November 2001

Executive Council HIV/AIDS Committee Sets Agenda

“What do we want to tell the church?” the Executive Council HIV/AIDS Committee asked itself at its October meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Committee chose to be “that which reports the Truth about the Pandemic.” Among the facts that need to be drummed into the church:

  • We still have AIDS.
  • Good people are getting tired.
  • The numbers of those who die daily are still large.
  • Although many more people are living with AIDS, the disease makes huge demands on their lives.
  • Minority AIDS volunteers have not come forward as gays did in the early days.
  • Viagra has brought more sexual activity to seniors, but also more AIDS.
  • Government funding has fallen off.
  • So has private funding.
  • Being poor or living in a rural area and having AIDS is particularly painful.
  • In the Episcopal Church, many Diocesan AIDS Commissions have gone out of business for lack of support from the bishops.
  • This ministry needs more visibility, in the Church and beyond.

The Committee consists of the Rt. Rev. Rodney Michel and the Rev. Richard Brewer, co-chairs, the Rev. Billy Allford, the Rev. Gordon Chastain, Bruce Garner, Lyn Headley-Moore, Mary Ellen Honsaker, Elizabethe Payne, and the Rev. Valerie Thomas. The first thing the group will do is to collect and circulate their own resumes to assess areas of expertise that can be offered to other ministries within the church, such as Peace and Justice, Youth, and Migration as well as the ministries for women and minority groups. The Committee will also explore ways to work more closely with Episcopal Relief and Development, integrating its concerns into theirs.

The committee shares a laugh during a meal break.

The committee shares a laugh during a meal break.

Instead of holding hearings on a specific topic, as the Committee did in the last Triennium on Racism and AIDS, the concern will be with gathering data, observations, and case studies and disseminating as much information as possible. One immediate effort will be to compile information on how AIDS ministries can get funding, and where. A second will be to disseminate the new Sunday School materials that are now ready for production.

The Committee plans to have its report ready for discussion by the meeting scheduled for Austin in 2002 (during the NEAC conference on New Directions).

NEAC members are invited to send relevant information, case studies, and recommendations for resources to neac@neac.org or NEAC, 520 Clinton Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11238-2211.