wfn.org | Indonesian Bishop Urges Christians to Confront the HIV/AIDS

["Frank Imhoff" <FRANKI@elca.org>]

Indonesian Bishop Urges Christians to Confront the HIV/AIDS
Challenge as a Moral Question
Asian LWF Church Leadership Openly Discuss Emerging Concerns  

BATAM ISLAND, Indonesia/GENEVA, 23 December 2003 (LWI) -
Indonesian Bishop Dr Gabble Raglan Hutauruk called on Christians
to confront the HIV/AIDS challenge as "a moral question to which
we must respond openly as Jesus did when he was a guest in the
home of Simon the Pharisee." 

Jesus offered full acceptance and forgiveness to the woman who
kissed his feet, but he also corrected the "mistaken morality" of
society in regarding her as one to be despised and excluded,
Hutauruk, head of the Protestant Christian Batak Church (HKBP)
told participants in the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Asian
Church Leadership Consultation on HIV/AIDS, December 1-4 on
Batam, Island, Indonesia. 

More than 90 representatives of the Asian church leadership
related to the LWF and the Wuppertal, Germany-based United
Evangelical Mission gathered on Batam Island to openly discuss
the pandemic's emerging and alarming concerns. 

"What is your own personal attitude towards the people living
with HIV/AIDS?," Hutauruk asked during the opening worship at
HKBP's Lubukbaja church on the island. In his message the bishop
challenged the participants to abandon silent moral disapproval
and judgement against people living with HIV/AIDS. "The HIV/AIDS
pandemic in Asia must be dealt with urgently, holistically, and
with love," he stressed. 

Rev. Ginda Harahap, Area Secretary for Asia, LWF Department for
Mission and Development, spoke of the importance of "conversion"
across the spectrum of church leadership, including presidents,
bishops, pastors, women and youth leaders. The consultation's
participants included people living with HIV/AIDS, ecumenical
guests from Indonesia, a bishop from South Africa, as well as LWF
Council representatives from Africa and Latin America, medical
experts and other resource persons. 

Greeting consultation participants, an Indonesian government
representative said that the local administration responded to
the growing AIDS pandemic in 1995 by establishing a special
committee on HIV/AIDS prevention. 

Non-governmental organizations and religious bodies are invited
"to work in harmony with the Indonesian government's local
authority to help the people of Batam by sharing information,
education and even help those who are infected," he said. 

The government official suggested that the numbers of those who
are infected is still low, but that Batam could become a
high-risk area for the spread of HIV/AIDS in the future. The
United Nations' AIDS agency, UNAIDS, estimates Indonesia's HIV
prevalence rate at a relatively low 0.1 percent among adults who
make up about 49 percent of the 231-million population. 

The Church as a Caring and Healing Community

In a "Statement of Commitment" following the consultation, the
representatives of the 46 LWF member churches in Asia
acknowledged the opportunity provided by the meeting to focus on
their own prejudices, lack of knowledge and experience with
people living with HIV/AIDS, and also challenge their present
practice of being church as a caring and healing community. 

They expressed a commitment to profess a covenant of life that
encompasses theology, biblical ethics, pastoral care, mission and
diakonia, religious and socio-cultural barriers. The Asia church
leadership also underscored the need to focus on education and
prevention, economic globalization, and cooperation and
networking. HIV/AIDS, they affirmed, is not only a health problem
but it also includes spiritual, socio-politico-economic issues
and their related challenges. 

Hope and light were positively expressed as participants
remembered those who have died from HIV/AIDS-related illnesses.
Dr Christine Sadia, LWF HIV/AIDS consultant, and Ms Christine
Wahyuni, a person living with HIV/AIDS, lit candles in
remembrance of those who have died and those infected and
affected by the impact of HIV/AIDS. Participants inscribed names
of those who have died on a special memory quilt. 

Although Africa has the highest number of HIV/AIDS infections,
there is growing concern about a very serious pandemic in parts
of Asia. More than 8 million people in the region are already HIV
positive. 

The Asian meeting was the third of four regional conferences
planned under the 2002 LWF global campaign against HIV/AIDS, and
its related Action Plan, "Compassion, Conversion, Care:
Responding as Churches to the HIV/AIDS Pandemic." The first
regional consultation was held in Africa in 2002, followed by
Latin America and the Caribbean. Europe's will take place in
2004. (697 words)

(Thailand-based LWI correspondent Lance Woodruff contributed to
this article.) 

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now
has 136 member churches in 76 countries representing over 61.7
million of the 65.4 million Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical and inter-faith relations, theology, humanitarian
assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects
of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in
Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is LWF' information service.
Unless specifically noted, material presented does not represent
positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where
the dateline of an article contains the notation (LWI), the
material may be freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]

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