wfn.org | Doctor, theologian team up to address AIDS in India

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

March 19, 2001 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-33-71B{130}

By United Methodist News Service

A renewed friendship and mutual concern over the barely-acknowledged
HIV/AIDS crisis in India has prompted a United Methodist theology professor
and an Indian medical doctor to call upon the church for action.

The results, so far, have been well-attended workshops at two theological
colleges and plans for the distribution of information and the involvement
of church leaders in the issue, according to the Rev. Don Messer, president
emeritus and Henry White Warren Professor of Practical Theology at Iliff
School of Theology in Denver.

Still, the sexual nature of the HIV/AIDS crisis makes it a difficult subject
in a country where sex is rarely a matter of public discussion. "Because sex
is involved, the church is simply tongue-tied while people are dying around
them," Messer said.

Messer's own experience with India began about 40 years ago, when he
attended Madras Christian College for a year. He became friends with a
fellow student, N.M. Samuel, whose father was a pastor in the Church of
South India. They lost contact for more than 30 years, until Messer tracked
him down on a return trip to Madras a few years ago.

Samuel, a medical doctor who had devoted his life to caring for people with
leprosy, decided to focus on the new plague and was leading the fight in
south India against HIV/AIDS. But he was concerned that the church was not
involved in this battle in the same way it had been for leprosy victims. Or,
as Samuel told Messer, "If only the bite of a mosquito caused HIV/AIDS, then
the Christian community would be in the global forefront of the struggle for
prevention and care."

With a mutual commitment to remedy the situation, the Iliff professor
journeyed to India to speak at two international conferences on HIV/AIDS
organized by Samuel at Madras University. But their goal was to focus more
specifically on the Christian community in India. So two workshops were set:
a Feb. 16-17 event at United Theological College, a prominent ecumenical
seminary in Bangalore, and a Feb. 21-22 event at Leonard Theological
College, a Methodist school based in Jabalpur.

Samuel, along with the Forum for Christian Concern for AIDS in India, did
the groundwork with the colleges in India while Messer obtained a $30,000
grant from the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, a sponsoring
body, and organized the U.S. team for the workshops. Other sponsors included
Park Hill United Methodist Church in Denver, where Messer serves as the
interim senior pastor, and the International Christian AIDS Network. 

Besides Messer and his wife, Bonnie, a certified psychologist, the U.S. team
included Bishop Fritz and Etta Mae Mutti of Topeka, Kan., who lost two sons
to AIDS; Betty Gittens, an executive with the Board of Global Ministries;
the Rev. Paul Murphy, a retired United Methodist pastor, and his wife,
Paula, who has a doctorate in counseling and teaches human sexuality at the
University of Denver; and Dean Woodward, a member of Park Hill who has been
involved in public health policies in the state of Colorado. Another team
member in India was Ashok Pillai, a well-known, 35-year-old Madras musician
who has publicly declared he is HIV-positive.

In a sermon at Park Hill just before the trip, Messer noted that although
the destruction from India's recent earthquake has been well-documented, a
"silent earthquake" of HIV/AIDS has claimed anywhere from 4 million to 20
million lives.

"It is a shattering of lives and communities that is not yet really
recognized, but will have serious repercussions in the lives of individuals
and throughout the society," he said. "It has the potential of spreading
like wildfire across the nation, attacking not just one segment of society,
but men, women and children."

The Bangalore workshop, which included a message from Bishop S.V.
Sampathkumar of the Methodist Church in India, attracted 140 participants
representing a diverse community and ecumenical base. Because HIV/AIDS is a
matter of increasing concern in the area, "the faculty agreed they were
going to do continuing work" on the issue, according to Messer.

In Jabalpur, the 130 participants at Leonard mainly included students and
staff. "They not only endorsed the project, but stopped all classes for two
days," he added. "They are beginning to realize that they have a crisis that
is escalating and they need help."

At the workshops, Messer described the need for "compassionate Christian
companions" to deal with the crisis. He defined such companions as reaching
out in prevention and care; speaking for justice in the distribution of the
world's medical resources; upgrading the social, economic, cultural and
spiritual status of women; and discovering new levels of empathy and care.

Messer and Samuel are working to arrange publications for the Indian church
that will deal with theological questions, pastoral concerns and prevention
information on HIV/AIDS, and they will try to involve more church leadership
in the work. For more information, contact Messer by e-mail at
DMesser@Iliff.edu.
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United Methodist News Service
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