(UNAIDS - the United Nations’ AIDS Programme)

The international theme for World AIDS Day 2000 is "Men make a difference." Observed every December 1, World AIDS Day aims to focus the world's attention on AIDS and ways in which people can get involved to stop the spread of this disease.

This year's theme challenges us to look at the ways in which we can encourage and work with men to help them to "make a difference" in the epidemic - to change behaviour so that they decrease their own risk of HIV infection and the risk to their partners, to change attitudes towards people who are HIV-positive, and to change the future of the HIV/AIDS pandemic by reducing the transmission of HIV.

While men’s behaviour currently contributes substantially to the spread and impact of HIV, and puts men themselves on the front-line of risk, such behaviour can change.

Pointing the finger or apportioning blame is unlikely to motivate men to listen or change their ways. Engaging men as partners in the effort against AIDS is the surest way to change the course of the epidemic.

The challenge facing us as Christians is to support men from our churches and our communities as they join and strengthen efforts at reducing HIV infection among their peers, and to encourage support for men already affected by HIV/AIDS, their families and their communities.

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There are five main reasons for focusing on men and boys:

1. Men’s health is important but receives inadequate attention

In most settings, men are less likely to seek needed health care than women, and more likely to engage in behaviour -- such as drinking, using illegal substances or driving recklessly -- that puts their health at risk. In stressful situations, such as living with AIDS, men often cope less effectively than women.

2. Men’s behaviour puts them at risk of HIV infection

While HIV transmission among women is growing, men – including adolescent boys -- continue to represent the majority of people living worldwide with HIV or AIDS. In some settings, men are less likely to pay attention to their sexual health and safety than are women. Men are more likely than women to use alcohol and other substances that lead to unsafe sex and increase the risk of HIV transmission, and men are more likely to inject drugs, risking infection from needles and syringes contaminated with HIV.

3. Men’s behaviour puts women at risk of HIV infection

On average, men have more sex partners than women. HIV is more easily transmitted sexually from men to women than vice versa, due to biological reasons. In addition, HIV-positive drug users – who are mostly male – can transmit the virus to both their drug partners and sex partners. A man with HIV is therefore likely to infect more people over a lifetime than an HIV-positive woman.

4. Unprotected sex between men endangers both men and women

Most sex between men is hidden. According to surveys from across the world up to a sixth of all men report having had sex with another man. Many men who have sex with men also have sex with women -- their wives or regular or occasional girlfriends. Hostility and misconceptions about sex between men have resulted in inadequate HIV prevention measures in many countries.

5. Men need to give greater consideration to AIDS as it affects the family

Fathers and future fathers should be encouraged to consider the potential impact of their sexual behaviour on their partners and children, including leaving children behind as AIDS orphans and introducing HIV into the family. Men also need to take a greater role in caring for family members with HIV or AIDS.

That said, we need to strike a careful balance between recognizing how some men’s behaviour contributes to the epidemic and pointing the finger at all men and their actions. Blaming individuals or groups has never been a successful way of encouraging greater involvement in HIV prevention and care. Instead, efforts should be made to encourage positive behaviours and responses. We should aim to build upon successful work and include as many men as possible in the global struggle against AIDS. Too often in the past, it has been assumed that, if only they wanted to, men would change their behaviour. Men’s apparent unwillingness to offer care and support has been viewed as evidence that men make no real investment in their own or their families’ future. Yet men’s actions, like those of women, are constrained by traditional beliefs and expectations and influenced by divisive cultural beliefs and social norms.

This is not to excuse men or some of their behaviours. The actions of men who rape, who commit acts of violence, and who will not take into account others’ points of view, cannot be excused. But it is necessary to recognize the power of existing gender relations, which affect both women and men, and the fact that collective as well as individual effort is needed to achieve greater equity and a balance of responsibility for AIDS prevention and care.

Given the urgency of curbing HIV rates, activities need to be scaled up dramatically. Far greater attention must be given to the needs of the millions of men now living with HIV, including support in preventing transmission to others. Men need also to be encouraged and helped to play a much greater part in caring for orphans and sick family members. Finally, even though the outcomes may take years to materialize, it is important to challenge harmful concepts of masculinity, including the way adult men look on risk and sexuality and how boys are socialized to become men.

