Click here for Part 1, with links to various liturgies and other resources.
Almighty and most merciful God, we remember before you all poor and neglected persons whom it would be easy for us to forget: the homeless and the destitute, the old and the sick, and all who have none to care for them. Help us to heal those who are broken in body or spirit, and to turn their sorrow into joy. Grant this, Father, for the love of your Son, who for our sake became poor, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
– “For the Poor and Neglected”
from The Book of Common Prayer
Watch, dear Lord, with those who wake, or watch, or weep tonight, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend your sick ones, O Lord Christ, rest your weary ones. Bless your dying ones. Soothe your suffering ones. Pity your afflicted ones. Shield your joyous ones. And all for your love’s sake, amen.
– Augustine
When all is darkness and we feel our weakness and helplessness, give us the sense of your presence, your love and your strength. Help us to have perfect trust in your protecting love and strengthening power, so that nothing may frighten or worry us, for living close to you, we shall see your hand, your purpose, your will through all things.
– Ignatius of Loyola
Lord, I would pray for the Church; help us to love one another. Help us to be family, your body. Help us to show your love within and without the Church. Help us to communicate your love, your gospel, your mercy and justice. Help us to sacrifice our comfort for your will and truth.
– Anonymous member of 2006 Rhetoric of AIDS class, Wheaton College
Oh God, you are the creator of all. Today we your creatures prostrate ourselves before you in supplication. We have no strength. You who have created us have all power. We bring you our seed and all our implements, that you may bless them and bless us also, so that we may make good use of them by the power, which comes from you, our Creator.
The following are some links to resources on prayer for HIV/AIDS. Several have been specifically designed to be used by individuals or groups on or around World AIDS Day. There are a few short liturgies, texts of written prayers, and some guides to information and more resources.
I find these types of material helpful, because it can be so hard to pray about something as big, broad, and diverse as the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It can help to have the words of others to reflect on and internalize. And as I do so – even as millions of people around the world pray on this World AIDS Day – there is this encouragement, this comfort:
And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believersin harmony with God’s own will.
South Africa Redoubles Efforts Against AIDSBy CELIA W. DUGGERSOVANE, South Africa — South Africa, trying to overcome years of denial and delay in confronting its monumental AIDS crisis, is now in the midst of a feverish buildup of testing, treatment and prevention that United Nations officials say is the largest and fastest expansion of AIDS services ever attempted by any nation. The undertaking will be expensive and difficult to pull off, but in the past month alone the government has enabled 519 hospitals and clinics to dispense AIDS medicines, more than it had in all the years combined since South Africa began providing antiretroviral drugs to its people in 2004, South African health officials said.
The Ugandan Parliament has tabled a bill called the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, and will be voting on it in the near future. A wide cross-section of people, including people from many faiths, sexual identities, and nations are opposing this bill because it criminalizes consenting behavior between adults, and calls for life imprisonment and even the death penalty for some homosexual “offenders.” We want to speak out in a civil but powerful manner to reinforce that all people are created in God’s image and deserve respect and liberty.
Christians are encouraged to add their voice in opposition to this bill by joining this Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=198541255168. It may be doubtful how much influence such a group can have, but in my opinion it is very important for Christians to express their values at times like this, especially when the actions and statements of some may cause non-Christians to misunderstand the positions and priorities of our faith, or of God.
This is truly appalling. According to TIME magazine’s Zoe Alsop, an exceptionally harsh “anti-homosexuality bill” is being proposed in the African nation of Uganda, with frightening consequences.
The medic shifted a battered fedora over his eyes. “I am the gay doctor,” the physician whispered to me, making sure nobody around heard. […] In a matter of weeks, the Ugandan doctor’s admission to TIME could land him in jail and his patients on death row. An anti-homosexuality bill now before Uganda’s Parliament would include some of the harshest anti-gay regulations in the world. If the bill becomes law, the doctor, who asked that his name not be published, could be prosecuted for “aiding and abetting homosexuality.” In one version of the bill, his sexually active HIV-positive patients could be found guilty of practicing acts of “aggravated homosexuality,” a capital crime, according to the bill.
I would hope that it goes without saying that this is a cruel and dreadful idea. It should also go without saying that this would be a disaster for anti-AIDS efforts in Uganda. Time and time again it has been demonstrated that oppressed or marginalized groups — people who have to hide within their society — are at special risk for HIV, especially if they are already at increased risk for other reasons. A law like this has disaster written all over it, even aside from the immense moral objections.
Disturbingly, these political developments in Uganda seem to have been supported by certain American Christians. Put bluntly, that horrifies me. While I only recently heard about this story, apparently it’s been brewing for months now. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church — who has been very involved in raising awareness about HIV/AIDS among American evangelicals (admirable) and has developed a great deal of social and political influence in some African countries (more problematic) — only recently spoke out against the bill, after coming under considerable pressure. I could say all kinds of things about my thoughts on Warren’s political involvement, but I’ll confine myself to this: as someone who has been and continues to be extremely vocal, this was not the time to be silent. (You can read a message Warren gave to Ugandan pastors, condemning the bill, on another blog.)
