July 20, 2012

CHICAGO – The presiding bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Episcopal Church welcome the 20,000 people traveling from 200 countries to the United States for the 2012 International AIDS Conference taking place July 22-27 in Washington, D.C.

In a letter to participants, ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson and Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori commended the Obama administration for lifting the travel constraints "that for more than two decades prevented HIV-positive persons, including Lutherans and Anglicans, and all others living with HIV or AIDS, from traveling to the United States."

They wrote that it is faith-based advocates who played a key role in facilitating this change. A group of members of The Lutheran World Federation will attend the conference. The ELCA is the federation's only church member from the United States.

"AIDS 2012 can be a defining moment for the history of engagement with HIV and AIDS. Promising new scientific advances and global investments now make it possible to turn the tide on HIV and AIDS, with new hope for a cure and the end of AIDS within our reach," the presiding bishops wrote.

"Yet the pandemic is far from over," they wrote, since 34 million people around the world are living with HIV or AIDS and infection rates are growing in many parts of the world. Each year 50,000 new cases of HIV infection are reported in the United States alone.

"HIV infection is part and parcel of the harmful cycles of poverty, which include homelessness, malnutrition, sexual violence, and incarceration," the leaders wrote.

"Vulnerable populations, including low-income communities, ethnic minorities, adolescents and youth, girls and women, sex workers, injected drug users, and men who have sex with men continue to face higher rates of infection and often have less access to affordable, life-sustaining treatments. This makes them even more susceptible to the debilitating effects of poverty," they wrote.

Hanson and Schori urge the United States to continue its effort "to turn the tide on this pandemic. Our government must redouble efforts and strengthen funding for strong, comprehensive HIV and AIDS programs."

They said such programs include the global President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and domestic programs that provide affordable access to antiretroviral treatments, palliative care, health services, nutritious foods, HIV testing and counseling, and harm-reduction programs for drug users.

"God also calls us, as members of the global body of Christ, to serve those who are suffering with HIV and AIDS with respect, support, and compassion," Hanson and Schori wrote.

"Our churches must work to shatter the silence, stigma, and discrimination that perpetuate the invisibility of HIV-positive Lutherans and Episcopalians in our denominations, and continue to push them into the shadows of their own congregations," they said, adding that they will join in "unflagging work toward effective prevention, treatment, and care for all living with HIV or AIDS, tailored to the unique needs, culture, ethnicity, and identity of any given group.

"We praise God for this global opportunity to turn the tide on AIDS – in our pews and our communities, in our denominations and in our state governments, in our Lutheran and Anglican global church bodies and with our interfaith partners – that the body of Christ may, within our lifetimes, be HIV-free," Hanson and Schori wrote.

The ELCA and the Episcopal Church have been full communion partners since 1999. The relationship allows both churches to keep their autonomy and structures yet work together in mission, witness and the interchangeability of members and clergy.

ELCA News Service