The Diakonia Council of Churches is pleased to offer the following resource material for World AIDS Day services and events, and would like to suggest that on Sunday, 3 December (the first Sunday after World AIDS Day) each congregation do one or more of the following:

• Say a few words remembering those affected by HIV/AIDS;
• Light a special candle on the altar;
• Place a red ribbon on the altar or provide red ribbons for the congregation;

• Choose hymns and prayers that are relevant to HIV/AIDS (suggestions included);
• Read appropriate passages from scripture, for example:

• Display a poster about AIDS in your church, and have information available that people can take away with them;
• Invite someone who is HIV-positive or has AIDS to address your congregation during a service;
• Have a special sermon on an AIDS-related topic (a suggested sermon outline is included in this resource package);
• Include information about AIDS services and resources in your church pew leaflet or on the noticeboard;
• Develop an AIDS ministry in your parish - for ideas about this contact Allison Myeza at the Diakonia Council of Churches.

Where people are bruised

The Church supplies the balm

Where people are battered

The Church restores their dignity

Where people are broken

The Church brings healing

Where people are banned from society

The Church provides a home

By Tokonboh Adeyemo

At the beginning of this new millennium, many families are disrupted by poverty, unemployment, crime, family breakdown and separation and other negative factors. For millions, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is an additional and growing threat.

We are gathered today with people all over the globe to express our solidarity with those affected by HIV and AIDS. We celebrate our sense of belonging to one world family. As we worship together, we share our pain and hurt.

Today we think in particular of men who are at risk of HIV infection and of those already HIV-positive and pray that, as Christians, we may provide them with a solid foundation upon which to base their lives and relationships.

O God, we know you hear the prayers of your people

We pray for the strength to share the burden of illness with those who suffer in the AIDS crisis

We pray for those who suffer from AIDS or any grief or trouble, that they may be strengthened to call to you for help

We pray for men all over the world

We pray for those who care for people with AIDS, and for those who seek treatment and a cure

We pray for families and friends of those who suffer from AIDS

We pray for all men, women and children who are now ill, that they may find courage and strength, hope and healing. We especially pray for those known to us at this time

We pray for the dying

That their suffering may be relieved. Amen.

God of Hope

All of us are affected by HIV/AIDS.

At this time of Advent Hope,

As we prepare for the coming of your son into this world

We give thanks for signs of hope ....

For growing understanding

For medical advances

For changing attitudes and behaviour

For greater awareness and concern in your church.

God of Unity

Bind us together with strong ties of love

That this church community may be a place where

All can find acceptance,

May it be a place of welcome for all affected by HIV/AIDS.

May it be a place where care is given and received, especially for affected children and youth,

Where stories are told and heard,

Where fear is overcome by love,

Where you are to be found. Amen.

Leader : God of Love, we ask you to hear the prayers of your people.

All : We turn to you in our need.

Leader : We pray for the people and the nations of the world.

All : You gave us each other : Teach us to treasure your priceless gift of community.

Leader : We pray for all governments that they may lead in the fight against AIDS.

All : Give them the will to do what is necessary.

Leader : We pray for all involved in research into HIV.

All : That their work may be blessed with abundant results.

Leader : We pray for greater public awareness and understanding of AIDS.

All : Let knowledge give birth to compassion.

Leader : We pray for the strength to share the burdens of those with HIV infection

and those who love and care for them.

All : Help us to find that in sharing our grief we grow strong. Amen.

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we ask you to comfort and heal us as we are affected by HIV/AIDS; give us strength and courage. Grant us compassion, dear God, so that through our caring response, we may lift the veil of fear and ignorance, and foster renewed hope and purpose in our lives. Protect the healthy, calm the frightened, give courage to those in pain, comfort the dying, grant the dead everlasting life, and hasten the discovery of a cure. We ask all this in the name of your prescious Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Almighty and Everlasting God, hear the prayers of your people, who seek your grace to accomplish good works in your name. Be with those who support and care for people living with HIV/AIDS. Grant them patience and attentive ears, gentle hands and focussed eyes, and faithfulness to our Covenant with you, that witnesses the dignity of every human being. We ask all this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Saviour. Amen.

