October 1997

Call to Prayer Calls Us to Hope

The Most Reverend Edmond Lee Browning, Presiding Bishop, issued his 12th Call to Prayer Concerning AIDS on October 15. The Call to Prayer is framed within the theme: “Give Children Hope in a World with AIDS.” The theme can be used throughout 1997-98.

There has been a call to prayer issued by the Presiding Bishop every year since 1983. From 1988-93, the day of prayer was set aside as the second Sunday in October. However, the Standing Liturgical Commission of the Episcopal Church recommended that such special days be held by each parish, mission, diocese, or province, rather than as a national day.
Presiding Bishop’s Call to Prayer About HIV/AIDS

Dear Sisters and Brothers:

The Most Reverend Edmond Lee BrowningIn this last year of my term as Presiding Bishop, I call upon you to observe a time of prayer for people living with HIV/AIDS. Throughout the next year, I urge you to observe a day of prayer in keeping with the theme: “Give children hope in a world with AIDS.” As children of God called by Christ to be agents of reconciliation and hope, this theme reminds us that as much as we need hope, we are called to be instruments of hope.

While our hope is found in God, who alone can make the blind see and the lame walk, we know that we are to be the first fruits of that hope in the places where we live and in the ways we live. We share a common destiny with our sisters and brothers around the world, and can never forget that until there is a cure and until we teach and practice prevention as matter of course, we cannot submit to faintheartedness, distraction, disinterest, or any difficulty.

There is still the fact that this disease can be prevented if only we answer the challenge and educate our children by giving them lifesaving AIDS prevention information, and educating them in the Christian values of love, wholeness, self-respect, and acceptance. For our negligence we seek forgiveness.

There is still the fact that resources committed to meet the challenges of this disease are not enough to support the world of need. There is still the fact that some communities are more deeply affected than others because of historic prejudice and limited access to medical assistance and support. There is still the fact that we sometimes act as if all persons were not equally worthy of our compassion. For these sins we seek repentance.

Throughout these years as your Presiding Bishop, I have been repeatedly touched by the heroic acts of courage and faith exhibited by those living with AIDS and those caring for them. “Our Church Has AIDS,” has been our clarion call which has freed us to be the people we were called to be, serving Christ in all people.

Our General Conventions have repeatedly remembered each of these communities of care by name and their faithfulness and compassion. Let us not forget them either. We have held ourselves accountable as a Church to answer the call of Christ in the midst of AIDS. We have committed ourselves to hope. We have found our faith renewed.

Our hope is seen in our churches which have openly welcomed into the kinship of the Church people living with and affected by AIDS as beloved children of God. Hope is also incarnate in our many ministries of hope and healing offered across this land and around the world through community-based agencies and services, as well as church-based programs of support. Our hope in the future is maintained through our active participation in prevention efforts which follow sound public health policy and the mandates of our Church.

Therefore, I ask each of you to re-commit yourself and re-double your efforts to end and prevent the further spread of this scourge, to continue to extend yourselves in care and compassion, and to remain prayerful in our witness and service. And above all, remember those who have died and those who remember them, that their lives leave us with a legacy of hope and courage.

Faithfully yours,

The Most Reverend Edmond Lee Browning
Presiding Bishop - The Episcopal Church