INSIDE: Jerusalem Physician ANERELA+

AIDS Project and priest: goes global

Jon Fuller

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AIDS 2006:

FA IT H
in
ACTION
A choir sings during the multifaith service at the Cathedral Church of St. James.

History tells us
Faith groups unite in cathedral celebration of other similar
of hope and compassion by Diana Gee-Silverman impacts on the
A Muslim call to prayer resonated through representing the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, human race.
the downtown Toronto church, blending with urged those gathered to never give up.
the voices of a Christian choir in a multifaith
Our only hope
celebration at the Anglican Cathedral Church Members of a Lutheran youth group carried was in turning to
of St. James, Aug. 15. The service was a high banners down the aisle, which read Access
point in a week of encounters among members to treatment for all in English, French
our faith.
Pandit Roopnauth Sharma,
of faith-based organizations attending the and Spanish. The banners, created by an Canadian Council of Hindus
International AIDS Conference. international ecumenical advocacy group
formed for this conference, have been carried Issue no. 5
Aug. 17, 2006
Representatives of five faith communities, in a number of marches at the International
Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and AIDS Conference. Daily news and views on religious
Christian, packed the cathedral for an responses to HIV and AIDS
interfaith observance under the theme The cathedral is hosting an exhibition of at the 16th International AIDS
Celebrating Hope and Compassion. the Keiskamma Altarpiece. Created by Conference, Toronto, Canada. For
more information and articles visit
120 women from a village in South Africas www.e-alliance.ch/iac_2006.jsp
We all come united by one common theme Eastern Cape as a way of commemorating
and that theme is the enormity of human lives lost to AIDS, the altarpiece depicts
suffering, Dean Douglas Stoute of St. James themes of hope and redemption from the
Cathedral told them. So we come to pray. Christian Gospels worked in embroidery,
beadwork and black and white photographs.
Rabbi Roy Tanenbaum told a story from the
Talmud to illustrate radical compassion for Having the service centered around
the sick. He called for a personal connection the altarpiece is
with people living with AIDS, to touch and probably the most
to recognize individual worth. powerful statement
of hope over
Pandit Roopnauth Sharma, of the Canadian despair, said
Council of Hindus, prayed in Hindi and James Cairns,
English for Gods compassion and the coordinator of the
strength to be courageous. Stan Middlestadt, multifaith service.
HIV and AIDS workplace programs important for faith-based organizations
by Elly Wamari
Humanitarian agencies around the
world work diligently to improve the
lives of people affected by HIV and
AIDS, but a critical group is often
overlooked the organizations own
staff members.
We want the churches and related
organizations to get assistance in
working out a proper policy where
people living with HIV and AIDS
will be treated in a just manner,
said Dr. Manoj Kurian, program
executive for health and healing, World
Council of Churches (WCC), Geneva,
Switzerland.
The WCC partnered with positive
peoples networks to offer a workplace
policy on HIV and AIDS that can serve
as a guide for churches and other faith-
based organizations.
Dr. Inon Schenker
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Catholic Relief Services (CRS) dis-
cussed its recently formalized guide-
lines during a poster presentation
Tuesday at the International AIDS
Conference.
The CRS Workplace Policy on HIV
and AIDS formalizes employees rights
and workplace responsibilities related
to HIV and AIDS, and its rooted in the
agencys sense of Christian justice and
its belief in a just workplace.
In 2004, with input from programs
around the world, CRS began a compre-
hensive review of the needs of HIV-posi-
tive employees. Within a year the agency
created a framework to ensure that em-
ployees have access to information about
the disease, benefits if they fall sick, and
a healthy, supportive and nondiscrimina-
tory work environment.
Jerusalem AIDS Project:
Crossing religious traditions by Diana Gee-Silverman
Celebrating its 20-year anniversary
next year, the Jerusalem AIDS Project,
like the city for which it was named,
serves Christians, Muslims and Jews.
The community-based non-govern-
mental organization works in education
and teacher training with public and re-
ligious schools serving three faiths.
The secular program is flexible enough
to reach religious boys and girls of all
three traditions, young people who all
their lives receive only one message on
family values, and give them a wider
view of the world, said founding chair,
Dr. Inon Schenker. Within the realm
of Judaism, you bring modernity. (The
students) should not be ignorant of the
world they live in.
The project supports faith leaders in edu-
cating their own communities on HIV
and AIDS and involves leaders in the
Our program is very much a
participatory approach. It is not about
someone in the human resource
department sitting down and writing
a policy for everyone else. It is about
us sitting down and talking about our
issues, challenges and the policies and
procedures that can be put in place to
ensure that this is a just workplace,
says Jennifer Munthali, coordinator,
CRS Workplace Program on HIV and
AIDS, Baltimore, USA.
CRS decided to implement the policy
slowly, ensuring that administrators
could closely monitor the process and
its challenges. The agency expected
10 countries to participate in the first
year, but within six months programs
in 20 countries had signed on from
Southern Africa to Latin America.
three faith groups to come up with ac-
ceptable schemes for teacher training,
Schenker says. It distributes materials
from other organizations, such as the
Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance and UN-
AIDS. Educators can adapt the materials
to be sensitive to their faith traditions.
Its prevention models have been adopted
in 27 countries in Latin America, Asia,
Africa and Eastern Europe. Thanks
largely to the work of the project, the Is-
raeli Ministry of Education has included
teaching about the World AIDS Cam-
paign in its official education policy.
Schenker attributes much of the projects
success in a politically tense environ-
ment to its non-patronizing approach
and by not having an agenda other than
HIV prevention. Its hard work, and a
lot of knocking on doors in a sensitive
way not with aggression, he says.
The call of St. Ignatius reached priest and
physician Jon Fuller by Marla Pierson Lester
Nurses in the AIDS ward told Fuller
how priests, likely feeling they had a
responsibility to restate the churchs
teachings, had been so harsh they left
patients in tears. Fuller contacted
priests from Jesuit schools in the area,
finding volunteers willing to listen and
to provide more gentle care.
The work he began as a resident be-
came the call of the next two decades
of his life striving to care for those
living with HIV and AIDS and work-
ing to help the church in its approach to
the epidemic.
CHECK
IT
OUT
Interfaith prayer room
Thursday
Pentecostal worship; 9:00
Islamic prayers (Salat); 13:20 and 17:15
Buddhist meditation; 10:15
Roman Catholic mass; 12:15
Protestant worship; 15:45
Friday
Pentecostal Worship; 9:00
Buddhist meditation; 10:15
Room open; 8:00-13:00

