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National Episcopal AIDS Coalition Meets "On Behalf of Life"

Episcopal News Service. November 8, 1989 [89222]

Mike Barwell, Communications Officer of the Diocese of Southern Ohio

CINCINNATI, Nov. 8 -- "While hundreds of thousands will be lost to us, we are in a moment of grace. There is still time to save a generation. Let's get on with it!"

That was the clear call given by the Rt. Rev. Barbara C. Harris of Massachusetts at the opening of the National Episcopal AIDS Coalition's conference, "Our Church Has AIDS," in Cincinnati on October 26 through October 28.

More than 300 clergy, care givers, health care professionals, persons living with AIDS (PWAs), and even a few politicians spent 48 intense hours around the theme, "Responding to AIDS -- The Church as Prophet, Servant, and Teacher." The conference's Midwest setting was chosen to underscore projections that indicate the majority of new AIDS cases in the 1990s will be outside of the East and West Coast metropolitan areas where the disease has been most evident.

Tom Tull, preacher at the opening Eucharist, likened the AIDS epidemic to the recent San Francisco earthquake and recounted his experiences of the earthquake and the aftershocks. Newscasts, he said, talked about the quake as the "epicenter of our lives. For many of us, AIDS has become the epicenter of our lives. But the Gospel also is the epicenter of our lives."

Tull, founder of the first Episcopal AIDS conference in 1986 and a member of the World Council of Churches' consultation on Ethical Issues and AIDS, added that "for many of us, the barrage of hospital calls and funerals has resulted in aftershocks in our lives." And, he reminded his audience, "by the time this service is over, more than 600 people worldwide will have contracted AIDS, and three will have died."

Grim statistics haunted the conference. In 1985, Tull said, 1,200 people were infected. Now, more than 60,000 have died in the United States alone. The disease is reaching epidemic proportions in some parts of Africa.

And, Harris noted, AIDS is now spreading in the heterosexual population, especially among teenagers. "New data show that the virus is rapidly spreading among some groups in the 13to 19-year-old age bracket through heterosexual intercourse." Harris, quoted Dr. Gary Stropash, director of adolescent medicine at Chicago's Rush Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center, who contends that AIDS infection among teenagers is going to be the next crisis -- and it is going to be devasting.

Bishop Harris cited "a danger and a hope" for the participants. The danger, she said, is that "this church and this society... has short-lived love affairs with catastrophes, causes, and concerns. There is the danger that we can become so consumed with the environmental aspects of the science of survival and the ecclesial aspects of the dynamics of inclusion that we lose sight of the importance of the current struggle in which we are now engaged. I have watched over the year this church of ours shift and drift from one noble undertaking to another without stopping to make the links and connections between what we have been doing and what we are about to do. We must remain cognizant that the struggle against AIDS, the science of survival, and the dynamics of inclusion are inextricably linked."

The hope, she added, "lies in us.... Let's not waste energy on the origin of the virus. Let's get on with the more difficult task. We need to look for glimmers of hope and commit ourselves to push forward for those fronts with redoubled efforts. We know how the disease is transmitted and how it can in most cases be prevented.

"We need to confront both church and society with the responsibility of this nation to mount a sustained national effort... and to be in the forefront of an international effort that rivals our commitment to the space program," she continued. "If we can spend that money, that much money, to put people in outer space just to see if we can get there, then we ought to get serious about putting those kinds of financial resources toward the eradication of this illness."

The question for the conference was, how will the church respond? Hope was reassuringly evident.... Each one of the speakers and workshop leaders spoke of the important role the church has in the midst of the AIDS crisis. "People need good news," Tull said. "People need the Gospel."

The Rev. John Snow, professor of pastoral theology at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge and author of Mortal Fear, spoke of the church's prophetic role. Reminding his audience that "the hope of the world is to be found on the margin, not in the mainstream," Snow said, "In those communities gathered around the phenomenon of AIDS, we find no shortage of belonging or courage or trust. Here, beyond the rule of the power of the fear of death, we find a model alternative culture deeply Christian in its understanding of what life is all about -- mutually pastoral, corporately prophetic, intensively alive.... We see what happens when God's grace makes human history a home for human beings, rather than a battlefield for the war of all against all. And perhaps the church can learn from this again, that the salvation of the world is not accomplished by the survival of the fittest. We can act as a prophetic church, preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and be heard," Snow concluded.

The major portion of the conference was devoted to 48 workshops ranging from health care and pastoral care issues, to specific programs and models already doing significant work through the church. Several workshops were devoted to AIDS ministries among minorities, and one dealt with how the church can effectively influence local, state, and national legislation on AIDS issues.

Tull and the Rt. Rev. William E. Swing, bishop of California, were presented with the first National Episcopal AIDS Coalition (NEAC) awards for outstanding ministry in response to the AIDS crisis. Bishop Swing has been instrumental in the San Francisco community's response to AIDS in developing ministry programs and serves on the National Episcopal AIDS Coalition (NEAC) council.

The national church also presented its new youth curriculum, Youth Ministry in the Age of AIDS, during the conference. The material is provided as a resource for congregations. Intended for youth counselors, congregations, and youth groups, the three-part manual includes subjects such as dating and issues of sex education by dealing forthrightly with facts and fictional concerns about AIDS and practices that are considered at risk. A video also is included in the packet.

Two liturgies focused attention on the power and love of God. The opening Eucharist included a blessing of the ministries and symbols of ministry. Bishop William G. Black, diocesan of Southern Ohio, walked up and down the center aisle of Christ Church, Cincinnati, sprinkling water on everything from banners to teddy bears held high as symbols of pastoral care to AIDS ministries.

A second Eucharist and healing service completed the last night of the conference. Nearly 500 people attended the service in which 12 clergy and lay healing ministers anointed and prayed for PWAs, care givers, and church workers. Hugging, tears, and caring words were shared as the congregation sang hymns and gathered for the laying on of hands.

Bishop Douglas E. Theuner, of New Hampshire, preacher for the service, said, "All Jesus cared about was healing -- the rest was politics." As chair of the national church's Joint Commission on AIDS, Theuner said he had participated in many healing services in the past year. "One characteristic of AIDs healing services," he noted, is that "they [PWAs] are so filled with life. 'We are not here today on behalf of death. We are here on behalf of life,'" Theuner said, quoting Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning's remarks at the AIDS healing service in the National Cathedral in October.

"AIDS is a new thing for us, we've seen it for about a decade," Theuner added, but "AIDS is an old thing because we have lived with suffering and death forever." The call for the church is to live in the midst of death by upholding life.