The time has come for urgent and practical involvement in the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic, Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders told delegates at the first regional workshop on the issue held here last week.
The time has come for urgent and practical involvement in the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic, Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders told delegates at the first regional workshop on the issue held here last week.
The meeting, sponsored by the church’s Southern Africa-Indian Ocean region, drew experts from around the continent and overseas, as well as denominational leaders from 11 other Christian churches. All speakers agreed that Christian churches—including the Adventist Church—have been late in responding to the crisis.
Pardon Mwansa, president of the Adventist Church in the region, said the meeting was organized because of the staggering number of HIV/AIDS cases in sub-Saharan Africa. Experts say the region is home to 70 percent to 80 percent of worldwide HIV/AIDS cases, or some 28 million of the 40 million infected persons around the world.
Mwansa believes the church is not immune to those statistics and is in real danger. “Unless the HIV [pandemic] is addressed, there will be no workers to work in our congregations. There will be no church members to pastor. There will be no people to lead. Some of us here will be dead,” Mwansa said in his opening address.
Although there are no statistics available on the number of Adventist members that are infected with HIV/AIDS, at least four countries in southern Africa—Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Lesotho—have nearly one-third of their population living with HIV/AIDS.
Attendees praised the open nature of the meetings in which Adventist church members living with HIV/AIDS spoke publicly—many for the first time—about living with the disease and the stigma they often face in their own churches.
Some attendees raised questions of the safety of touching and being near people infected with the AIDS virus. Experts believe that education is the first step in dealing with fear and stigma, which have kept some church members from reaching out to people with HIV/AIDS.
Dr. Peter Landless, associate health director for the Adventist world church, said, “I’ve heard talk at this conference which has staggered me. Some of the HIV patients say, ‘Well maybe some of the people would feel better if gloves were worn during footwashing.’ I find this staggering because it’s time the gloves came off in the fight with AIDS.”
According to experts at the conference, AIDS is a scourge that is killing millions of people around the world, including thousands of Adventists.
“I have buried people who have died of HIV—church members. There are pastors that are HIV positive, that I know of, and I counsel with,” said Mwansa. “This is not something far from us. This is something that we’re dealing with.”
Jona Adams, an Adventist member from Harare, spoke of having to deal with “judgmental and discriminating” church members. He said he hoped that this meeting would lead to greater acceptance of Adventist church members living with HIV/AIDS.
Charles Sandefur, president of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, said that church leaders were touched by the presence of Adams and other Adventist members with HIV/AIDS. “That changes the whole mood and conversation. It makes this whole workshop experiential and not just informational.”
Experts and leaders from other churches praised the Adventist Church for this initiative, which they saw as a significant step towards a more practical role in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Dr. Arthur Ammann, president of Global Strategies for HIV Prevention in San Rafael, California, said the church was making a bold statement by holding this conference.
“It’s incredible—as far as I know this is the first denomination that has addressed it as a denomination,” said Dr. Ammann. “There have been individual churches that have talked about what to do with AIDS, but I don’t know about any gathering where the church officials have so openly had people with HIV/AIDS talking about the issues and listening.”
Dr. Ammann says that the Adventist Church could be an example to other denominations and have a big impact around the world.
Delegates called on the Adventist Church to continue the work it has been performing around the world. The world church formed the AIDS Study Committee in October 2000 to decide what it could do in response to the crisis.
In response to the challenge, the church recently opened the Office of HIV/AIDS Ministry in Johannesburg, South Africa. The new office, headed by Dr. Oscar Giordano, focuses on care and vocational training for AIDS orphans and widows, treatment for those infected, and a widespread education and prevention effort in churches, schools and communities.
Adventist world church president Jan Paulsen said, in an earlier interview with ANN, that if he has one regret regarding the church’s response to HIV/AIDS, it is that an overarching, coordinated approach has come so late in the day. It is a mistake for anyone to assume that this is “not an Adventist problem,” he added. “As one of our leaders in Africa said, it would be difficult to find one Adventist family in Africa that has not been impacted by AIDS.”
Pastor Mwanza hopes that church leaders and members do not rest satisfied with the opening of the HIV/AIDS office or the relative success of this workshop. Although he praises the efforts of the world church headquarters, he added, “having an office is not making a difference. Having a meeting is not making a difference.”
“So we would ask the question: After this meeting will it be much better for a pregnant mother whose child is supposed to be HIV [positive] when that child is born—will we make a difference to that mother?” said Mwanza. “That is what I hope will be used as a basis for us to judge the success of our programs.”