O God whose name is love, strengthen and encourage with your grace those who treat, help, care for, or counsel people with AIDS and their loved ones; comfort those who comfort the lonely, guide those who guide the lost, and give hope to us all that we will not be overcome by despair, through Him who is the light that shines in the darkness, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Almighty and immortal God, as you have promised to comfort the sick, the lonely, and the despised, hear your people who live with HIV/AIDS and defend and deliver them. Through Jesus Christ our Saviour, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

Merciful God,

We remember before you all who are sick on this day, and especially all persons with HIV infection and AIDS. Give them the courage to live with their disease. Help them to face and overcome their fears. Be with them when they are alone or rejected. Comfort them when they are discouraged. And touch them with your healing spirit that they may find and possess eternal life now and forever. Amen.

God, I’m angry and ashamed that my child has AIDS. I need you now more than I have ever needed you. I don’t know where to turn. My first impulse was to deny what was happening, and to hide myself from my friends and neighbours. I don’t want AIDS to be a part of my life, and right now, I’m only thinking of myself. But I know you will help me. Forgive me for my selfishness and my cowardice and provide me with the grace to face life as it is. Give me the grace to stand with my child in the days ahead. My child is like your child on Good Friday – stripped, vulnerable and cast off. Help me to be with my child; help me to accept; help me to love as you first loved us. Amen.

O God of love, whose mercy has always included those whom we have forgotten, those whom we have isolated, and those who suffer, bless we beseech you all who are affected by HIV/AIDS. Comfort them in their pain, sustain them in their days of hopelessness and receive them into the arms of your mercy in their dying. Open our hearts to provide for their needs, to take away their isolation, to share their journey of suffering and sorrow and to be present with them that no one need die alone. Bless those who mourn the death of their friends and loved ones that they may not be overwhelmed by death but may receive comfort and strength to meet the days ahead with trust and hope in your goodness and mercy: In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

O Loving Saviour, receive our prayers for our sisters and brothers in Christ who have died of AIDS-related complications. Receive them into the communion of saints and remove the pain and anguish which had become theirs on earth. O Jesus, grant us the grace and comfort of your presence, that we may find hope and consolation in you. Amen.

Blessed are those aware of their spiritual needs, for the commonwealth of Heaven belongs to them.

Blessed are those who mourn, for God will comfort them.

Blessed are the meek, for they will receive what God has promised.

Blessed are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires, for God will satisfy them fully.

Blessed are those who are merciful to others, for God will be merciful to them.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are those who work for peace, for they will be called God's children.

Look with love on……………….., whom we love and cherish. Our hearts are filled with sorrow because he/she is living with AIDS. We grieve with him all the losses this has already brought and those that lie ahead. We ask your blessings on him today.

Give………………. an ever stronger sense of your care for him, that it might sustain and comfort him always. Help him to know that you love him with an everlasting love that is faithful and tender.

Calm the terror of his heart when fear arises and begins to take hold within. Let him hear the words you have spoken throughout time: Fear not, I will be with you.

Open his spirit to the beauty and gifts of each day. Help him to live every moment, fully taking in all that it has to offer which is life-giving, nourishing and inspiring.

We ask you blessing, too, on all of us who love him. May we know how to support him well and be the sacrament of care for him. Enliven us when we lose hop, and strengthen us when we are weary. Touch the hearts of those he loves who have not been with him. Bring them to his side.

We thank you for all the ways in which you have shown us your care, and for the blessings we have experienced through………………., as he has allowed us to make this journey with him. We are grateful for all that he gives us. We pray this in your Son, who has told us that he is the resurrection and the life, and in your spirit who creates and heals. Amen.

(While lighting the candle) The light of Christ illuminates the world. This is the light which radiates healing in the midst of our deepest pain. Let us pray:

God, the giver of light, we ask that you be with us during the lighting of this candle. May this light call us to remembrance of all whose lives have been touched by AIDS. May it be a symbol of hope for all who suffer in body, mind and spirit because of HIV/AIDS. May it be the light which encourages us and strengthens us to continue onward in working to end this crisis.

