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HIV/AIDS
Awareness Day Ideas for Congregations |
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Statistics show that in our
churches and neighborhoods there are people who are living
with or touched
by HIV/AIDS. They want and need to talk, to share and to pray,
but they don't know how to ask or even bring up the subject.
It is important that congregations respond to meet those needs.
There are many ways in which a congregation can take action:
- View the It Can
Happen To You: HIV/AIDS & The
Older Adult video produced by
National Health Ministries and lead a discussion group about the
issues
facing older adults.
- View the Spread
the Word: The Role of Black Churches in the AIDS Crisis video
by National Health Ministries and lead a discussion group
about the issues that face the black churches.
- For the youth and young adults, conduct a sex education class incorporating
HIV/AIDS education.
- Present HIV/AIDS education sessions at the church, senior residences
and community centers.
- Discover where HIV/AIDS resources, information, testing sites and support
services are available in your local area. Develop a list and post it.
- Work with your Christian education committee to develop
a HIV/AIDS Education Awareness Program. Include background
information on the issue, modes
of transmission, and body fluids that carry the virus. Discuss why
people are at risk, how can
they protect themselves, etc.
- Pray for people in your church with HIV/AIDS
and their caregivers. (See worship
resources.)
- Offer study classes to all ages.
- Use bulletin inserts.
- Display HIV/AIDS materials on bulletin boards, in classrooms and/or
at health fairs.
- Use HIV/AIDS Sunday to raise awareness. Preach a sermon, focusing on
our responsibilities. Have booths with people there
to discuss HIV/AIDS.
- Invite speakers to come talk to your Sunday school class or organizational
meetings.
- Minute for Mission capsules
HIV/AIDS is still a critical
and growing issue. Churches can take a leading role in
breaking the silence by making
the topic
discussable and by helping to educate
all people. |
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Minute for Mission
The Lord's Day
HIV/AIDS Awareness
The statistics are shocking and the
stories are heart wrenching, yet numbers and words alone
cannot adequately express the wide-ranging
and profound effects the AIDS pandemic is causing in the lives
of children around the world. By the end of 1999, AIDS had
created 13.2 million orphans—children under fifteen years
who have lost their mothers or both parents. Ninety-five percent
of these orphans live in sub-Saharan Africa. UNAIDS, the Joint
United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, estimates that by 2010
there may be 42 million orphans—the number of children
in the Unites States living east of the Mississippi River!
Despite such staggering statistics, significant progress is
being made in the struggle against AIDS. Churches are banding
together to break the silence, challenge behavior, and provide
basic care to those in need.
The International
Health Ministries office of the PC(USA)
works in partnership with churches in over forty countries
to improve the lives of children at risk because of AIDS. Together
they actively support over 200 institutions and programs engaged
in AIDS work.
PC(USA) partners are responsible for eight Community-Based
Orphan Care Programs (CBOC) in Malawi alone. The CBOC programs
were initiated in 1992 in response to a survey that revealed
that there was at least one orphan in one-quarter of the households
surveyed. According to current estimates, between 800,000 and
one million children have been orphaned in Malawi.
The overall aim of CBOC is "to
facilitate a community-based approach in promoting the survival,
good health, loving care,
[and the] intellectual, physical, and spiritual development
of orphaned children."
We invite you to join us in this effort as we seek to increase
the capacity of our brothers and sisters in Christ overseas
to engage in the fight against HIV/AIDS by reducing its spread
and to give compassionate care and support to those infected
and affected by AIDS. For more information on specific programs
or on how you can help, contact International AIDS Ministries at
the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Web site.
Dr. Dorothy M. Brewster-Lee, coordinator, International Health
Ministries |
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Worship Resources |
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Prayer of Confession
Adapted by Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church |
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Leader: |
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Dear God, we're sorry for the times
someone wasn't beautiful and we looked away. |
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Response: |
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We're sorry for the times someone
stretched out a hand and we pretended not to notice. |
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Leader: |
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We're sorry for the times someone
needed to be held and we clung to safety instead. |
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Response: |
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We're sorry for the times truth
was on our tongues and we swallowed it instead of speaking it. |
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Leader: |
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We're sorry for the times love was
in our hearts and we were too embarrassed to express it. |
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Response: |
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We're sorry for the times fear
was in our hearts and we didn't trust you with it. |
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Leader: |
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We're sorry for the times we claimed
to be innocent bystanders and still we knew that by being passive
participants, we were guilty for allowing wrong to be done. |
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Response: |
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We're sorry for the times strangers
asked us for something and we pretended not to realize what they
needed. |
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Leader: |
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We're sorry for the time we haven't
loved enough. |
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Response: |
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We're sorry for the times we haven't
loved with every part of our being. |
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All: |
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Renew our confidence in your
power and in the power of love to change lives, and give us
courage to be
the fully responsible person you call us to be. Amen. |
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Prayer taken from Church of Central
Africa Presbyterian (Malawi)
God of all compassion,
Comfort your sons and daughters
Who live with HIV.
