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BY JOHN COLEMAN
SPECIAL TO THE UMCONNECTION

Speakers calling for more churches to engage in vital HIV/AIDS ministries recently reminded a gathering of about two dozen United Methodists from Baltimore churches that they live at the epicenter of the ongoing national HIV/AIDS health crisis.

“Maryland has the highest reported AIDS cases in the U.S., preceded only by the Virgin Islands and Washington D.C.,” reported Derek Spencer, who directs the JACQUES Initiative, a partnership of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, the state AIDS Administration and local congregations and community groups. “In Baltimore and surrounding communities, you are not doing relevant ministry if you are not addressing this crisis.”

The Nov. 13 conference, hosted by Grace UMC in Baltimore, occurred just days before former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop called AIDS “the forgotten epidemic.” Speaking at a national HIV/AIDS summit at the National Harbor Nov. 17, Koop urged Americans to end their complacency about AIDS and put the deadly disease back on their radar screens.

Spencer praised Grace’s AIDS Task Force for its 23-year involvement, but said most churches talk infrequently about HIV/AIDS, if at all. “Pastors need to talk about it regularly because that’s when people pay attention and understand its importance.” He said educating people about the illness and responding with ministries may persuade some who suffer with it secretly to come forward and seek help.

Spencer gave an orientation on the disease and cited recent trends in treatment and affected populations, including high rates of infection among heterosexual women and older adults. He stressed the need for churches to help more people get tested, since 25 to 30 percent of people with HIV reportedly do not know they have it.

Linda Bales Todd, of the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Church and Society, also addressed the conference, which was co-sponsored by Grace UMC and the Hope for the City Initiative of the Baltimore-Washington Conference’s Baltimore Region.

“AIDS is a pandemic, a torturing illness that wreaks havoc in the lives of victims and their loved ones,” said Todd, citing a global death toll that exceeds 25 million lives so far. “We in the church have been too silent and complacent in its spread around the world. The church is still too afraid to talk about sexually transmitted diseases.”

Todd spoke of the stigma that ostracizes many victims from their families, churches and communities, a focal point of testimonies and discussion during the denomination’s third Global AIDS Fund convocation, held last month in Dallas, Texas. “Our sisters and brothers are being stigmatized to death.”

Additional Resources

Sisters Together and Reaching, Inc.
UMCOR HIV/AIDS Resources
AIDS in the USA: Basic Statistics (CDC)
Global HIV Data (UNAIDS)
Unite for Children Against AIDS (UNICEF)

The Rev. Debra Hickman, head of Sisters Together and Reaching, Inc. (STAR), also lamented the fear and alienation of people living with HIV/AIDS and the scant attendance she sees at similar educational events.

“Everywhere I go to speak, I find half-filled rooms and people who want to keep their distance,” she said. She suggested ways for people to express more caring for those living with HIV and AIDS — among them, providing transportation to clinics, preparing and serving meals, sharing companionship, and advocating for public policy changes.

STAR operates an array of programs, including support groups and mobile HIV-testing vans that serve Baltimore’s predominantly African-American communities. Several attendees boarded its fully-equipped van in Grace’s parking lot to be tested during the conference.

“This is a problem — one of many — that affects every part of our community and impacts every congregation,” said the Rev. Anthony Hunt, Baltimore Metropolitan District superintendent. “Some of our churches have done tremendous work, but we need to keep raising the consciousness of people to bring about the healing and transformation that are so needed.”

“We don’t have an AIDS ministry at my church, but now I’m convicted,” admitted Ophelia Brown-Carter, who attends New Waverly UMC in Baltimore and serves on the Hope for the City Initiative leadership council. “I will talk with my pastor when I return. We’ve got to try to do something about this crisis.”