The Church's Response to the African AIDS Pandemic
Episcopal News Service. January 14, 2005 [011405-1-A]
[ENS, Diocese of Bethlehem] Clergy leaders in Kajo Keji are concerned about the church's response to the African AIDS pandemic. They note that refugees returning from the south may bring the HIV virus with them. The leaders are beginning to educate people about the value they place on abstinence, faithfulness and the use of condoms. Noting that sexual matters are very difficult to discuss in the religious context, clergy are eager to work with other African churches.
The marginal availability of HIV/AIDS drugs is a concern throughout Africa. That concern is magnified amid great poverty in southern Sudan.
Bishop Marshall had visited HIV/AIDS clinics in Swaziland in 2000 "to seek the face of Christ among the suffering and those who care for them." Swaziland has been experiencing an enormous burden because of "the destruction of the work force and the creation of more than 14 million orphans. We have a duty to mobilize governmental and non-governmental agencies and businesses to make the contribution they have the ability to make. In the United States HIV is or can be largely contained, although not cured. This is not the case in Africa, and I hope Americans can come to believe that African lives are as valuable as our own."
Marshall discussed with the Kuku clergy the work that diocesan medical missioner Dr. Ned Wallace has been doing with the Swazis. Since 1991, Wallace, a parishioner at Trinity Episcopal Church, Bethlehem, has spent four months each year coordinating a medical education work and service program in an overcrowded rural hospital in Swaziland. In collaboration with the Bishop of the Diocese of Swaziland, Marshall named Wallace medical missioner for the Diocese of Bethlehem in 1999 when Wallace decided to make AIDS-related activities his main focus.
As Bishop and Mrs. Marshall arrived home, Wallace and Trinity Church rector Nick Knisely began a two-week mission trip to Swaziland.
"We've been invited and sent with two specific goals in mind," said Knisely. "One is to do a resource and needs assessment for the Diocese of Swaziland as they work to respond to the AIDS crisis in their part of Africa. Swaziland may have one of the highest infection rates in the world at present, and the church in that area has a daunting task dealing with the pastoral and relief needs that are resulting. The second is to work with the Diocese of Swaziland to determine what might be most helpful to increase their ability to communicate internally within the diocese and externally to the Anglican Communion and the world."