Over the past two years, the National Episcopal AIDS Coalition has been studying, researching and debating the components necessary for The Episcopal Church to establish a comprehensive strategy related to HIV and AIDS.
For strategies to be successfully implemented, not only does there have to be clarity and vision as to the steps that follow, there must also be people engaged and willing to carry out those actions.
HIV and AIDS impact most ministries. It impacts us individually if we are engaged in ministries that relate to youth, women, communities of color, gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, questioning, transgendered, elderly, those in prisons, the poor, the homeless, the sick, the downtrodden…..and the list goes on.
In every Diocese and in every Parish, we are faced with issues related to HIV and AIDS. Are we welcoming of our brothers and sisters living with HIV? Are we educated about this disease? Are our young people educated and are we bold enough to discuss it openly and honestly with them? Do we truly respect the dignity of every human being?
Soon, NEAC will publish the result of its work, HIV, Health and Holiness: A Strategy for the Episcopal Church. What I hope for those who read this report is that they review it with an eye toward what they, individually, can do to make the strategy a reality. We, the people, are The Episcopal Church; the strategy related to HIV and AIDS is ours to own.
Lola Thomas serves on the NEAC board in the office of board chair. She became involved in AIDS ministry in 1991 and has served on the Diocese of Atlanta’s Task Force on AIDS ever since. In 1992, she helped institute an AIDS outreach program at her local parish, the Church of the Ascension in Cartersville, Ga., which later became incorporated as a community based non-profit, serving people living with HIV/AIDS. She remains the executive director of this organization, the AIDS Alliance of Northwest Georgia. After serving on the Planning Team for the Province IV Network of AIDS Ministries for many years, she became chair in 2008.