O candle burning brightly, may your flames instill within us a living sense of the love and compassion that shines within us through the presence of our healing God. All this we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, who is the light of the world. Amen.

We humbly ask you, O God, mercifully to look upon your people

As we suffer from this disease, AIDS:

Protect the healthy, calm the frightened,

Give courage to those in pain, comfort the dying,

Grant the dead everlasting life;

Console the bereaved, bless those who care for the ill,

And hasten the discovery of a cure.

And finally, O God of compassion,

Grant that in this and in all our troubles,

We may put our whole trust and

Confidence in your steadfast love. Amen.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father,

who enabled your servant Job

to go victoriously through great bodily suffering,

without denying your name, power and love,

have mercy on us, Lord,

who are stricken by this epidemic of Aids.

Stretch out your healing hand

And hold back this virus

Strengthen and comfort, in Jesus Christ,

Those infected and ease their pain of body and mind.

Send your Holy Spirit to renew us all,

And lead us into repentance and faith in the gospel.

Have mercy on us, Lord,

And on AIDS suffers throughout the world.

Give love and compassion to all that seek to assist them,

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Lord, who at the eleventh hour commanded the fever to leave

The nobleman’s son, if there be any fear in our hearts, any

Sickness of body or spirit, remove it from us also. Amen

O Christ, our Lord, physician of salvation,

Grant to all that are sick the aid of heavenly healing. Amen.

We give thanks for the gifts which people living with HIV or AIDS bring to our society and our

church.

Lord in your mercy,

As we listen to the words of all that suffer, may we become more aware of their needs. We pray for the strength to share the burden of illness with those who suffer in this global AIDS crisis. Help us to see that in sharing one another's grief, we grow in strength and compassion.

Lord in your mercy,

We remember those who live in this country and across the world who strive to live positively with HIV/AIDS. We give thanks for all who care for people with HIV and AIDS ( here you could mention local HIV/AIDS care and support programmes such as Sinosizo Home-based care programme, the Clermont AIDS Desk, the Diakonia Council of Churches' AIDS Programme, the Thandanani Association for AIDS Orphans, Durban hospitals, hospices and clinics, the AIDS Training and Information Centre, the Hillcrest AIDS Centre, NACOSA, the Department of Health, The Open Door Drop-in Centre, the Lily of the Valley Children's Village, the National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS, and any others of whom you may be aware) and other local groups and centres of support. We pray for all those who are involved in research and treatment, that in their endeavours they may always respect the precious dignity of the human person.

Lord in your mercy,

We remember those who have died and whom we now name, either in silence or aloud .....................................................

Lord in your mercy,

We pray for the families, friends and especially men who are affected by HIV/AIDS. Fill them with the knowledge of your unconditional and redemptive love. May your church be a caring and welcoming community for all that need it.

Lord in your mercy,

Leader:

Let us show our commitment to stand with people who are HIV-positive and their loved ones, especially men: (at this point, a basket of red ribbons could be blessed and distributed)

Blessed are you, Creator God, for in Jesus you gather us into one great global family, through the workings of the Holy Spirit. As we wear these blood-red ribbons, may we recall the suffering, death and resurrection of your precious Son. As he poured out his blood in solidarity with all humanity, may these red ribbons show our commitment to stand with those living with and affected by HIV/AIDS, now and in the days to come. Amen.

When fears multiply and danger threatens, when sickness comes, when death confronts us, it is God's blessing of peace that sustains and upholds us: lightening our burden, dispelling our worry, restoring our strength, renewing our hope, reviving us.

Let us now depart in this peace, sharing it with all this day and every day to come.

• Be still and know that I am God
• Be not Afraid
• I, the Lord of Sea and Sky
• Friend, Please let me be your Servant
• If God is our Defender

HIV/AIDS is a huge problem for our country. In KwaZulu-Natal for instance it is estimated that approximately 34% of pregnant women attending ante-natal clinics are HIV positive (November 1999). All around us people die of AIDS, and the number of AIDS orphans is rising everyday. Clergy and ministers, who witness this situation daily in their ministry, are among the best informed about this situation.

