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KELLY VIRELLAGreene Chapel offers free HIV testing to about two dozen people as part of World AIDS Day.
LARGO - Delvon Stanley, 21, was walking past Greene Chapel AME Church on Monday afternoon in his work uniform, when he got the invitation.
"Hey man, it's free HIV testing in there," said a man who was sitting in a folding chair on the sidewalk, in a red football jersey.
With his shock of dreadlocks tucked in a fleece cap, Stanley was on his way home from his job as a maintenance worker. But he was interested.
"There's no needles," said volunteer Veronica Bynum, 16, who was sitting on the sidewalk.
With that, Stanley turned around and went inside the African Methodist Episcopal church to get his first HIV test, fulfilling part of Greene Chapel's new mission.
Plenty of churches honor World AIDS Day with prayer and memorial services. But after doing it that way for the past two years, the Rev. Bernard Smith, Greene Chapel's pastor, wanted to do more.
"They're going to bring them back to church for burial," Smith said. "Why wait until they die?"
Smith's congregation is predominantly African-American, the racial group in which AIDS is growing fastest in this country. More than half of the estimated 40,000 new HIV infections in the United States in 2002 were among African-Americans, who make up 12 percent of the U.S. population.
Pinellas County mirrors those statistics: Thirty-eight percent of all AIDS cases are African-American, said Tyrone Singletary, prevention coordinator with AIDS Service Association of Pinellas, a St. Petersburg nonprofit.
Yet African-Americans only make up 9 percent of Pinellas County's population.
And so on Monday, Greene Chapel inaugurated a new HIV testing program. From 11 a.m. until 2 p.m., HIV counselors from the AIDS Service Association of Pinellas and from Youth Education Services, a part of the University of South Florida's pediatrics program, took saliva samples from people in the church's sanctuary and in its office.
About two dozen people were tested, Smith said.
"Next year we'll extend the hours to adjust to the work force in the community," Smith said. "We just planted a seed today, but with God's help it will grow."
Stanley said he is sexually active and his aunt has HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. But until Monday, he said, he always found an excuse for not getting a test.
"It's a free AIDS test, and it's right in front of my face" said Stanley, who lives a few blocks away from the church, in Rainbow Village. "How could I miss it?"
Greene Chapel is a small, 36-year-old church on 134th Avenue in a traditionally black neighborhood. It has 18 red pews and baskets of fake flowers scattered around the altar.
With 52 members, 32 of them children, the church has a small budget, Smith said. But it understands its obligation to serve people with HIV and AIDS.
Greene Chapel already has a support group for its HIV positive members and for people with substance abuse problems.
Smith knows of two other Florida churches that have tested people for HIV in their sanctuaries. One is in Miami and one is in Jacksonville.
More churches haven't done it because they are in denial, he said. "Blacks are notorious for denial, because of our ability to get through slavery and social deprivation," he said.
"It's going to take out a chunk of our race if we don't do something about it."
Church members distributed fliers to advertise the testing. The church also got a grant to buy a banner, which it hung up on the shoulder of 134th Avenue.
The first people who milled in to the church Monday met the aroma of fried chicken rising from the platter on the buffet of food next to the pulpit. Some who got tested had sodas and snacks.
Four ministers sat nearby, waiting to counsel those who requested it. Two of the people who were tested did talk to the ministers. But at no time did the ministers lecture them.
"I'm teaching them prevention," said the Rev. Noel Arreizaga Sr., who is music minister at Word of Life Church in Kenneth City. "I try to counsel them in using condoms, especially if they're young people."
Church is a better setting to get counseling than a clinic, said Dennis Tio, a former neurosurgeon and the chancellor of Shepherd Bible College in Largo.
"When you go to a clinic, it's like high anxiety," said Tio, who was at Greene Chapel for counseling. "it's like Big Brother's watching you especially when you get tested for AIDS."
The HIV counselors registered each client as soon as he or she walked in the door. The process was natural and comfortable, said Stacy Neal, 29, who has been tested six times.
"God's watching over you here," said Neal, who lives nearby, but is not a member of the church. "I know he's watching over you here. But this is his home."
- Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report.