ELCA Presiding Bishop's Statement for World AIDS Day 2006

Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise.
On December 1, World AIDS Day, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) joins with millions of people in hundreds of countries to take up this theme. Through our support of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), we are part of a global commitment to stop AIDS by 2015.

Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise.
Churches and faith communities are an essential part of the solution because people of faith play a critical and important role in stopping AIDS in this generation. Religious leaders are keeping the promise by making public and specific commitments, promises that are reflected not only in our leadership, rhetoric, advocacy, and vulnerability, but also in our budgets and priority decisions.

What promises? Religious leaders and faith communities must commit to:

• Involve people living with HIV and AIDS, especially women and youth, in all dimensions of our work
• Protect the human rights of people living with HIV or AIDS
• Raise awareness that HIV and AIDS are not "out there," but impact and affect faith communities themselves
• Provide public leadership and hold each other publicly accountable for a comprehensive response that includes providing direct human services, engaging in community organizing, shaping public policy, and calling for corporate social responsibility

What does "keeping the promise" mean for religious leaders? It means:

• Acknowledging and repenting of our failures and fears
• Being transparent about what we have done or not done to keep these promises
• Reflecting our commitments in what we teach in our seminaries, schools, colleges and universities, and lay training centers
• Listening to and learning from people who are living with and affected by HIV and AIDS
• Holding others, including governments, accountable for their promises which means committing ourselves to learning and teaching

Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise.
Our promises as Christian religious leaders are grounded in our faith in God, who is steadfast in love, constant in mercy, and persistent in justice, and in Jesus Christ, who is God's promise of faithfulness in human flesh. We are called to follow Jesus as disciples, to stand in solidarity with those whom society deems to be marginalized, to offer healing to those who are vulnerable, and to lay down our lives in love for our neighbor.

Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise.

The Rev. Mark S. Hanson
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

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