ELCA NEWS SERVICE

August 14, 2006  

Lutherans at Ecumenical Sessions Before 2006 International AIDS Conference
06-124-JB

     TORONTO (ELCA) -- Lutherans came from around the world to
participate in an ecumenical pre-conference Aug. 10-11 at the
University of Toronto in advance of the 2006 International AIDS
Conference, Aug. 13-18 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
The Christian Host Committee (Canada) and the Ecumenical Advocacy
Alliance, based in Geneva, hosted the pre-conference, "Faith in
Action: Keeping the Promise."
     "We cannot talk about religious leaders keeping a promise
until religious leaders and the faith communities they lead make
a promise," said the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop,
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Chicago, and president,
Lutheran World Federation (LWF), in a plenary session. "I believe
that our public promises as religious leaders must be spoken with
both clarity and humility ... humility because we need to repent
publicly of our failure to abide by these commitments," he said.
     "As a global religious leader of 66 million Lutherans in the
world and the U.S. religious leader of 5 million Lutheran
Christians in the United States, I promise publicly to stand in
solidarity with you and let the commitments made here and
articulated here shape my leadership and my rhetoric," Hanson
said.
     After making and keeping promises, Hanson said, religious
leaders must hold themselves and others accountable to those
promises. "We will acknowledge we have power, and we have
responsibility to use that power for the sake of justice, mercy
and peace. When [global] religious leaders begin to lead by
example, religious leaders in local communities will have the
courage to lead and follow," he said.
     The 500 participants chose to attend as many as six of 40
workshops during the ecumenical pre-conference.  Topics followed
eight streams: building welcoming communities, delivering on
universal access, preventing new infections, engaging and
transforming churches and faith-based communities, youth in
action for an AIDS-free world, advocating for justice and
accountability, developing new tools for biblical, theological
and ethical reflection, and building basic skills.
     "Are you playing with a full deck?" was the question several
Lutherans asked while leading a workshop on tools for
incorporating HIV and AIDS ministries into the life of the
church.  The Rev. Janet B. Grill, St. Andrew Lutheran Church,
Pittsburgh; Andrena Ingram, seminarian, Lutheran Theological
Seminary in Philadelphia; the Rev. Ngandaneni Phaswana, bishop,
Central Diocese, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa,
Johannesburg; and Patricia Zerega, ELCA director for corporate
social responsibility, Pittsburgh, led the workshop.
     The four distributed a deck of cards to everyone who
attended the workshop.  Instead of playing cards, the cards had
information from the history of the red ribbon associated with
HIV and AIDS to Internet addresses for details on specific HIV
and AIDS ministry techniques.  The deck included blank cards, and
participants received pens to add information about their own
ministries or other ministries.
     "Love doesn't protect you from contracting HIV."  This
simple truth is not easy for many women to accept, said Sonia
Covarrubias, a social worker and health educator from Chile.  She
made her comments at a session focused on concerns about the
impact of HIV and AIDS on women.
     "The church should be open to meet with the community and
develop programs together," Covarrubias said.  "The role of the
church is to place itself on the side of the marginalized in
order to overcome social injustice," she said.
     The LWF brought a delegation of Lutherans from around the
world to the pre-conference and International AIDS Conference,
including Covarrubias.  The delegation also included a dozen
young Lutherans.
     Emily Freeburg, assistant to the director, Lutheran Office
for World Community, said there are many opportunities for youth
to get involved in campaigns focused on HIV and AIDS in a faith-
based environment.  "If you are part of a church, you can use
your youth group and there are young professional groups that are
active around different development issues." The challenge is "to
find a niche wherever you are," she said.
     The Lutheran Office for World Community is a ministry of the
ELCA and Lutheran World Federation at the United Nations in New
York.
     "When you have young people dialogue with church leaders,
they're the ones who are not going to be afraid to ask the
questions," Freeburg said.  "They are going to bring up these
issues where others are going to pretend they're not there. Young
people have the fearlessness," she said.  "So I think, wow, the
church can really use youth to break the silence that the church
structure can't break on its own."
     To help increase youth involvement in AIDS campaigns, Helge
Andersen, 21, led a pre-conference session called "How Can
Youth?"  Andersen, a student activist from Changemakers, Oslo, a
Norwegian Church Aid youth initiative founded in 1992 that now
counts 2,000 members in 20 local groups, described an anti-stigma
campaign to distribute 50,000 'Positiv' buttons.
     "We got global attention because the Norwegian bishops
thought this was a cool idea," Andersen said.  "The media just
loved it.  When you have religion and sex you can get through to
the media," she said.
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     Information about the proceedings at the ecumenical pre-
conference and the 2006 International AIDS Conference is at
http://iac.e-alliance.ch/index.php on the Web.

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