What's New
OBCM Updates
OBCM Welcomes New Staff Member Akua Kankam
The OBCM is pleased to welcome Ms. Akua Kankam, who joined us on November 7, 2007 to fill the newly created Immigrant Community Outreach Specialist staff position. Ms. Kankam will assist with the inculturation of Black Catholic immigrant communities into parish and archdiocesan life of the Church. She will also, through the means of referral and liaison assistance, provide these groups with basic resettlement and emergency information.
Though we were gradually becoming more conscious of the growing presence in the archdiocese of Black Catholic immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean Countries, and Central and South America, the CARA study has made this and the immigrants own articulation of their needs more understandably real.
The creation of the OBCM Immigrant Community Outreach Specialist position is an effort to proceed more systematically with gaining an understanding of the needs of these new immigrant communities and the gifts they bring to share with the local Church of Atlanta.
Ms. Kankam received her MA in African American studies from Clark Atlanta University in 2007, and her BA in English from Quincy University (Quincy, IL) in 1999. Originally from Chicago, IL, she is the daughter of immigrants from the West African Republic of Ghana.
2007 Archdiocesan Prayer Journey for a World Living with AIDS
From the Office of HIV and AIDS Ministry:
In the Age of AIDS, we all are called to respond with compassion to the People of God affected by the disease, the way Christ our Lord responded to the sick and the downtrodden.
Delegates to the 2007 National Black Catholic Congress held in Buffalo, NY last July, returned to Atlanta with a deeper awareness about the urgency for a faith-based response to the AIDS crisis. Black parishes with AIDS ministries have renewed their commitment, and others have finally come to terms with the fact that AIDS is increasingly affecting their community, and have committed to establishing parish AIDS ministries to respond to the crisis.
As it has done during the past two years, the archdiocesan Office of HIV and AIDS Ministry will be coordinating a Prayer Journey for a World Living with AIDS from Sunday, November 25th through Sunday, December 2nd, 2007. The annual prayer event will begin this year on November 25th, when several Black parishes will mark AIDS Compassion Sunday, among them Our Lady of Lourdes, St. Paul of the Cross, St. Anthony and Most Blessed Sacrament.
The Prayer Journey will culminate on Saturday, December 1st with the Archdiocesan Mass for a World Living with AIDS at St. Philip Benizi Catholic Church, 591 Flint River Road, in Jonesboro at 5:00 pm, celebrated by Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory. The People of God of North Georgia, particularly those affected by HIV and AIDS, are invited and encouraged to attend.
For more information, visit www.atlantaaidsministry.org.
2nd Edition of Lead Me, Guide Me Hymnal is Underway
Monsignor Ray East (Archdiocese of Washington) is heading up the preparation of the second edition of Lead Me, Guide Me, the African American Catholic Hymnal, in cooperation with GIA Publications, Inc.
The committee is currently inviting composers to submit materials for consideration. The hymnal project’s webpage provides more information on this endeavor.
GIA, the prominent publisher of most of the well-known Catholic hymnals, also published the first edition of Lead Me, Guide Me in 1987 as well as the ecumenical African American Heritage Hymnal in 2001.
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John Phillips receives Dominican habit and begins novitiate
John Phillips, former Special Assistant to the OBCM Director, received the habit and formally started the year-long novitiate with the U.S. southern province of the Orders of Friars Preachers (Dominicans) Sunday evening, 19 August, 2007.
Brother John Phillips, OP, along with four other novices are engaged in a formation program based at St. Albert the Great Priory in Irving, Texas (near Dallas) that includes, among other elements, integration into religious community life, learning Dominican history and its guiding rules, and ministry experiences.
The Office for Black Catholic Ministry encourages you to write to John throughout this year, if you so desire, to convey your prayerful support. His address is as follows:
Brother John C. Phillips, OP
St. Albert Priory
3150 Vince Hagan Drive
Irving, TX 75062
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