By Karen Vance
Enquirer contributor

On Sunday, clergy at more than 50 area houses of worship will take a few minutes to talk about AIDS.

"Churches should be involved in this effort year-round. This is just a reminder of what we as members of faith communities should be talking about all year round," Anthony Glover said about the Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS. Glover, an educator with the AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati, is coordinating events along with area clergy.

The week started as an effort in Harlem in 1989 and has been happening in Cincinnati since 1998. On Sunday, the week will kick off with church members wearing red ribbons, and preachers will touch on the subject in sermons.

Linda Muhammad will speak to Mosque No. 5, 7030 Reading Road, Bond Hill, where she is a member.

"It will call attention to the devastation of AIDS in the black community, especially among black women," Muhammad said. She noted that 64 percent of all new AIDS cases are in black women.

The week continues with a clergy/community dinner for those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS at 6 p.m. Thursday.

At 10 a.m. Saturday, there will be a youth event, "Drumming AIDS Out of the Community," at St. Joseph Church, 745 Ezzard Charles Drive, Over-the-Rhine. Performers will include the Robert Taft Drum Line, Three Square Music Foundation and others.

For more information on events, contact AVOC at 421-2437.

TALKING ABOUT ABUSE: Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk will speak at 7 p.m. Wednesday on the topic, "What Were the Bishops Thinking?" as part of the University of Dayton's lecture series, "The Wounded Body of Christ: Sexual Abuse in the Church."

The lecture, in the John F. Kennedy Union Ballroom, 300 College Park, Dayton, is free and open to the public and is the third in the series of four that has included a clinical psychologist and a sex abuse survivor.

The series concludes March 29 with a talk by Kathleen McChesney, a former FBI official who heads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office of Child and Youth Protection.

In November, Pilarczyk pleaded no contest on behalf of the archdiocese to five misdemeanor counts of failure to report a crime.

For more information, visit www.udayton.edu.

HISPANIC DAY EVENTS: Delhi Christian Center will host a "Hispanic Day" event at 1 p.m. today at the church, 260 Fairbanks Ave., Sedamsville, in an effort to reach members of the Hispanic community in Price Hill and Sedamsville, said outreach minister Rodney Myers.

The event will include food, face painting for children and Spanish-speaking puppet shows.

For more information or to volunteer, call 471-6426.

To submit religion news, e-mail kvance@fuse.net or send a fax to 755-4150.