I hope that other Christians will join me in speaking out against this bill, and praying for God’s love to prevail among His people around the world.
The World Health Organization is changing its advice on HIV drugs, asking that they be given sooner and to breastfeeding mothers with the virus. Experts say the advice is based on the most up-to-date information available and will cut infection rates and save lives. But it will mean many more people needing treatment, which will cost more money and time. An estimated 33.4 million people are living with HIV/Aids. …
UNAIDS has produced a very cool set of interactive maps that showcase various AIDS-related trends and statistics around the world, focusing on progress to universal access. The image below is just one of the many fascinating displays. Find more here.
Geneva / Shanghai, 24 November 2009 – According to new data in the 2009 AIDS epidemic update, new HIV infections have been reduced by 17% over the past eight years. Since 2001, when the United Nations Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS was signed, the number of new infections in sub-Saharan Africa is approximately 15% lower, which is about 400,000 fewer infections in 2008. In East Asia new HIV infections declined by nearly 25% and in South and South East Asia by 10% in the same time period. In Eastern Europe, after a dramatic increase in new infections among injecting drug users, the epidemic has leveled off considerably. However, in some countries there are signs that new HIV infections are rising again.
The non-profit organization Avert has put out a short but very focused and thought-provoking video on the World AIDS Day 2009 theme: Universal Access.
I love how this presentation deals with the idea of “universal access.” That’s a very common phrase in AIDS advocacy circles, and is probably most often used with regard to treatment — you have universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment if everyone who needs antiretroviral therapy (ART) can get it. But Avert follows UNAIDS in highlighting the need for universal access to prevention, treatment, and care.
All three of these things are important. The video makes the essential point that, without improved prevention and lower infection rates, the availability of treatment can’t keep up with the need. I especially appreciate the emphasis on access to care. “Care” can mean a lot of things, many or most of which are intangible. Unfortunately, that can make it easy to overlook. But support, respect, understanding, and love…all people living with HIV/AIDS (infected or affected) need these things too.
Short, catchy video from the ONE Campaign. It’s geared especially for college students, but pretty much applicable to everyone. The video stars a lot of very popular Hollywood types. (I am just out of the loop enough to recognize only one or two of them…I suddenly feel old.) You can find out more about it here.
Just came across this game/exercise on the ridiculously addictive trivia game site, sporcle.com. It’s a good test, and actually very challenging (I was kind of chagrined to see how many I missed). Check it out.
Here is a pretty slick video promoting World Vision‘s new (and curiously-punctuated) campus organization, ACT:S. ACT:S is a successor to, and a sort of re-vision of, Acting on AIDS, a WV-driven AIDS advocacy network for Christian colleges.
It’s also interesting to note that ACT:S is putting a lot of emphasis on “creative activism” and political advocacy. While this may be an oversimplification, this seems like something of a shift from the initial strategy of Acting on AIDS, which focused very heavily on fundraising. To me, this movement makes a lot of sense. I’m sure this differs from school to school, but in my experience Acting on AIDS tended to stumble on the fact that most college students don’t have much money to spare.
During my time at Wheaton College, I was heavily involved in our campus AIDS group, which started as a chapter of the Student Global AIDS Campaign (a AIDS advocacy network composed maily of branches at secular universities), and called itself SGAC, but was technically a member of Acting on AIDS as well. We often found ourselves trying to delicately chart our own way, attempting to avoid the pitfalls we saw in one or both groups. I remember having a conversation with another member of the Wheaton group, and expressing our frustration with the fact that the Acting on AIDS leadership wanted us to focus on fundraising — or, as it seemed to us, to come up with all kinds of money that we just didn’t have.
Our group had a lot of success with many of our initiatives, from political advocacy, to education, to service projects, but fundraising was consistently difficult. As my friend put it, it just didn’t seem fair that we were supposed to be focusing on giving money when many of us were accumulating tens of thousands of dollars in debt just by being in college. We had time, passion, and access to outstanding educational and institutional resources…it sometimes seemed like we were being asked for the one thing we didn’t have. It just didn’t seem like a good use of resources at that stage in our lives.
When engaging an issue, I think it’s extremely important to consider what your best contribution can be. You have to consider what is feasible for you (as an individual or a group), and where you can shine. You won’t be able to do everything that could or should be done. You have to focus your efforts in a way that makes sense. Your focus — your style of advocacy — might change as your life changes.
Say you want to make a difference for a cause. One option is raising money for an organization that provides related services. When you’re a college student who has to keep a nervous eye on a growing pile of student loans, fundraising might not be the most practical approach. But say that twenty years later you’ve got a well-paying job, lots of friends and connections who also make decent money, and a career that has taught you how to sell an idea. Now you’re in a great position to jump into fundraising. The same type of logic could work for all sorts of other approaches to advocacy and social involvement.
