October 1997

General Convention: HIV/AIDS Commission to Continue

PHILADELPHIA, PA — July 17: Resolution A045: Continuation of the Commission on HIV/AIDS was unanimously approved by the House of Bishop in concurrence with the House of Deputies. The resolution is an official action of the General Convention.

The resolution asked that the Commission on HIV/AIDS be continued for the 1998-2000 Triennium due to the expanding and changing HIV pandemic.

Resolution A045: Continuation of the Commission on HIV/AIDS

Resolved, That the Commission on HIV/AIDS be continued for the 1998-2000 Triennium due to the expanding and changing HIV pandemic and its effects on individuals, the Church, and the

World, and be it further Resolved, That the following amounts be included in the budget of Executive Council for support of the Commission on HIV/AIDS:

$12,500 for 1998

$12,500 for 1999

$12,500 for 2000

$37,500 for the Triennium

In testifying on behalf of the resolution, representatives of NEAC’s board of directors spoke of the Commission’s success as a mechanism for getting information about HIV/AIDS programs and ministries to the Episcopal Church’s governing bodies and as a linkage to Executive Council. “The Episcopal Church has taken inter-denominational leadership in AIDS ministry,” the Rev. Ted Karpf, NEAC’s executive director, testified. “Continuing the Commission ensures that this Church’s leadership will continue.”

The Commission’s most important work in the next Triennium will focus on the link between racism and the spread of HIV/AIDS. The Commission will undertake a three-year process of listening to communities of color that will generate concrete programmatic resolutions to be brought before the General Convention in 2000.