Between Memory and Hope | World AIDS Day

Chris Read, my high school friend, high school crush. In chorus, in the school musicals. He called me often, mostly because I was good at understanding the Chemistry homework.

He was the first AIDS death in Vermont, where we lived. It was a secret in those days, in part because even those dying and their doctors didn't know exactly what was going on. And in part because we were afraid and let our fear keep us separate from each other.

I lived in the DC area at the time and I made a commitment to read every obituary in the gay papers. It quickly became a task that took a tremendous amount of time.

Who did you lose?

-Liz

Dying Church

Some people, when they say the church is dying, are talking about membership, about income, about individual congregations closing.

But for me the important question is not membership size or budget, but about impact. How is an individual congregation, or the church as a whole, making a difference to real people's lives in their local neighborhood and in the world. The crusading church was dying when it sent armies to kill strangers in the name of Jesus. The church was dying when it joined in with the colonial impulses in each newly "discovered" location. The church in the United States was dying when it split over slavery rather than taking a stand for righteousness. The church in Europe was dying when it failed to stand up to Nazism and against the death camps. The church was dying when it failed to be present and welcoming to those who were living with AIDS.

The dying church today is the one that is not risking it's life for their neighbors.

I just listened to Between Memory and Hope: Queer Legacies and the Living Story of HIV/AIDS, a collaboration of Episcopal Divinity School and The LGBTQ Religious Archives Network. Canon Ted Karpf told about accepting a person with AIDS into his church and having 120 people leave in response. That church, with lower numbers of members, was by definition a thriving church. Thriving with good news, with righteousness, with care of the stranger. The large majority that turned their backs were dying churches.

How do we keep from being part of a dying church? Dr. Pernessa Seele's advice: just get started. Do something. Take a stand. Be a voice for justice, for righteousness, for compassion. In the AIDS epidemic this simply meant to providing decent care to people who were suffering and dying. The church was called simply to be present with people in pain, and for the most part, we failed to do that.

The webinar offered six fundamental values for "Decent Care:" agency, dignity, interdependence, solidarity, subsidiarity, and sustainability. Churches can use these to guide our work on the challenges our neighbors are facing.

Agency is the ability for people to make their own decisions about their lives. We start our ministry by asking people in need what it is they want. We treat each person with dignity. We recognize that there is not them and us, but that our lives are interdependent; caring for our neighbor is caring for ourselves. We do this work in solidarity; acting with not on or to others. Subsidiarity means that we act as close to home as we can, looking for people in need in our neighborhood, in our town, somewhere nearby. And we look for solutions that are sustainable--using our energy wisely, our finances wisely, something else wisely.

We have many opportunities to provide decent care in this age. Are we ready to take on at least one of them? Are we willing to risk the life of our congregation in order to be fully alive?

Will your church live? I'd love to hear! Reply to this email to let me know what's happening. ​
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I normally aim for quick resources here, but this 1 hour discussion of AIDS in the past, and now, and the church/faith story connections was very moving. I hope you have time to watch.

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World AIDS day is not about the memory of what happened but rather about what is happening today with AIDS throughout the world. Despite the availability of life-saving medications, people are dying.

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