October 1997

General Convention: AIDS and Racism Program Adopted

PHILADELPHIA, PA — July 26: After sitting on the House of Bishops’ legislative calendar for over a week, Resolution A046: AIDS and Racism was approved by the Church’s House of Bishops in its last legislative session.

Resolution A046 asks that the Commission on HIV/AIDS, in conjunction with NEAC, convene consultations with communities of color on the impact of HIV/AIDS in their communities and the role of racism in AIDS.

Resolution A046: Program for the National Church: AIDS and Racism

Resolved, That the Episcopal Church Center, in collaboration with the Commission on HIV/AIDS and the National Episcopal AIDS Coalition convene consultations during the Triennium to (1)examine in depth the impact of HIV/AIDS in communities of color, (2) clarify the role of racism in AIDS among these communities, and (3) identify specific actions which Episcopalians in communities of color and in the majority community must take in response to HIV/AIDS; and be it further Resolved, That the sum of $40,000 be appropriated for the conduct of these consultations and distribution of the results of their work.

Although the resolution was passed by the House of Deputies on the second legislative day and forwarded immediately to the House of Bishops, it was misplaced in the flood of legislation until late on the ninth day when NEAC staff tracked the resolution with the House of Bishops’ Secretariat and determined that it had been inadvertently skipped on the calendar. Because the House of Bishops concurred with the Deputies’ action the resolution is therefore an official action of General Convention.

The Rt. Rev. Richard Shimpfky, chair of the Committee on National and International Problems, apologized to the House for the delay and stated that the committee recommended concurrence. He also informed the House that the work of the resolution would be carried out by the Commission on HIV/AIDS and the “the work is funded.”

Speaking in favor of the resolution before the House of Deputies, Jesse Milan, Jr., NEAC’s president and a deputy from Pennsylvania, spoke of the tremendous negative impact HIV/AIDS has on communities of color. Milan cited the statistic that 70% of those infected with HIV/AIDS in Philadelphia are black or Latino. Promising new drug therapies that prolong the lives of people with HIV are “less available for persons who are living with Medicaid and who are under-insured than those persons who have Blue Cross-Blue Shield or an HMO,” said Milan.

“The Latino community is the most impacted of all communities in this country, proportionally, with regard to HIV.” He urged adoption of the resolution so that “we can spend the next Triennium following the leadership of the Episcopal Church in the issue of AIDS, and specifically addressing the question of racism as it is impacting on health care, and particularly on this disease.”

The single objection came from Dr. David Galaty, deputy from the Diocese of Fond du Lac, who for the second day in a row questioned the Church’s specific commitment to HIV/AIDS ministry. “I was told [yesterday] that the Episcopal Church has decided to specialize in AIDS. There are lots of diseases that are devastating for people; there are lots of diseases that have racist implications, that are more heavily involved with those in poverty. We are proposing to appropriate $37,000 for the Standing Commission on Health; yesterday we vote to appropriate $37,000 for the Commission on AIDS; now we’re going to do another $40,000. I would be happy to support this if it involved illness in general, but I think that we’re making a mistake if we specialize this heavily on AIDS and don’t deal with all of the other health problems in the country.”