07.05.2004
Churches Warn of “New Line of Demarcation” as More Countries Join European Union
Churches Urged to Be Safe Places for People Living with HIV/AIDSODESSA, Ukraine/GENEVA, 7 May 2004 (LWI) – Participants in a Lutheran World Federation (LWF) consultation on HIV/AIDS expressed concern about the “implications of a new line of demarcation” following the entry of ten new member countries into the European Union (EU) on May 1.
Countries and churches that have been experiencing growing relations with each other as neighbors, “are likely to find themselves divided again from one another, based on who is included or excluded from this new political union,” said representatives of LWF member churches in Europe following the April 20-25 regional HIV/AIDS consultation in Odessa, Ukraine. The German Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Ukraine (DELKU) hosted the meeting.
Around 40 participants, including bishops, pastors and lay members, youth, medical and social work professionals, and those involved in the diaconal work of the churches, attended the consultation, focusing on the churches’ response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Europe. They expressed concern that countries entering the EU would no longer have access to lower cost generic medication to treat HIV infections, and would be cut off from some international funding for their programs.
In their message titled “Bound Together,” the representatives of LWF member churches in Europe cautioned that migration of people across borders might increase, giving rise to new fears and challenges. While so much attention in the region was oriented toward becoming more like the West, they said, it was especially strategic for the churches to turn their attention toward the eastern and southeastern parts of Europe, where more difficult living conditions continue to prevail.
“As churches in communion with one another, we are called to stand in solidarity with those who continue to suffer in many ways, including through the growing incidence of HIV/AIDS in many of these countries. We recognize that this specific focus of our consultation is also related to other economic and cultural factors, especially the negative forces of globalization and the weakening of families and other social structures that give meaning, values and direction to life,” they said.
They pointed out that the enormous economic, educational, cultural and other widespread disparities worldwide are manifest among Lutheran churches across Europe. While the spread of HIV/AIDS had been contained in some of the countries, it was escalating in others. Some churches have developed extensive, effective programs to care for and support persons affected by HIV/AIDS, but others have barely begun, the church representatives said in their message.
The self-understanding of the Lutheran churches as a communion of churches, they said, underlines that the suffering and challenges of some are shared by all. “Thus, we are bound together and called to seek new ways of living out the reality of this communion, in listening carefully to and learning from one another, and in sharing our resources in ways that respect our different identities, values and priorities, rather than the stronger partners imposing theirs on the weaker,” the participants stated.
The consultation participants urged the Lutheran churches in Europe to become “safe places” for people affected by HIV/AIDS. Churches have a distinct responsibility to address the various spiritual dimensions at stake in sensitive and appropriate ways. This includes reaching out and receiving into the churches those who are affected, especially those who have often been treated as “outsiders” or stigmatized as outcasts. Church liturgies, sermons and prayers, should uplift people affected by HIV/AIDS, they stressed.
They encouraged churches to learn the facts about HIV/AIDS, how it is transmitted, the reality and actual needs of the people who are affected. The churches must speak more openly about HIV/AIDS and related topics also in the families and communities. In order to “break the silence,” churches needed to be more attentive to religious, social and cultural barriers that have contributed to the silence.
They called on churches to focus attention on deepening theological reflection “through more biblically grounded theological learning, discernment and discussion in order to respond from out of the gospel of Jesus Christ that we proclaim and seek to live out.”
Churches were urged to care for and support all those affected by HIV/AIDS as an aspect of the diaconal calling of the church, and also as a part of the baptismal call of all Christians. Participants in the regional consultation encouraged the churches to focus attention on promoting HIV/AIDS prevention through such means as sexuality education, and awareness raising about “gender equality, abstaining from and postponing sexual activity, avoiding risky behavior, use of condoms, sterilized and disposable needles, clean blood supply and other measures to avoid spreading the virus.”
Churches were urged to “teach Christian values that promote and protect life, based on love for self and neighbor. Churches should teach values that support marriage and family life, as well as mutual sexual responsibility and faithfulness to one another.”
In their message participants stressed the need for collaboration with other churches, ecumenical organizations, NGOs, governments, and self-help groups from local to international levels, “so as to increase the impact of our joint efforts to diminish the spread of HIV/AIDS, to care for and to pursue justice for and with all those affected.”
They urged churches “to advocate for the human rights of persons with HIV/AIDS, and for policies and practices that will be effective in supporting them and their needs, for example, affordable access to medication.”
The Odessa consultation was the last out of four regional consultations for LWF member churches under the 2002 LWF global campaign against HIV/AIDS and its action plan “Compassion, Conversion, Care: Responding as Churches to the HIV/AIDS Pandemic.” Similar meetings took place in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia. (952 words)
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