Covenant News

Gilliard to Address Groups in Germany

ATLANTA, GA (February 3, 2003) - Deric Gilliard of Commission Disciples Covenant Church, a church plant in Tucker, Georgia, is traveling to six military bases in Germany February 9-13 for speaking engagements during Black History Month.

An intergovernmental affairs specialist for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regional office in Atlanta, Gilliard was invited to Germany by the U.S. Army 1st Armored Division and Commanding Gen. Major General Ricardo S. Sanchez in honor of its Black History Month Observance 2003. The 1st Armored Division is spread among several communities in Germany: Wiesbaden, Wackenheim, Dexheim, Baumholder, Giessen and Hanau.

Gilliard, who resides in Stone Mountain, Georgia, recently published the second edition of Living in the Shadows of a Legend: Unsung Heroes and Sheroes who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "Many of the troops he will speak to are being shipped out to the Middle East conflict later in the month.

During recent months, Gilliard has had plenty of opportunities to discuss his book and the 20 people he profiled as he learned about Dr. King and its primary organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). After speaking at Savannah State University and Atlanta University in Georgia, Gilliard was the first Martin Luther King Jr. holiday speaker at Troy State University's Rosa Parks Museum and Library in Montgomery, Alabama. A day later, on January 21, he spoke at Lincoln University, the oldest black university in the nation in Philadelphia.

Gilliard is an Atlanta-born journalist who has written for USA Today and Time Magazine and served as director for SCLC, which was co-founded by Dr. King in 1957.

A licensed minister with the Evangelical Covenant Church, Gilliard was part of Team Africa, an eight-person contingent that traveled to Congo last March to minister to those who are part of the Covenant Church of Congo (CEUM). Wife, Catherine, is on the executive board of the Evangelical Covenant Church and chairs the World Mission board. She is also secretary for the African American Ministers Association and is a licensed minister.

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