HIV/AIDS ministry focuses on acceptance, care

Jesus had no room for the judgment and distance stigma creates,” says Lorri Phile, administrator at Clifton United Methodist Church, Cincinnati. “The church and its disciples are here to bridge that gap and embody the merciful care and persistent justice-seeking of Jesus.”

While the Clifton church sometimes participates in special events on World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, its efforts to provide education about HIV/AIDS and support people living with HIV/AIDS are year-round – as they have been for 30 years.

When HIV/AIDS began making headlines in the early 1980s, Phile recalls, “hyperbolic fear seized many people, organizations and policies. (The Clifton congregation) leaned on its history of thinking differently. The priority was welcome, understanding, engagement, appropriate medical treatment, intentional prevention and deep relational care.”

Today, the congregation’s HIV/AIDS team:

Leads and participates in the West Ohio Annual Conference AIDS Task Force;
Sponsors participants and provides supplies for Healing Weekends;
Educates about HIV/AIDS;
Serves as a testing site through the congregation’s community outreach nurse; and
Expands its relationship with Be Our Neighbors Ministry in Liberia, benefiting women living with HIV/AIDS.

According to estimates by the World Health Organization and UNAIDS, 35 million people were living with HIV globally at the end of 2013. That same year, some 2.1 million people became newly infected, and 1.5 million died of AIDS-related causes.

World AIDS Day serves as a reminder that the need remains to raise money, increase awareness, fight prejudice and improve education.

Barbara Dunlap-Berg, associate editor, Interpreter

New Advent study on HIV/AIDS

The General Board of Church and Society has a new four-week Advent Bible study that addresses the HIV pandemic and its relationship to other social concerns. “The Season for Change — An Advent Study on HIV/AIDS & Social Justice Advocacy” is free and downloadable from umc-gbcs.org/resources-websites/the-season-for-change. The study was written by Lindsay Sheets, who served as a social-justice intern this summer with Church and Society. She is a senior studying medicine and religion at Birmingham-Southern College.