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Detroit Ecumenical AIDS Service Moves 'Beyond Pain into Joy'

Episcopal News Service. December 19, 1989 [89272]

Pressing against the bone-chilling cold and piercing the darkness of a December night, more than 400 people journeyed through a blanket of new snow to celebrate the warmth and light of the Advent season. A warm church decorated with the rich purple and decked with glowing candles surrounded a congregation packed into coat-strewn pews.

They came from all over metropolitan Detroit to the service at Christ Episcopal Church: men and women; black and white, gay and straight; those of deep religious conviction and those with little religious belief.

They all had one common thread -- each one had somehow been touched by AIDS. And they shared that commonality when the litanist, Marilyn Bergt, a Roman Catholic Divine Providence sister and director of the AIDS Interfaith Network, invited them to publicly name before God those for whom prayers were to be offered.

In a heavy silence that followed, the names rang out like shots: Mark, Carol, Bruce, Jim. Names reminded the congregation that the disease touches everyone, requires everyone's attention.

The annual service -- "A Christmas Celebration for People Who Care about People with AIDS" -- began in Detroit five years ago. At that time, no mainline Detroit church was dealing with the subject of AIDS, according to Rod Reinhart, a Detroit high school teacher, associate priest at Emmanuel Church in Detroit, and the main organizer of the service.

With the help of friends and the congregation of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Detroit, Reinhart put together a service designed to deal with the spiritual component of AIDS treatment. Fifty people attended the first service in 1985.

This year on December 14, the congregation was "probably more ecumenical than ever before," said Reinhart. "It really was a concelebration of many different types of people. AIDS is an ecumenical disease that touches all Christians and all churches," he continued.

The Eucharist and healing service was sponsored by 16 Detroit area organizations that are concerned about or work with people living with AIDS. The special liturgy was only symbolic of a much broader ministry represented by those organizations.

"The celebration lets people living with AIDS know that while some people reject them, there are also people embracing them," said Ted Duncan, director of Wellness House, a Detroit agency that provides housing and support services to people living with AIDS. "An Episcopal service in an Episcopal Church helps bring the AIDS problem out into the open," he continued.

More than 200 Christmas gifts were donated to put under a Christmas tree that decorated the church. Most of them were given to Wellness House to be distributed to people living with AIDS in the Detroit area.

Words from Psalm 91 set the tone for the liturgy, "You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday." The service was "upbeat, joyful, positive," reported Reinhart. "We felt this was one way to move beyond our pain into joy. Through this service we came to see that God strengthens, and blesses us in every difficulty," he added.

Carol, a woman in her late forties, attended the service for a second consecutive year. "The first year -- in 1988 -- I went to be with people who knew what the disease was like. They cared and didn't shun you," she said.

In September 1988, Carol's son died from AIDS complications. "The service helped pull me through the grief," she said. "I had a place to go and be among people who were compassionate and not judgmental." This year, Carol helped present the offerings. More than $1,700 was collected for the Bishop's Fund for AIDS, a diocesan account that distributes money to local and national AIDS groups.

"The service was filled with a variety of emotions," said Reinhart. "It was a place to share the hurt and pain -- in the context of the church where God reaches out a hand of love and hope. The tears I saw were not tears of self-pity or overwhelming grief, but rather tears of joy at the rediscovery of God's presence."

Jim Hilberer, a person living with AIDS, felt that the service helped people who are alienated, isolated, or feeling cast aside find their way back to the church. The service, and especially the laying on of hands, "is a way to get re-connected with the church," he said.

Hilberer came to the service because he felt depressed and saw it as a way to cheer himself up. "Part of Christmas to me is giving thanks that I'm still here," he said.

Except for the Christmas carol "Joy to the World," all of the anthems and carols in the service were Advent-related. "We felt that it was appropriate to have this service in the Advent season because it has a strong message of hope and joy, at a time of expectation and waiting," said Reinhart. "For many people living with AIDS and those who love them, there is a constant state of hoping and waiting. The advent hymns and themes speak very appropriately to the place where people are living."

"AIDS is our problem," said the Rt. Rev. Ken Untener, Roman Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Saginaw who preached at the service. "AIDS is a family problem, and you treat people with the disease the same way you would treat any brother or sister with a problem in your family. . . no differently," he said.

Untener recalled the image of the steadfast love of the Virgin Mary toward Jesus, a fierce and protective love, to suggest how the church should respond to the AIDS crisis. "That same fierce love should focus on those who are left out or are most vulnerable," he said.

"The issue of AIDS hasn't been dealt with spiritually or politically by society or the church," said Barbara Murray, executive director of Wellness Networks, an agency that runs Michigan's AIDS hotline. But, she said, the special liturgy "reminds us of the people society views as 'throw-aways' -- women, gays, blacks, ... -- and that we really are our brothers' keepers."

The Detroit liturgy sought to reach out to those who are among the most vulnerable people living with AIDS -- children. Detroit-based Children with Immune Deficiency Diseases (CID) received many gifts brought to the service. CID is a pediatric AIDS organization that provides counseling, foster-parent workshops, and social services to children living with AIDS and their families. "The celebration is a good idea, and our families are encouraged to attend because it helps hold them together," said Anita Klugh, office manager for CID.

"A few children were able to make it to the service," reported Reinhart. He also traced the involvement of the local Barry Manilow fan club in Detroit in the service. "Women from the Barry Manilow fan club collected $118 for the Bishop's Fund for AIDS and gathered eight large bags of children's toys that were brought to the service. Since Manilow was in town for a concert, the fan club took the toys to him the night before the service and got his 'blessing' on their contribution."

"We need to support people with both faith and works," said Matthew Juntener, a deacon-in-training of the Metropolitan Community Church of Detroit who served as crucifer for the service. Michigan Episcopal bishop, H. Coleman McGehee, who has been the celebrant for the past five years, said that the service calls us to rejoice together that "we are all -- sick and well alike -- God's creatures made in the image and likeness of God." McGehee intended that his presence at the service be seen as a sign of his support and love for people living with AIDS and those who minister with them.

"Some people told me afterward," said Reinhart, "that the service was one of the most wonderful and moving they've ever been to. It was really a source of hope and life for people."

In the center of the church, near the altar, stood a six-foot Christmas tree covered with 839 gold stars. The stars, said John Benson, Integrity/Detroit vice-president, represented the number of people who have died of AIDS-related complications in Michigan since 1981. Hanging from the balcony was a golden banner provided by the local chapter of the Names Project. It was full of the names of people who have died, and messages of love to those still living with AIDS.

"People who are in this situation," said one man who did not wish to be identified, "need something that is positive to reach out to them. Special things -- like this Christmas service -- is what keeps me -- and others -- going."

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