ELCA NEWS SERVICE

November 29, 2006  

ELCA Presiding Bishop Comments on World AIDS Day, December 1
06-189-JB

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), issued a
public statement addressing this week's observance of World AIDS
Day.  The theme of Hanson's statement is "Stop AIDS. Keep the
Promise."
     "On December 1, World AIDS Day, the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America joins with millions of people in hundreds of
countries to take up this theme," Hanson wrote. "Through our
support of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), we are part of
a global commitment to stop AIDS by 2015."
     Hanson called on religious leaders and faith communities to
make specific commitments toward the goal of stopping AIDS.  He
also called specifically on religious leaders to make a series of
promises and commitments.
     Churches and faith communities are "an essential part of the
solution" because people of faith play a critical and important
role in stopping AIDS in this generation, Hanson wrote.
Religious leaders are responding by making public and specific
commitments -- "promises that are reflected not only in our
leadership, rhetoric, advocacy, and vulnerability, but also in
our budgets and priority decisions," the statement said.
     Hanson said religious leaders and faith communities must
commit to involve people living with HIV and AIDS, especially
women and youth, in all dimensions of their work on HIV and
AIDS; protect the human rights of people living with HIV or
AIDS; raise awareness that HIV and AIDS impact and affect faith
communities themselves; and provide public leadership and hold
each other "publicly accountable for a comprehensive response
that includes providing direct human services, engaging in
community organizing, shaping public policy, and calling for
corporate social responsibility."
     As for what "keeping the promise" means for religious
leaders, Hanson suggested that it means acknowledging and
repenting of failures and fears; being transparent about what
religious leaders have done or not done to keep these promises;
reflecting commitments in what religious leaders teach in
seminaries, schools, colleges, universities and lay training
centers; listening to and learning from people who are living
with and affected by HIV and AIDS; and holding others, including
governments, accountable for their promises.  That means
religious leaders must commit themselves to learning and
teaching, Hanson wrote.
     "Our promises as Christian religious leaders are grounded in
our faith in God, who is steadfast in love, constant in mercy and
persistent in justice, and in Jesus Christ, who is God's promise
of faithfulness in human flesh. We are called to follow Jesus as
disciples, to stand in solidarity with those whom society deems
to be marginalized, to offer healing to those who are vulnerable,
and to lay down our lives in love for our neighbor," Hanson's
statement concluded.
---
     The full text of Presiding Bishop Hanson's statement is at
http://www.ELCA.org/bishop/m_061129.html on the ELCA Web site.
     Information about the ELCA's response to HIV and AIDS is at
http://www.ELCA.org/aids/ on the ELCA Web site.

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