Remind me to wear red ONLY on St. Andrew's Day (November 30)
Posted on 11/23/2009 3:10:20 PM PST by lightman
Lutherans to Observe World AIDS Day Dec. 1
WASHINGTON (ELCA) -- Every nine and a half minutes a person in the United States becomes infected with HIV, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta. Globally, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS estimates the number of people infected with the virus is 33 million.
On the weekend before or after World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) are invited to participate in a worship service, event or advocacy activity, and to remember and demonstrate support for people living with and affected by HIV and AIDS.
A World AIDS Day liturgy and other information about ELCA ministries related to HIV and AIDS is at http://www.ELCA.org/aids on the ELCA Web site.
"World AIDS Day shines a light of awareness on the pandemic of HIV and AIDS," said the Rev. Andrea DeGroot-Nesdahl, ELCA coordinator for the HIV and AIDS Strategy and the Lutheran Malaria Initiative. "It's important for all people of faith, infected or not, to stand together against this epidemic that is taking such a devastating toll."
The 2009-2010 World AIDS Day theme is "Universal Access and Human Rights." This theme was selected by the World AIDS campaign, a network that works in response to HIV and AIDS. The association includes the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA), an international network of churches and Christian organizations cooperating in advocacy about global trade, and HIV and AIDS. The ELCA is an alliance member.
The theme encourages people to deepen understanding, develop partnerships and challenge discriminatory laws, policies and practices that stand in the way of access for all people to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support, according to the EAA.
The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop, spoke on the subject of discriminatory laws when he welcomed a travel policy decision by U.S. President Barack Obama that removed entry restrictions into the United States for people who are HIV-positive. He said that an end to discriminatory policies and confronting stigmatizing attitudes toward people with HIV and AIDS are essential for their full inclusion in society and religious communities.
In March 2009 the ELCA Church Council adopted a strategy to address HIV and AIDS. The 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly approved a three-year, $10 million fundraising proposal to support the strategy.
In his remarks to the assembly, Hanson said he hoped in 2017 the ELCA could say, "Together, we increased access to government and non-government resources in the fight against the spread of HIV and AIDS. Through improved access to treatment and education, the number of cases were significantly reduced, and stigmatization and discrimination diminished."
According to DeGroot-Nesdahl, the ELCA Strategy on HIV and AIDS represents an ongoing engagement with the pandemic both globally and domestically.
"The ELCA has a long history of partnering with global companions on HIV and AIDS ministry. Those same companion churches have encouraged the ELCA to also attend to the growing number of infections in the United States, and to become a more HIV-competent church in our own country," she said.
In the spring of 2009, at least 56 ELCA bishops participated in HIV screening. "The bishops' testing spoke prophetically to their own synods in the United States as a witness to the importance of knowing one's own status, and of dismantling the stigma and discrimination around HIV and AIDS," said DeGroot-Nesdahl.
-- World AIDS campaign information is at http://www.worldaidscampaign.org on the Web.
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
Remind me to wear red ONLY on St. Andrew's Day (November 30)
Frankly, I'm suprised that ++Mark was not more explicit in celebrating the Churchwide Assembly decision to equate lifelong gay partnership with marriage as means toward reducing promiscuity and AIDS.
Ever the cause celebre; I wonder when equal fanfare will be given to say, lower respiratory diseases, which kill more people than HIV/AIDS.
Lutheran (EL C S*A) Ping!
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
I have bade final farewell to too many fine people who have died of Congestive Heart Failure (CHF).
Over the past three decades treatment has not changed--people are taking the same ineffecitive Lasix as 30 years ago.
CHF is non-preventable. Why are we pouring millions into research on a disease that is one of the most preventable, provided you don't do IV drugs and keep your pants up?
They’ve nothing better to do, it would appear...
How stupid, since everyone knows what they have to do (or not do) in order to not get infected.
Of course, our President and the Democrats in Congress, by promoting Deathcare, have another solution to the alarming growth in prevalence of CHF, as well as of various cancers, COPD, complications of diabetes, etc.
I abhor that solution, as do caring doctors, researchers, priests and pastors, and friends and families, and—I humbly believe—our God!!!!
St. Andrew’s Day (which falls on November 30 in the Orthodox New Calendar as well) is worthy of celebration. Forget “World AIDS Day”. If people want to help people with AIDS, they should give to them anonymously in the spirit of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (Dec. 6th), rather than trumpeting it like the “mainline” protestant bodies.
How about for the people who are actively seeking to acquire HIV, just to get their jollies?
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