Title: ELCA Presiding Bishop Comments on World AIDS Day, December 1 ELCA NEWS SERVICE
November 29, 2006
ELCA Presiding Bishop Comments on World AIDS Day, December 1 06-189-JB
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), issued a public statement addressing this week's observance of World AIDS Day. The theme of Hanson's statement is "Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise."
"On December 1, World AIDS Day, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America joins with millions of people in hundreds of countries to take up this theme," Hanson wrote. "Through our support of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), we are part of a global commitment to stop AIDS by 2015."
Hanson called on religious leaders and faith communities to make specific commitments toward the goal of stopping AIDS. He also called specifically on religious leaders to make a series of promises and commitments.
Churches and faith communities are "an essential part of the solution" because people of faith play a critical and important role in stopping AIDS in this generation, Hanson wrote. Religious leaders are responding by making public and specific commitments -- "promises that are reflected not only in our leadership, rhetoric, advocacy, and vulnerability, but also in our budgets and priority decisions," the statement said.
Hanson said religious leaders and faith communities must commit to involve people living with HIV and AIDS, especially women and youth, in all dimensions of their work on HIV and AIDS; protect the human rights of people living with HIV or AIDS; raise awareness that HIV and AIDS impact and affect faith communities themselves; and provide public leadership and hold each other "publicly accountable for a comprehensive response that includes providing direct human services, engaging in community organizing, shaping public policy, and calling for corporate social responsibility."
As for what "keeping the promise" means for religious leaders, Hanson suggested that it means acknowledging and repenting of failures and fears; being transparent about what religious leaders have done or not done to keep these promises; reflecting commitments in what religious leaders teach in seminaries, schools, colleges, universities and lay training centers; listening to and learning from people who are living with and affected by HIV and AIDS; and holding others, including governments, accountable for their promises. That means religious leaders must commit themselves to learning and teaching, Hanson wrote.
"Our promises as Christian religious leaders are grounded in our faith in God, who is steadfast in love, constant in mercy and persistent in justice, and in Jesus Christ, who is God's promise of faithfulness in human flesh. We are called to follow Jesus as disciples, to stand in solidarity with those whom society deems to be marginalized, to offer healing to those who are vulnerable, and to lay down our lives in love for our neighbor," Hanson's statement concluded.
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The full text of Presiding Bishop Hanson's statement is at http://www.ELCA.org/bishop/m_061129.html on the ELCA Web site.
Information about the ELCA's response to HIV and AIDS is at http://www.ELCA.org/aids/ on the ELCA Web site.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org http://www.elca.org/news ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog