Melanie Reese told the people in a Baltimore church basement yesterday that, like many of them, she had never thought AIDS or AIDS patients had a thing to do with her life.

Then, she silenced the crowd of churchgoers, members of the clergy and federal health officials, who had no idea why she had risen to speak.

She gave blood earlier this year, she said. A few days later, she received a call. Her blood couldn't be accepted, she was told. She was HIV positive.

For months, Reese, 50, kept the news a secret from everyone but her daughter. She feared the stigma that might come with the illness.

But then she read a notice about a meeting yesterday morning where Baltimore-area religious leaders would be gathering to discuss the devastation that acquired immune deficiency syndrome has wrought on the city's black community. She decided God wanted more from her than silence.

So on Saturday, she told her mother and sisters that she was HIV positive. Yesterday, she told the congregation at her church, St. Cecilia Roman Catholic Church in Walbrook, and the crowd that had gathered at New All Saints Roman Catholic Church in Forest Park to discuss the epidemic.

The Bush administration's AIDS policy director, Joseph F. O'Neill, was the speaker at yesterday's World AIDS Day meeting, but he said afterward that the force of Reese's revelation overshadowed his words.

"What she said in a few minutes had more impact than any speech I could give," O'Neill said.

As she received hugs and words of encouragement after the meeting, Reese said she hopes testimonials like hers will take the disease out of the realm of dirty secrets. "We need to break the silence," she said.

The paralyzing fear surrounding the disease was the central theme of yesterday's gathering, organized by a group of Baltimore religious leaders. According to government statistics, the Baltimore metropolitan area has the third-highest AIDS incidence rate of any metro area in the country. More than 80 percent of the area residents diagnosed with the disease are black. But many in the black community want nothing to do with AIDS testing or education, church leaders said.

"It's a huge problem," said the Rev. Donald A. Sterling, pastor at New All Saints and one of the event's organizers. "This disease is affecting every one of us ... so we can't act as though HIV/AIDS is nonexistent. At some point, we have to face reality."

Sterling said he hopes discussions like yesterday's will prompt his and other congregations to create AIDS education programs and push for more people to get tested. Those actions might be easier, he said, if people become more comfortable talking about the disease.

O'Neill, a member of the faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine who has treated the city's AIDS patients for years, echoed Sterling's thoughts.

He told the story of one patient who died six years ago. The man was a beloved member of his church choir, O'Neill said, but even as he wasted away, he refused to tell his family or fellow churchgoers that he was gay and had contracted AIDS.

The man finally revealed his secret a few months before his death. The revelation surprised no one, O'Neill said, and the church community embraced the man. The doctor attended his patient's funeral and to his surprise, was asked to offer a few words.

He told the congregation that he admired their outpouring of love, but he also offered more sobering words, he recalled.

"I was the only person he told for five years - not his family, not his church - that he was gay and that he was dying," O'Neill said. "That's a shame. We can't let that happen."

The story drew murmurs and nods of affirmation from yesterday's crowd.

O'Neill followed his story with a promise that the Bush administration would continue spending billions of dollars to fight AIDS worldwide. He said the president believes faith-based efforts are key to the battle.

People must show compassion for those who are sick and must also learn how to avoid getting the disease, he said, and churches can facilitate both of those processes.

O'Neill splits his week between the White House and the AIDS clinic at Hopkins. By bridging the gap between policy makers and doctors, he said, he hopes to show people that the administration feels their pain and worry.

"None of this is theoretical to me," he said.

Meanwhile, Reese said she would join the fight.

"People don't even know they have this disease. And not knowing they have it, they proceed to act irresponsibly," she said. "We need to educate, motivate and mobilize people so that doesn't happen anymore."

Reese said her mother and sisters were stunned by her announcement but were generally supportive. She said she would gather packets of information about living with HIV and AIDS and give them to her family so that they could understand that an HIV diagnosis is not an instant death sentence.

"I'm out with this now," she said. "And I'm still Melanie."