years, that call has taken on many forms for the Chicago Southsider, everything from attending the 1963 March on Washington to volunteering with organizations that were working to make people’s lives better such as the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, the Urban League and various women’s, labor, and civil rights organizations. She also enjoyed teaming up with Rev. Judith Kelsey Powell, a United Methodist pastor, to visit AIDS patients who were terminally ill. Soon all those interests converged, and Oglesby found herself going from church to church to share information on HIV/AIDS and promote a national week of prayer for people diagnosed with the condition.

“The Black church and its pastors are at the forefront of engaging congregations to address issues impacting their communities,” says Oglesby, who served as office administrator for the Black Men’s Task Force of Chicago Black Methodists for Church Renewal, Inc.

In 2003, Oglesby met Dr. Homer Ashby, then McCormick’s professor of pastoral care, and he shared with her an opportunity at the ACCESS Community Health Network. She became its program associate for faith-based AIDS programs. “It occurred to me that we should get all these pastors together so that they could dialogue, plan and start HIV/AIDS ministries,” says Oglesby.

Oglesby shared her idea with a family friend, Rev. Dr. Nolan Shaw, D.Min.’96, who connected her to Dr. Deborah Mullin, then the director of McCormick’s Center for African American Ministries. The collaboration developed a three-part program that focused on encouraging HIV testing, imparting hope to individuals and families impacted by the condition and offering the latest fact-based information on HIV/AIDS.

Enduring passion

Oglesby’s passion to advocate and care for the needs of individuals living with HIV/AIDS continues, notes Rev. Dr. Stacey Edwards-Dunn, director of the Center for African American Ministries and Black Church Studies. The Center has sponsored the educational program since its inception. “Caring about the health of our communities leaves no one out; it includes an active concern for those who have been impacted by HIV/AIDS,” says Rev. Dr. Edwards-Dunn. “The Summit combines clinical information about HIV/AIDS with an understanding of Scripture as it pertains to illness. Each year, the Summit returns us to a biblical perspective…one that offers hope and paths to ministry that are inclusive.”

Attendees to this year’s virtual HIV/AIDS Clergy and Lay Leadership Summit will find hope in a message from Bishop Yvette Flunder, senior pastor and founder of San Francisco’s City of Refuge United Church of Christ. Dr. Brittani James, co-founder of The Institute for Antiracism in Medicine, will provide an update on HIV/AIDS care and treatment. A training session on how to reboot or start a HIV/AIDS ministry post-COVID-19 will be offered by Cary Goodman, national program director for Balm In Gilead.

The strength of the Summit has been its understanding that faith and science are partners, remarks Dr. Ulysses Burley III, founder of UBtheCure, a consulting firm working at the intersection of faith, health, and human rights. “The primary way I got involved with the Summit was by way of my clinical background and training,” says Dr. Burley, who has served on the Summit’s planning committee for the past 10 years and was a member of the United States Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS under the Obama Administration. “The Summit is a trusted safe space where stories are shared, and empathy is shown. The data informs us, and the stories transform us. Our medical knowledge is to be implemented in the context of people’s humanity, which includes faith undergirded by love.”

For Oglesby, one of the joys of serving with the Summit has been seeing new and younger people get involved. “More and more knowledgeable people – like Dr. Burley – have joined in the Summit’s efforts at different levels and are continuing to connect this work with the work of others,” she says. “Seeing their faithfulness to spreading awareness about HIV/AIDS care and treatment gives me hope that we will continue to get useful information into our communities. Faithfulness to this call and whatever assignment God asked me to do has always been my passion.”

Rev. Dr. Stacey Edwards-Dunn,
Director of the Center for African American Ministries and Black Church Studies

Sylvia Jo Oglesby

Dr. Ulysses Burley III, Founder, UBtheCure