wfn.org | UCC leaders urge open churches

[powellb@ucc.org]

Nov. 25, 1996
United Church of Christ
Hans Holznagel
(216) 736-2214
E-mail:  holznagh@ucc.org
Diane C. Madison
(216) 736-2226
E-mail:  madisond@ucc.org
On the World Wide Web:  http://www.ucc.org

United Church of Christ leaders challenge members to
open churches to people living with HIV/AIDS

      CLEVELAND -- United Church of Christ officials
today issued a unique pastoral letter honoring the
AIDS ministries of many local churches over the past
16 years and challenging all members to "open our
hearts and our churches to become hospitable, safe,
healing sanctuaries for people living with HIV or AIDS
and their loved ones and caregivers."
      "A Pastoral Letter to the Churches on Acquired
Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)" was signed by 63
national and regional leaders of the 1.5-million-
member United Church of Christ.  The 11-page letter
was mailed to the United Church's more than 6,100
local churches for study and use in prayer groups,
Christian education and social action ministries,
particularly as the churches observe World AIDS Day on
Sunday, Dec. 1, and get ready for Advent and Christmas
reflection on hope, peace and justice.
      "We invite you to use this letter to break the
silence and end the fear," said the Rev. Paul H.
Sherry, president of the United Church of Christ, in a
cover letter introducing the pastoral letter.  "We
invite you to use it to celebrate the many ways your
church has responded to the AIDS epidemic."
      Among the AIDS ministries being carried out by
UCC local churches are:
      * Educational forums, workshops, support groups
and 12-Step meetings;
      * Pastoral care, bereavement counseling,
preaching about AIDS, healing services, memorial
services and prayer groups;
      * Meals programs, holiday parties, food pantries
and clothes closets;
      * Emergency financial assistance programs,
support for local AIDS fund raising and involvement in
interfaith AIDS ministries;
      * Residential housing programs, adult day care
centers, hospice care;
      * Care teams offering transportation, meals,
home maintenance, pet care and companionship;
      * Pharmaceutical and medical assistance and
needle exchange programs;
      * Respite care, relief parenting, foster care,
spiritual retreats and discussion groups.
      Many UCC church schools use the denomination's
AIDS prevention curriculum, "Affirming Persons --
Saving Lives."  Hundreds of UCC members and
congregations also have joined the United Church
AIDS/HIV Network (UCAN).
      However, not every local church has understood
that HIV/AIDS is a lived reality for members of the
United Church of Christ.  Some congregations have
reacted to the epidemic as though AIDS is someone
else's problem, the pastoral letter says.
      The letter notes a World Health Organization
estimate that worldwide, nearly 22 million people,
including 1 million children, live with HIV or AIDS,
and a U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimate that
1.2 million people may be infected with HIV in the
United States.
      "The AIDS epidemic, with its suffering and
death, challenges us to respond to God's call not to
be afraid," the letter says.  "It challenges our
compassion and our faithfulness.  It challenges us to
confront our prejudices, to become knowledgeable about
HIV and to extend ourselves in ministry to those who
need our help.  AIDS challenges us, individually, and
as the church, to show love to those who feel unloved
and to bring hope to those who are in despair, even as
Jesus did so long ago."
      The letter reminds members that Christian hope
persists and endures through struggles of the soul,
despair, doubt, suffering, grief and unknown futures. 
"It persists and endures because God is faithful, even
when we are fearfully immobilized in unfaithfulness,"
the letter says.
      Local churches are also called to break the
silence of shame when it comes to AIDS.  So long as
relatives, friends, and church members are frightened
to talk, the silence of AIDS will not be broken, the
letter says, and it is a scandal that many people
suffer and grieve in secret.  But some churches have
broken that silence and instead offer a ministry of
hope.
      "Everybody who comes into our church can sense
it is like an oasis," says a UCC member in Puerto Rico
quoted in the letter.  "It is refreshing, because
people in our church are able to support, to love and
to embrace everyone, including those with HIV and
AIDS.  Through our AIDS ministry, we have learned to
cry together, to pray together and to carry each
other's burdens.  We see our AIDS ministry as a
workshop, a place where we practice what we preach
about God's love."
      The AIDS epidemic allows Christians a unique
opportunity to exercise God's love, the letter says.
      "In the midst of this epidemic, our mission as
Christians is to express our faith in service to
others among all whose lives have been changed forever
by HIV and AIDS," the letter says.  "As we rise to
this challenge, those we serve will be truly blessed. 
And we, too, will receive a blessing."
      The 1.5-million-member United Church of Christ,
with national offices in Cleveland, is the 1957 union
of the Congregational Christian Churches and the
Evangelical and Reformed Church. For more information
or for a copy of the entire text of "A Pastoral Letter
to the Churches on AIDS," contact Hans Holznagel at
(216) 736-2214 or Diane Madison at (216) 736-2226.
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