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We Could Have Saved More Lives

Church Leadership Challenged to Be Vanguards in Fight Against HIV/Aids

GENEVA, 29 September 2004 (LWI) – We are losing people including pastors who could have given so much to the church because of their expertise, talents and gifts, young people who could have turned Africa into what it should be. This was how Ms. Angelene Swart, president of the Moravian Church in South Africa, described the impact of HIV/AIDS on her church and country. She was addressing a press briefing at the September 1-7 meeting of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) council near Geneva.

Statistics from South Africa’s Department of Health indicated that by 2002, an estimated 5.3 million people in a population of more than 42 million were infected with the human immune-deficiency virus that leads to AIDS. More recent surveys reveal that one in every five young South Africans aged between 15 and 24 was infected, with women more disproportionately affected than men.  

For Swart, one of the biggest challenges for church leadership is to keep hope and love alive among the hurting people. In the southern part of Africa, we have started with compassion. The church has been converted to compassion.  The silence has been broken. But it was after painstaking efforts, the Moravian church president explained. For a long time church people had been ashamed to admit that they were HIV-positive or had AIDS, and arguably so, according to Swart. Throughout the ages the church has seen itself as holy, without blemish. But we came to realize that we must be open and confess our sins especially about the silence on this disease.

Openly addressing Stigmatization and Isolation

Of course we regret the time it took the churches to respond, she said. If we had responded sooner we could have been proactive rather than reactive and would have saved more lives. But we have a chance now and we grabbed it when it came along. Last year, South Africa is estimated to have lost over 360,000 people to AIDS-related illnesses.

Now the leadership, and indeed the entire church are joining ranks against the disease. Once afraid of being stigmatized and isolated, pastors are now openly confessing that they are HIV-positive, and becoming actively engaged in the church’s efforts to fight the disease, she told the journalists

In the Moravian church, “everybody” is included in an ongoing HIV/AIDS action plan that includes programs to increase awareness, organizing advocacy groups, providing home-based care for the infected, training church leaders and volunteers, and offering counseling and treatment .  Stigmatization, discrimination and isolation are being addressed, Swart stressed. The Moravian church joined the LWF in 1975, and has 100,200 members.

As a church we have no option but to help people experience the abundant life that God provided to all people, said Swart, who is also vice-president of the Lutheran Communion in South Africa. The sub-regional body comprises 13 Lutheran World Federation member churches in eight countries.    

                   (Provided by Al Reynolds from the Internet)

REQUEST FROM BETHABARA

            Bethabara Moravian Church has an active outreach program in our Latino/Hispanic community. We are working with Br. Enrique Alcantara but this will represent more particularly an outreach from Bethabara Moravian Church. We have a job description which we will gladly provide on request, which reveals the extent of the program and description of the kind of a person we a seeking to head up this ambitious program. We seek your help in making this opportunity known and will be happy to provide more information and answer any questions.

Thanks and blessings,

Bill Rosenbaum (336.924.9479)