Archbishop of Canterbury on 'You Tube' with a Message for World Aids Day

28/11/07

The Archbishop of Canterbury's Message for World Aids Day

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has said that churches
need to be brave, imaginative and honest in the fight against the spread
of HIV and Aids.

In a message for World Aids Day [Saturday 1st December], issued for the
first time as a video available on the internet, Dr Williams said
churches are actively engaged in the global response to HIV and
described as 'a scandal' the limited access to drugs and treatment in
deprived parts of the world.

"It is important that we do not allow ourselves to be paralysed by this
challenge; people do not have to die - drugs and treatment are available
- the scandal is that access is so often limited and it is hard to see
where justice lies in the way resources are sometimes distributed."

Governments, he said, needed to be challenged to work effectively with
faith-based organisations and he praised projects being run in Africa
and elsewhere in which organisations like Tearfund and Christian Aid are
using the churches' capacity to raise awareness, challenge stigma,
promote education and deliver care to those affected by HIV.

But he also called for the church to be honest about its own failures in
language and practice in relation to HIV, saying there was no room for
complacency:

"The churches have not always challenged as they should the stigma that
is attached to HIV and Aids in many countries. They have failed to say
that those living with HIV and Aids are God's beloved children, with
dignity, liberty and freedom. What is owed to them is what is owed to
any human being made in God's image, and the more we are trapped by
thoughts and images about stigma, the less we shall be able to respond
effectively."

Further information about the work of Tearfund with the global church
can be found at: www.tearfund.org

The video can be seen on Youtube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMKHUSyyf94

The full text of the message:

A Message for World Aids Day:

"Today is world aids day. Over the last two decades a great deal has
been done and still is being done to combat the threat posed by HIV
Aids. And it's crucially important that Christian people and people of
faith everywhere should respond clearly and bravely to what this
challenge represents.

Over the last twenty years I have encountered HIV and aids in many
forms. I've encountered it in the death of a friend; I've encountered it
sitting by a lonely bedside in South Wales waiting for someone to die. I
think also, though, of a day spent with carers and counsellors and
people living with HIV in London, where the courage and the even the joy
of the group was very much in evidence. And I think of the wonderful
work being done by someone like Gideon Byamugisha in Uganda in his
hospice - someone who was courageous enough to be the first priest in
the whole of Africa to go public about his experience of living with
HIV.

Twenty years ago perhaps few of us would have imagined how many of the
human race would now be familiar in this way with the problems posed by
HIV and Aids, how very near so many people would feel to this threat.
But a great deal has been done and still is being done to deal with this
and to respond adequately to it. Much of that response throughout the
world has been generated by and is being put into action by faith
communities including the Christian church. So the churches are out
there, already engaging, bravely and imaginatively with this work. But
what more might they be doing? What more is there for all of us to do as
believers?

We can begin by looking at some of the failures in the churches'
response, about which we have to be honest. The churches have not always
challenged as they should the stigma that is attached to HIV and Aids in
many countries. They have failed to say that those living with HIV and
Aids are God's beloved children, with dignity, liberty and freedom. What
is owed to them is what is owed to any human being made in God's image,
and the more we are trapped by thoughts and images about stigma, the
less we shall be able to respond effectively. So the church has nothing
to be complacent about. We have to acknowledge that there are aspects of
our language and our practice that have certainly made the struggle
against HIV and Aids any easier.

And yet we have the vision, we have the energy, the willingness to play
our part in tackling this. In the democratic republic of Congo, the
Anglican church is responsible, very much through the agency of the
Mothers' Union, in running a very comprehensive service that deals with
those suffering or likely to suffer from HIV and Aids. It extends from
the care of children in the womb to dealing with women and children who
are the subjects of sexual violence and it involves a comprehensive
educational programme. It's perhaps in raising awareness in education
that the churches' universal reach in African society that is of most
importance. Few if any other organisations can come anywhere near that
universal capacity.

Elsewhere Christian Aid and Tearfund are working with the Anglican
Churches in Africa. Tearfund works with nine of the Anglican Provinces
on the continent and all of that represents just the small part of the
work done worldwide by Christian and other faith organisations. Indeed
it's true to say that one fifth of the worldwide provision for education
and care in relation to HIV and Aids is provided by faith-based
organisations. It's therefore all the more important for government to
recognise that this is so and to be able to work more effectively with
these agencies. Faith communities are willing to provide help; their
hearts are touched, their energies are awakened by the crisis; at the
same time in societies that are already suffering from various kinds of
deprivation and disadvantage, this places immense burdens on local
communities and it's of the greatest importance that they should be
given the capacity to make these challenges adequately. Here is a
challenge that we must all keep putting before our governments; are they
able to work effectively with faith-based agencies in combating HIV and
Aids?

It is important that we do not allow ourselves to be paralysed by this
challenge; people do not have to die - drugs and treatment are available
- the scandal is that access is so often limited and it is hard to see
where justice lies in the way resources are sometimes distributed.

This too is a moral and a spiritual challenge for the church. It is a
spiritual challenge because finally we have to remember that this is not
about them and us. Twenty years ago a brave and outspoken Christian
commentator observed that 'the body of Christ is HIV positive'. A
startling, perhaps a shocking statement, but a reminder that this is not
about 'them and us'; the suffering and the privation of any part of the
body is everybody's issue and the suffering and privation by extension
of any part of the human family is everybody's issue. It is in
recognising that that we find our deepest most lasting motivation for
responding creatively and lovingly to this challenge.

For more information about HIV and the Anglican Communion go to:
http://hivaids.anglicancommunion.org/

or http://aid.anglicancommunion.org/

Christian Aid can be found at:
http://www.christianaid.org.uk