Church Leaders Discuss Challenges in AIDS Response Including HIV and AIDS in Theological Work Is a Long-Term Commitment
TORONTO, Canada/GENEVA, 16 August 2006 (LWI) - The word "stigma" in Spanish (estigma) means "wound or scar" and is used when referring to the wounds of Jesus Christ. "Therefore, a stigmatized person is actually Christ," Argentine Lutheran pastor Lisandro Orlov made remarks when he addressed participants in an ecumenical and interfaith pre-conference of the 16th International Aids Conference (IAC), 13-18 August, in Toronto, Canada.
Orlov, the Latin American regional coordinator of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) HIV and AIDS campaign is among 21 coordinators of AIDS work in the LWF member churches and field programs of the Department for World Service (DWS) attending the IAC under the theme, "Time to Deliver." The Christian Host Committee, Canada, and the Geneva-based Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) co-hosted the pre-conference, titled "Faith in Action: Keeping the Promise."
During an LWF-led workshop, "Getting Churches and Their Leaders on Board," Orlov spoke of his experiences in AIDS work. He said he initially encountered major problems when he started visiting people living with HIV in 1986, because his church leaders did not understand why he would get involved in the issue. He was concerned about the church often not respecting the dignity of people living with HIV, he said.
"Maybe we cannot heal the virus itself, but we need to heal the dignity," he said, pointing out that it was not only women and children who were among the most vulnerable HIV-affected groups. "Churches need to speak for all those who are vulnerable," including "men who have sex with men, drug users and others."
Rethinking Theology
Dr Sheila Shyamprasad, the HIV and AIDS consultant in the LWF Department for Mission and Development (DMD) explained the history of LWF?s involvement in the issue. From 1987 onward, DMD supported AIDS projects in the LWF member churches. The church structures, she noted, were initially "an impediment to our work, [and it] was a difficult job to sensitize and train [church leaders] who had little knowledge about the pandemic." It was important for the church leadership to rethink their theology in order to build "AIDS competent churches," she said.
"But still in 2000, the churches mostly were teaching a distorting and excluding theology, they were poor witnesses," Shyamprasad recalled. Two years later, in 2002, the LWF action plan "Compassion, Conversion, Care - Responding as Churches to the HIV/AIDS Pandemic" was launched with the aim to engage the member churches in an open discussion about the issue. An important aspect of the campaign was the accompaniment of church leaders and churches through training in the form of technical and funding support.
In addition, the LWF assisted churches in establishing new structures and systems, employing people living with HIV in the church, and starting sensitization processes about AIDS in confirmation classes and Sunday school, among other initiatives. Shyamprasad described as encouraging, the results of a recent LWF survey on active church leadership concerning the AIDS issue. "We can see that the church leadership has now become more active, especially in Africa," she said.
Call to Face Up to Reality
Rev. Dr Ambrose Moyo, executive director of the Lutheran Communion in Southern Africa, estimates that over 90 percent of the church leadership in Africa is involved in the response to the AIDS pandemic. As a church leader, he acknowledged that "we are not leaders of saints, we know that people have pre-marital sex, we don't like it, it is not good. But it's happening. And we also know that a condom can save lives."
Anglican pastor Desmond Cox, chairperson of the board of directors of the St John's Cathedral HIV Education Center in Hong Kong, China, advocates an early HIV training for pastors. "We need to take the HIV issue already into the theological colleges, where it has to become an integral part of the curriculum. We need to examine scripture, to see that HIV and AIDS are not a punishment."
Orlov agrees that "including HIV and AIDS in our theological work is also a way to sustain the people who are already on board. That is a long-term commitment."
The 16th International AIDS Conference, organized by the International AIDS Society and the AIDS 2006 Toronto Local Host, is the biennial gathering of the global AIDS community. Over 20,000 participants from more than 170 countries are in attendance. (729 words)
(By LWI correspondent Julia Heyde, reporting from Toronto, Canada. More information about the proceedings at the ecumenical pre-conference and the 2006 International AIDS Conference is at http://iac.e-alliance.ch/index.php )
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