The Seventh-day Adventist Church has launched an initiative aimed at dramatically stepping up its ministry to people impacted by HIV/AIDS. Church administrators voted September 27 to establish an office that will provide "leadership and focus" for the chu
The Seventh-day Adventist Church has launched an initiative aimed at dramatically stepping up its ministry to people impacted by HIV/AIDS. Church administrators voted September 27 to establish an office that will provide “leadership and focus” for the church’s response to the HIV epidemic.
The initiative will pull together a broad range of church entities for a comprehensive, church-wide ministry of compassion, said members of the church’s executive committee, who met September 25 to 27 at the Adventist world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States.
The new Office for HIV/AIDS Ministry will initially be established on the continent of Africa, which has some 25 million of the world’s 36 million people currently living with the virus.
Organizations that will work together to operate the office include the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, Loma Linda University, Adventist Health Science Center, regional church administrators in Africa, and the church’s General Conference.
The office will encourage and coordinate broad church involvement in HIV ministry, from local churches, to humanitarian organizations, to health-care and educational institutions.
This disease is taking the heart out of communities around the world—creating orphans, decimating workforces, overwhelming public health facilities, and dramatically reducing life expectancies, said Dr. Allan Handysides, director of health ministries for the Adventist world church.
“We’ve heard a lot about the events of September 11 when more than 6,000 lives were snuffed out in one day here in North America,” said Handysides, who presented the HIV/AIDS proposal. “That dreadful carnage appalls us all because of the deliberateness of the act.”
“But that loss of life is matched every day on the continent of Africa where 5,500, almost an amount equal to the disaster in New York, perish every day.”
“This proposal represents a comprehensive approach—education, prevention, practical compassion for victims, and nurture for those orphaned and widowed,” said Handysides. “But we can’t do everything. We need to be selective in what we take on and use our resources effectively.”
“What is being proposed is that the church shoulders its share, and takes up its role among the many denominations, non-governmental organizations, and international organizations working in this area; to know we are doing our part to show the love of Jesus. It’s when we put our shoulders together that we can make an impact.”
Handysides reminded church administrators that “the Adventist Church is not immune from this scourge.”
“In an environment where 25 percent of the population is infected, your risk of acquiring this disease, through a whole multitude of ways, is very much increased over an environment where infection rates are less than 1 percent,” he pointed out.
“This is a church issue,” affirmed Peter Landless, an associate director of the world church’s health ministries department, and formerly a church pastor in South Africa. “In my local congregation in Johannesburg, members were requesting prayers for their HIV-positive babies, and we were baptizing HIV-positive people.”
Handysides also spoke about the difficulty, even within the church, in agreeing about approaches to HIV education and prevention. “We need to be open and face reality,” he said, referring to disagreements in some regions over whether condom-use should be part of HIV education.
“We’re not saying that condoms are the answer to this problem, they are not,” Handysides told the international group. “It is conduct, not condoms, we want to preach. But where the conduct is less than exemplary, or in fact, where the conduct may be downright promiscuous, a condom, though by no means infallible, may be the only significant option.”*
Handysides quoted from a number of recent studies tracking the level of sexual activity of Adventist adolescents and young people in different regions of the world. The results showed that sexual activity, “though slightly less, tends to mirror that of secular society,” he said.
The example of Jesus’ healing ministry on Earth impels the church to take this step to bolster its response to HIV/AIDS, said Handysides.
Luka Daniel, president of the Adventist Church in the Africa-Indian Ocean region, spoke in strong support of the proposal, saying, “This plan is overdue. I want to support this motion and thank the health ministries for this initiative.”
It is easy for those not living in Africa “to feel a little distanced from the immense suffering caused by HIV/AIDS,” said Pardon Mwansa, president of the Adventist Church in Eastern Africa. “But people are dying,” he said. “When you live and work in that environment, it is something you pray about every day.” Mwansa urged the church to concentrate on practical care for those affected by AIDS.
Every Christian community has a responsibility to seek positive ways to address the HIV/AIDS crisis, said Jan Paulsen, president of Adventist world church, while on a four-day visit to Kenya earlier this year.
“We are committed to being a community of grace, where care and restoration of those affected by AIDS is an evidence of our beliefs,” he said during an April 27 visit with Kenya’s President Daniel Arap Moi.
Members of the church’s executive committee also voted September 27 to appoint an International HIV/AIDS Study Commission that will meet at least once a year to review the church’s coordinated HIV/AIDS effort and to keep the church’s response moving forward.
For an Adventist News Network interview with Dr. Handysides, go to www.adventist.org.
* See the church’s statement on Sexually Transmitted Diseases, at www.adventist.org. Click on “Official Statements.”