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 World
Leprosy Day is on Sunday 28th January 2007 and the main World
Leprosy Day Service for TLM Northern Ireland will be held in
Lisburn Cathedral on Sunday afternoon at 3.30 pm. The Rev Canon
Sam Wright, Rector of Lisburn Cathedral, will conduct the
service and the preacher will be Mr Colin Ferguson, National
Director TLM NI who will speak on the work and witness of the
Leprosy Mission Northern Ireland.
For more than 50 years, on the last Sunday of January, thousands
of people across the globe have stopped to remember those who
suffer the horrendous effects of leprosy. The Leprosy Mission
encourages individuals, churches and community groups to observe
World Leprosy Day through spoken word, story and video. Many
people still think of leprosy as an ancient disease that has
been eradicated many years ago. But every year, more than
400,000 children, women and men discover they have leprosy. For
many centuries, leprosy stigmatized those affected because there
was no cure. Those who had the disease had to live with the
disabilities that are so common in leprosy ? they simply had no
choice. All they could hope for is a kind and compassionate
friend who would take pity on them. But in 1982 the cure for
leprosy was discovered. Today leprosy can be fully cured and,
when diagnosed early in the cycle of the disease, the patient
will be completely normal. This is truly a miracle! Yet leprosy
continues to grow in areas of desperate poverty where people
have not yet heard that leprosy can be cured or they are too
poor to seek medical help.
World Leprosy Day helps to focus on the need of the very poorest
of all people ? those affected by leprosy. It helps to tell the
story to people who simply do not know that leprosy still
exists. It also helps raise funds in Northern Ireland so that
those with leprosy can be treated and cared for. This is a good
news story that we can?t help but share with people in Northern
Ireland.
The Leprosy Mission National Office is located in Lagan House,
Lisburn (just behind the Lisburn Christian Fellowship Church on
the Queens Road). Under its National Director - Colin Ferguson
and Deputy Director - the Rev Tom Robinson, the function of the
National Office is to raise the awareness about leprosy, provide
prayer support, and raise funds in Northern Ireland. They invite
you to join in the celebration of the World Leprosy Day at
Lisburn Cathedral next Sunday afternoon as together; we work
towards a world without leprosy!
23/01/2007
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