Key Topics on End-of-Life Care for African Americans

An intellectual discourse derived from The Last Miles of the Way Home 2004 National Conference to Improve End-of-Life Care for African Americans

ABSTRACT: End-of-Life Care Ministry in the African American Church    [Print Version]

Kelvin Calloway, DMin
Second A.M.E. Church
Los Angeles, CA

And

Gwendolyn London, DMin
London & Associates
Silver Spring, MD

The character and identity of the African American church has been forged out of a particular historical, cultural, and theological context. As a result of the long, difficult and often violent history of slavery, racism and continuing oppression that African Americans have suffered in this country, the church has traditionally been and continues to serve as the center of African American community life. Because of the danger and the threat of physical violence that has always been a part of African American life in this country, one of the most important of those transition points was at the time of death or when a member of the community was dying. It is indeed true that the church needs to be involved in the ongoing dialogue and in the changes that are occurring in the medical system as a result of the principles of palliative care. But, it is also true that for the African American church and its members, those principles need to be redefined in a way that takes into consideration the uniqueness of their history and the psychological, emotional, spiritual and practical consequences of the oppression that makes up that history.

In Collaboration With:
Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life
Initiative to Improve Palliative Care for African Americans (IIPCA)