From Isolated Actions to a Global Partnership

LWF AIDS Strategy Group Commends Bold Church Initiatives Despite Great Challenges

Some of the contexts are strikingly different, the needs and target groups vary, but the objectives are similar. Whether working with traditional birth attendants to end harmful cultural practices in rural Liberia, raising awareness through youth drama groups among India’s tribal communities in Orissa, or preparing weekly nutritious lunches in the Greater Manchester area in Connecticut, USA, it is a partnership that enables churches to increasingly seek to embrace care, grace and justice in their response to the global HIV and AIDS pandemic.

"Most KELC (Kenya Evangelical Lutheran Church) parishes have working groups for mothers and orphans. Training groups in the church have resulted in open discussion without discrimination about sensitive issues such as sexuality," said KELC Bishop Zachariah W. Kahuthu, reporting on the church's AIDS response initiatives at the bi-annual meeting of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) HIV and AIDS strategy group.

At the 9 to 11 February meeting in Geneva, the ten-person group comprising church leaders, regional AIDS desk coordinators and representatives of partner churches affirmed the need to continue with the objectives of the global LWF campaign and action plan under the title "Compassion, Conversion, Care – Responding as Churches to the HIV/AIDS Pandemic." Launched in 2002, the initiative promotes active and courageous AIDS response by the LWF churches within an ecumenical context. Its focus, participants noted, should be sharpened to reflect the changing contexts.

Kahuthu cited other important steps including prevention by confronting harmful cultural practices such as female genital mutilation and early marriages that increase vulnerability to HIV transmission. Stigma reduction and awareness-raising on living positively with HIV have become permanent features of the church's ministry, with pastors preparing an AIDS-related sermon each month to advocate behavior change and inclusivity of all, he explained.

In his welcoming remarks, Rev. Dr Kjell Nordstokke, director of the LWF Department for Mission and Development (DMD), commended the member churches and their partners for the long-standing accompaniment of people affected by HIV, in some regions, since the early 1980s.

"We are encouraged that since the launch of the campaign, more churches have taken major steps in their response to the pandemic and its impact," he said. "HIV and AIDS is an issue of justice, thus churches have to play a unique role. Our strategy in the first place is to empower churches, lifting up the justice and rights issues," he stressed.

The strategy group's meetings, organized by DMD's AIDS desk, provide a forum to share experiences, exchange views on best practices and challenges, with a view to reviewing and shaping the overall focus of the organization's AIDS work at the global and regional levels.

Prevention, Information Sharing

This year's meeting agreed on the need to increase support to and collaboration among the member churches in order to enhance prevention; scale up the focus on women, youth, and people living with HIV as important target groups and resource persons; extend theological training on AIDS; enhance coordination between the global and regional AIDS response efforts; increase peer group communication; and improve information sharing especially from leadership level to the grassroots.

Participants representing churches in Africa, Europe, North America and Latin America and the Caribbean pointed out that stigma and discrimination in churches and communities remained a major impediment to an effective response. Also attending were representatives from the Anglican Communion, Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, World Council of Churches Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiative in Africa -EHAIA, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), and staff from other LWF units.

"Bishops are seen as key people in communities, and the church leaders and their pastors have to use that key. One facilitates and supports the other. Church leaders should explicitly say to pastors: 'I support your efforts," remarked one participant.

The pandemic, they argued, while a health issue requiring urgent attention from governments and other service providers remained for the church a deeply theological matter. "It is not about the virus, it is about the people; and focus should not be maintained on the disease but rather on the discrimination and stigmatization," remarked Argentine Lutheran pastor Lisandro Orlov, the Latin American region coordinator for the LWF AIDS response initiatives.

"The duty of the church is to deal with the subject through theology, not to keep quiet because we feel unsure," stated Rev. Erik Berggren, Church of Sweden.
LWF Assembly Theme, Resources
The strategy group members said they considered the July 2010 LWF Eleventh Assembly in Stuttgart, Germany, as an opportunity to provide greater visibility to the AIDS campaign, especially through the event’s theme "Give Us Today Our Daily Bread."

Appreciation was expressed for the LWF handbook, "Grace, Care and Justice," a guide on Lutheran theological and pastoral understandings on accompanying persons affected by HIV and AIDS, also incorporating information on medical aspects, prevention, home-based care, gender concerns and advocacy. DMD has facilitated its translation into French and Spanish, and the respective LWF member churches have produced Amharic, Estonian, Georgian, Malagasy, Oromifa, Russian and Kiswahili language versions, with more translations in progress.

Malagasy medical doctor Mamy Ranaivoson, based in Nairobi, Kenya, as a program assistant for health ministries with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), urged the LWF to ensure "such available resources get down to the people" as the pandemic still threatens millions of lives and livelihoods especially among the poor.

The regional or national needs are quite different, thus requiring contextual approaches for any meaningful response, noted Ms Venah Mzezewa, coordinator of the Lutheran Communion in Southern Africa (LUCSA) AIDS Action Program incorporating the work of 17 churches. She pointed out that in 2007, Southern Africa accounted for almost one third or 32 percent of all new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths globally.

DMD AIDS desk coordinator Rev. Dr Veikko Munyika underscored the churches' efforts, saying, "The global AIDS statistics paint a grim picture of the overwhelming challenges ahead. But we must acknowledge the significant gains that have been made because the church has spoken."

The LWF supports several AIDS response projects among its member churches whose focus includes, among others, theological education, communication, prevention, home-based care, and awareness raising about the rights of people living with HIV.

According to UNAIDS, an estimated 33 million people were living with HIV globally in 2007. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most heavily affected region, accounting for 67 percent of the global figure, and for 72 percent of the estimated 2 million AIDS-related deaths. (1,084 words)