All that is to say, I think World Vision might have hit on a strategy better suited to the college student demographic by moving some of its focus to political advocacy from fundraising. It seems like this shift has been evolving for a while, and it will be interesting to see how it works out. Hopefully this new group will excel in whatever they decide to do, and make a real difference for people dealing with poverty and injustice around the world, and bring God glory as they do so.
>> I began my reflections on the evolution of ACT:S here.
Here’s a pretty slick video promoting World Vision‘s new (and curiously-punctuated) campus organization, ACT:S. ACT:S is a successor to, and a sort of re-vision of, Acting on AIDS, a WV-driven AIDS advocacy network for Christian colleges.
World Vision has made an interesting choice in shifting away from a more specific AIDS-oriented program to a more overarching focus on “poverty and injustice.” In my opinion there’s a lot to be said on both sides of the question this change is addressing. On the one hand, HIV/AIDS is just one relatively small part of — to put it somewhat crudely — what is wrong with the world. We can and must care about all varieties of injustice, all causes of human suffering. Further, AIDS is so connected, so mixed up with all sorts of other issues, it may counterproductive to artifically narrow one’s focus.
On the other hand, it’s hard to grapple with issues all at once, without a fairly well defined central focus. You may want to be able to follow connections to related issues, but when is a connection so tenuous that it’s in your best interest to leave that issue to someone else? After all, one person (or group) can only be really competent — in terms of knowledge, understanding, resources, etc. — in so many areas.
I think about these issues a lot in the context of this blog. I don’t always know where I fall on the spectrum, but I try to avoid both poles (vague social-justicey-ness and mono-focus on HIV/AIDS). I tend to use my interest in and knowledge of AIDS issues as a sort of central jumping-off point to look at global health and related issues. Maybe that’s just a fancy way of saying that I’m kind of stream-of-consciousness about the issues I address. Then again, it’s a blog…stream-of-consciousness is pretty much the default mode!
Anyway, I’ll be interested to see how ACT:S addresses these questions. Different people, groups, and organizations have to find their own balance and approach, and I don’t think there’s just one right answer. In a way, I think it’s sort of inherent in personality types: some people tend to look more at the big picture, while some tend to “zoom in” more. There are definitely advantages to both.
It’s also interesting to note that ACT:S is putting a lot of emphasis on “creative activism” and political advocacy. While this may be an oversimplification, this seems like something of a shift from the initial strategy of Acting on AIDS, which focused very heavily on fundraising. To me, this movement makes a lot of sense. I’m sure this differs from school to school, but in my experience Acting on AIDS tended to stumble on the fact that most college students don’t have much money to spare.
During my time at Wheaton College, I was heavily involved in our campus AIDS group, which was technically a member of both Acting on AIDS and the Student Global AIDS Campaign (a campus AIDS advocacy network composed maily of branches at secular universities, and tended to focus on a confrontational style of activism). We often found ourselves trying to delicately chart our own way between the two groups and their different emphases, which sometimes seemed like extreme points on a spectrum. I remember having a conversation with another member of the Wheaton group, and expressing our frustration with the fact that it seemed like Acting on AIDS leadership expected us to be able to come up with all kinds of money that neither we nor anyone we hung out with had. As my friend put it, it just didn’t seem fair that we were supposed to be focusing on giving money (rather than on other approaches like political advocacy, education initiatives, or service projects), when many of us were accumulating tens of thousands of dollars in debt just by being in college. It just didn’t seem like a good use of our resources at that stage in our lives.
Anyway, all that is to say, I think that, by moving some emphasis away from fundraising and toward advocacy for their campus initiatives, World Vision might have hit on a strategy better suited to the college student demographic. It seems like this shift has been evolving for a while, and it will be interesting to see how it works out.
>> I continued my reflections on the evolution of ACT:S here.
This is from a while back (April 2009) but I just watched it, and it’s definitely worth a look. BBC World News America created this short video featuring prominent, long-time AIDS activist Eric Sawyer for its “First Person” series. This is a very moving clip, in which Sawyer speaks emotionally about the havoc HIV has wrecked in his own life, and especially the friends and loved he has lost to the disease. The pain in his voice is truly sobering.
I found the end of the video especially chilling. Sawyer explains that he is alive only because he has the resources — money, health insurance — to get the newest and best anti-AIDS medications. As he put it, “I can buy life.” The point of course, is that not everyone who has HIV is so lucky. As he says, that isn’t right.
In October the Center for Global Development released a publication discussing the importance — indeed, the centrality — of girls and young women in the overall trends and patterns of global health. You can read about the report and download a PDF version at the link below.
Improving the health of adolescent girls in the developing world is the key to improving maternal and child health, reducing the impact of HIV, and accelerating social and economic development.
Start with a Girl: A New Agenda for Global Health sheds light on the realities of girls' health and wellbeing in developing countries, on the links between the health of girls and the prospects for their families, and on the specific actions that will improve health prospects for millions.
faith & AIDS : connections 