Churches have incredible potential. What other institutions reach out to virtually every corner of the land? If on this year’s World AIDS Day all ministers and clergy in the country without exception agreed to preach on HIV/AIDS, millions of people would hear the message and begin to realise that HIV/AIDS is also their problem, whether they are directly affected by the virus or not. Millions of people, especially men, would realise that they can make a difference. Both in terms of prevention and care the effect would be enormous.

HIV/AIDS is a frightening disease. Few people talk about it and if they do it is in very general terms. Most people living with HIV/AIDS hide their condition. They are afraid of being ostracised. And rightly so. People continue to be victimised because of HIV/AIDS.

This is an area where we, Christians, have something to say. We preach a gospel of love and hope. The God of Jesus Christ has freed us from fear. The good news is for everybody, including people living with HIV/AIDS. If we really believe that God loves us all, how can we remain silent when so many of our brothers and sisters suffer silently in the fear of exclusion and rejection? Our faith gives us the courage to address the problem of HIV/AIDS. We can encourage people to look at the disease in a more positive way. If we, as Christians, speak out and put our faith into action, attitudes will change and the epidemic will recede.

Maria has been married for ten years. She discusses with her friends a lecture they have been given at their workplace on using condoms if the fear they may be exposed to AIDS. She says "How can I tell my husband to use such things? He will want to know where I even heard about these matters. If I tell him I have heard it here he will say I must stop working if such things are discussed. I think he will give me this AIDS. I know he is having sex with young girls. But what must I do? If I cry to him he will bring one of those girls home in my place. Then what must I do? A woman must just bear these things. There is nothing I can do."

Imagine if a cure for AIDS is found tomorrow. The virus will be a thing of the past; but the sickness in our society which has led to the sickness in our bodies will still remain

• poverty
• the power of rich over poor, men over women
• prostitution
• promiscuity

There are many things wrong in the way that we live. Who is to blame? Many men blame HIV/AIDS on women. Many men believe that it is in a man’s nature to need sex with many women – that men cannot help that, it is how they are made. They believe that women take advantage of that weakness in men, by seducing men, by wearing sexy clothes, by becoming sex workers, by taking advantage of the fact that men need sex so that the women can get money and new clothes. Some men say things like

You could expand on this, and on how it is always tempting to blame others. It is not our business to blame others (God will judge), but to repent of the sins in ourselves. Some people read the story of Adam and Eve, and say that it is all Eve’s fault. She tempted Adam, and so sin began in our world. It is woman who tempt men. Men cannot help being promiscuous or needing sex with many women which is what leads to HIV/AIDS. It is all the women’s fault.

It is mostly men who hold power over women, because they earn more money than women. Women depend on men to bring money to feed and house the children. Rape is quite common in our country, when men force sex upon women. Men have sex with women in towns, they contract HIV in that way, and then come home to demand sex from their wives and infect them with the sickness. Some men believe that if they have AIDS, they should have sex with a young virgin and that will cure the AIDS. Men sometimes use the power of their bodies and the power of their higher income to force women against their will.

How can we men change our ways? We cannot say that HIV/AIDS is any one person’s fault, or any one group’s fault. Everyone is to blame for the things that lead to AIDS. But there is not very much that women can do about it, and there is quite a lot that men can do about it.

What does the Bible say about men and women and how they should behave towards one another? That is a complicated question. It is true that the Bible says Eve tempted Adam. It is true that the Bible was written in days when women were expected to respect and obey their husbands. Some people might find that difficult in modern times. But we leave that debate to one side for the moment. For even in the passages where the Bible says that women should respect and obey, it also says men have a duty to protect and care for their wives. We think of

• the story of Ruth and Boaz, where Boaz takes compassion on the poor young women and make sure she is able to glean food (Ruth chapter 2)
• the many places in the Bible where the man’s love for his wife is seen as an image of God’s love for his people of Israel or, in Christian times, God’s love for his church
• Paul telling men that they must love their wives as Christ loved us (Ephesians 5 : 25 – 33) .