Spread over us all your blanket of Mercy,
Love and Peace.
Open our eyes to your presence
Reflected in their faces.
Open our ears to your truth
Echoing in their hearts.
Give us that strength
To weep with the grieving
To walk with the lonely,
To stand with the depressed.
May our love mirror your love
For those who live in fear,
Who live under stress and
Who suffer rejection.
God of life, help us to build a world in which
No one dies alone and where
Everyone lives accepted
Wanted and loved.
Amen.
Remembering and Witnessing
2003 PHEWA Biennial |
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Call to Worship
Adapted and added to from Pacific School
of Religion Worship Service from The Watchman, February
1997, Lance Stone |
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Leader: |
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We come to this place right here,
right now seeking hope and wholeness. |
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People: |
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We come to this place right here,
right now to remember and lift up those who are living and have
lived
with HIV/AIDS. |
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Leader: |
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We come to this place and are
confronted by things we would prefer to ignore. |
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People: |
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We come to this place praying
to be open to the Christ hidden in what we would rather avoid. |
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Leader: |
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Here we are confronted with life.
Here we are confronted with death |
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People: |
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Here we face the truth that we
are vulnerable and mortal; Here we face the fact that life is
fragile and precious;
Here we realize that we cannot accept life until we accept death. |
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Leader: |
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Here we are confronted with sexuality. |
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People: |
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Here we discover that humanity
and sexuality are inseparable; and in Jesus Christ we discover
that divinity
and carnality are inseparable; Here we discover that in Jesus
our sexuality is redeemed not denied. |
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Leader: |
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Here we are confronted with poverty,
exploitation, violence and drugs. |
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People: |
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Here we discover that everything
is interconnect, that our own healing is bound up with the healing
of all life on the planet; Here we discover Jesus' rage
in the temple his challenge to the powerful; Here we discover that Godde groans
like a woman in labor for us to change the systems that continue to exploit,
demean, and belittle people and creation. |
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Leader: |
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Here we are confronted with judgment. |
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People: |
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Here we stand before the judgment
of Godde that rejects our self-righteousness; that tears away
our efforts
to justify ourselves; that confirms our efforts to find acceptance
by condemning others. |
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Leader: |
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Here we are confronted with denial
and fear. |
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People: |
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Here we face our denial of the
situation and the fear of those who are different from us. Here
we face
the fear of chaos and denial of death, sexuality, and judgment. |
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Leader: |
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Here we are confronted with grace. |
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People: |
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Here we feel the embrace of Godde's
grace that accepts and affirms and is faithful. |
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All: |
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You who have knit us in the womb
help us to embrace your grace that our fear and denial may turn
into embodied
acts of love and compassion. In Jesus' name, Amen. |
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The Locus of Silence
by Greta Reed, Presbyterian AIDS Network Leadership Team We confess that we are overwhelmed by the magnitude of this epidemic
by the new cases diagnosed daily,
by the millions dying in Africa,
by the challenges of prevention and treatment.
We dare to hope.
We are discouraged to realize that after almost twenty years
there is still no cure and no vaccine.
We dare to hope.
We refuse to say that we have been defeated by a silent enemy
a virus, in many places still spoken of only in whispers.
We dare to hope.
We give thanks for those who are infected or affected
knowing that they are precious in God's sight.
We proclaim our gratitude that the God of love
the source of all life, of all strength, of all courage
continues with us on our pilgrimage this day.
We pledge that we will continue to hold high the banner of love,
holding out for those tangible signs of hope. |
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Prayers of the People
Adapted from CONTACT
Loving God,
you show yourself in those who are vulnerable,
and make your home with the poor and weak of this world;
warm our hearts with the fire of your Spirit,
and help us to accept the challenges of HIV/AIDS.
Protect the healthy,
calm the frightened,
give courage to those in pain,
comfort the dying,
console the bereaved,
strengthen those who care for the sick.
May we, your people, using all our energy and imagination,
and trusting in your steadfast love,
be united with one another
in conquering all disease and fear.
We make this prayer
in the name of one who has borne all our wounds
and whose Spirit strengthens and guides us
now and forever. Amen. |
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Blessings and Benedictions
Reproduced from Sing Out New Visions
Edited by Jean Martensen, National Council of Churches
Go in Hope
Go in hope for God knows your suffering
And will not abandon you.
Anonymous |
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Sisters and Brothers, Arise
Sisters and brothers arise.
The Living God has called us together
in witness, in celebration, in struggle.
Reach out towards each other.
Our God reaches out towards us.
Elizabeth Rice |
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