If men took these ideas seriously, there would be no violence between men and women. Men would not take it to be their right to have sex with many women and then to demand sex from their wives too. Women would not need to turn to sex work to get money for their children. AIDS would die away.

What is there in your church practice or church tradition which will help men change? How can men find the strength they need from God? Where can men find the inspiration and guidance that they need? You might talk about these things.

Advent is a time when Christians traditionally think of the coming of Jesus at the end of time in judgment when we will be called to account for our sins. It is a time of repentance and change. It is also a time when we think back to the stable in Bethlehem, where the man Joseph cared most tenderly for his young wife and her baby. Perhaps the picture of the Holy Family in Bethlehem is one to inspire men again to become gentle and protective, and to put their wife and children first – and thus to become real men in the image of God.

When Jesus had finished washing the feet of his disciples during the Last Supper, he gave them a fundamental commission and orientation: "You call me Master and Lord, and rightly so I am. If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you must wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done to you" (John 13: 13- 15)

The church’s response to this challenge of the Lord is to be a servant to serve the people of God in their needs. In Zambia, the greatest needs of God’s people today are those arising out of their experience of HIV/AIDS.

They are suffering pain, grief and human loss on an unimaginable scale. They are coping, and coping magnificently, with orphans in numbers which far exceed anything previously known in human history.

In their suffering, dignity, and patience, the people are showing that their joys and hopes, their griefs and anxieties are not only those of the followers of Christ himself among us today.

The outstanding characteristic of the church’s response called for to meet the HIV/AIDS epidemic is service. This of course is a major role that it shares with all other churches.

The many home-based care networks, the care and compassion shown in mission hospitals, the self-sacrificing dedication of Mother Theresa’s Missionaries of Charity, the work of many volunteers, the recently highly acclaimed coherent and organised response of the Catholic Secretariat to the orphans crisis: these and many other ventures bear witness to this priority.

As one manifestation of this service response, the 1999 Zambian Catholic Directory lists thirty-four urban and rural home-based care projects in Lusaka Archdiocese alone and a further twelve in Ndola Diocese.

In our bewilderment and puzzlement as to how to deal with the problems that HIV/AIDS brings, let us be grateful for the way the Church and its members have shown themselves so faithful to what the Lord asked of us, that we copy what he has done. And let us continue to examine how in our lives, our families, our small Christian Communities, our parishes, our religious communities, our organizations, we can extend that response of service.

At this time, more than at any other any other, let us see how we can be Christ to our suffering brothers and sisters, to benefit orphans to vulnerable children, to grandparents facing yet again the challenge of rearing children.

The Lord also commissioned is church to teach: "go therefore, make disciples of all nations…. and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you" (Matthew 28: 19 – 20).

The teaching role is inspiring in part by recognition of how the Lord himself worked with people. He did not hesitate to associate with prostitutes and sinners. He never rejected them, never spurned them.

Following this example, the church wants us to be always accepting of the person infected with HIV, never to spurn the person suffering from AIDS. Because of the inspiration it draws from the life and practice of the Lord, the church encourages openness about the disease.

It acknowledges the brokenness and weakness of its members – clergy, religious and lay. It acknowledges that they may be HIV-infected, but it sees that this is a reason for service and compassion, never for condemnation.

The church also teaches that even though HIV/ AIDS is something new. It is not God’s punishment on the world for its evil ways. It is not God’s punishment on any human being for promiscuity or sin.

God is every best loving instinct in us, magnified to infinity. God is the one who, like a mother teaches us to walk, takes us in her arms, holds us close to her face and is the one who personally entered into our sufferings in the death of Jesus on the cross, so that we might know that God understands suffering and death from inside.

The Church finds it unthinkable that such a God could curse anybody with affliction of HIV/AIDS. " God so loved the world that he gave his only Son …not to condemn the world but so that the world might be saved through him" (John 3: 16).

God’s concern for the world was greatest, his saving power was at its most intense. When in the mocked, despised, agonizing and almost despairing person of Jesus, he died on the cross.

Today, God still shows that mysterious, deep, powerful love by suffering in a person dying from AIDS, by grieving in family that loses its loved one, by crying in an orphan left without mother or father.

At the last Supper, Jesus promised his disciples that he would send them "another Paraclete (advocate) to be with them for ever, the Spirit of truth whom the world can never accept" (John 14: 17).

He promised them that as his church they would understand things in ways that the world does not understand them and that they would be strengthened to proclaim these insights fearlessly.

The church has always excised this prophetic leadership role. It has spoken out strongly, fearlessly. It has pointed out new directions. It has resisted oppressors. It has sided with the weak and powerless . It has always taken to heart Our Lady’s words about scattering the proud-hearted, casting the mighty from their thrones, raising the lowly.

The whole thrust of church teaching and action in favour of the poor is an expression of its deep concern for justice, for an equitable distribution of the goods of this world, for the preservation of the world’s ecological heritage, springs from the same prophetic charisma.

At the same time, the church recognizes its fragility and brokenness. It acknowledges that many times it has not spoken out fearlessly enough or strongly. It is aware that at times it has repeated the weakness of Simon Peter: it has temporized, it has been cautious and fearful, it has been too silent With HIV/AIDS it has been the same as with other areas. The church has spoken and acted for the lowly, for the afflicted. It has reached out in prophetic gestures to those that are afflicted. A dramatic expression of this occurred in a nearby country when the local priests refused to visit a women who had AIDS because she had been a sex worker.

When the Bishop heard about this, he made a point of visiting the woman regularly until her death and celebrated her funeral Mass with solemnity in his cathedral.

We need more leaders like that Bishop. We need more prophetic gestures of this kind . We need the church to come out now and use its powerful moral influence and leadership to break once and for all the choking silence that surrounds HIV/AIDS.

The silence leads to stigma and discrimination, and all three silence, stigma and discrimination only serve to make it easier to transmit the disease.

Unfortunately, the church in its official aspect was not very conspicuous at the July 2000 International AIDS Conference held in Durban. Likewise, it was hardly represented at all at the ICASA Conference in Lusaka last year.

Once again, like Simon Peter, it may have been silent. But people are looking to the church to speak, looking to it for leadership.

They want to hear it proclaim loud and clear that persons living with HIV/AIDS are God’s very dear children, our privileged sisters and brothers who are called upon to do within five to seven years what will take forty to fifty years for the rest of us to accomplish – fight the good fight, finish the race, fulfill their God given potential " in mystery of the loving that can and does bear all the wounds".

People also want to hear the church proclaim that there is a gravely unjust situation today in which some, a few, can literally buy life, while millions will never be able to afford the cost of extremely expensive life preserving drugs and treatment.

They want to bear the church speak out on behalf of the empowerment of women and their right to control their own sexual lives, seeing this as possibly the single most potent way for reducing the transmission of HIV.

People want the church to work ever more strenuously to break down all those barriers which only corral situations in which HIV/AIDS thrives and flourishes : the walls between the rich and the poor, between the north and south, between the debtors and the creditors, between the sick and the well, between town and country, between the educated and the uneducated.

TODAY, THE BODY OF CHRIST HAS AIDS, BUT CHRIST HAVING BEEN RAISED FROM THE DEAD WILL NEVER DIE AGAIN

The world wants the church to work more fearlessly towards the day when every wall will be torn down and there will be no more male and female, no more Jew or Greek, but all will be one person in Jesus Christ.

Today, the body of Christ has AIDS. But Christ having been raised from the dead will never die again. This faith inspires all believers that one day they will see every member of the body of Christ as an AIDS free resign of God . This is the prophetic message of hope that all humanity yearns to hear from the church.

P.O. Box 61341

Bishopsgate

4008

Phone (031) 305 6001 Fax (031) 305 2486

e-mail diak@iafrica.com

We thank the theologians who wrote items for inclusion in this resource package.

Source material collected from the following publications:

Men make a difference: World AIDS Campaign with men. Briefing document, UNAIDS.

HIV/AIDS Ministry: A Practical Guide for Pastors. Patricia Hoffman.

The Congregation: A Community of Care and Healing. Presbyterian Church, USA.

JCTR Bulletin No. 44. Second Quarter, 2000