I had been assigned to come into North Building, Room 103A

Dr. Jon Fuller
Following St. Ignatius call to see God
in all things and go where the need
is greatest, the Jesuit priest, Dr. Jon
Fuller, found himself in the forefront
of caring for HIV patients in the 1980s
with a unique approach that combined
science and the church.
Fuller, whose medical studies were
funded by the Jesuits, recalls that dur-
ing his 1982 interview for a residency at
San Francisco General Hospital, USA,
the disease that came to be known as
AIDS was not mentioned.
By the time I arrived as an intern in
June 1983, it had exploded. A week af-
ter I arrived, the hospital opened the first
inpatient AIDS unit in the world, said
Fuller, who has devoted his career to
studying the disease and the related ethi-
cal, theological and pastoral care issues.
medicine and find a niche there that
was compatible with this St. Ignatius
vision of finding God in all things, Joint faith-based exhibit
said Fuller, now an associate professor Thurs. Aug. 17; 10:15-18:30
at Boston University School of Medi- Exhibit area A, Booth number 475
cine and attending physician at Boston
Medical Centers Center for Infectious
Diseases. I can think of no better Multifaith networking zone
place to try to focus my energies both Thurs. Aug. 17; 8:30-20:30
from the scientific perspective and the Fri. Aug. 18; 8:30-12:00
spiritual.
Global Village, just inside the entrance
Fuller, who helped organize the Na-
tional Catholic AIDS Network in the
late 1980s, is now examining issues of Faith-based caucus
Time for prayer, reflection and sharing
condoms, needle exchanges and access
Thurs. Aug. 17; 21:00
to care from the lens of Catholic moral
theology. Room 100, International Living and
Learning Centre, Ryerson University;
In some ways, Jesuit beliefs, with an Sixth floor common room, New College
emphasis on serving the greatest need
and encouraging people to use their

In 1983, physicians did not know what

caused the disease or how it spread.
There was neither a test for HIV nor an
established treatment. And it was a pas-
toral challenge to the faith community.
best gifts to serve the community, set a
natural stage to bridge the often-sepa-
rate worlds of science and faith.

My tradition would say if science and

faith appear to be at a disjuncture, we
havent gone far enough in our under-
standing of whats to be learned from
each of the disciplines, he said. We
have to explore more or understand
better and find the place where there is
a connection.
Living my faith Living with HIV
(ANERELA+)
Thurs. Aug. 17; 16:15-17:45

Global Village, Session Hall 1

Evaluation and debriefing session

Open to all people related to faith-
based organizations
Thurs. Aug. 17 19:00

Room 810, Level 800, South Building

Page 3
Members of ANERELA+ announce plans for a global network.
African network goes global
by Elly Wamari
Responding to the growing interest expressed by individuals
around the globe, the African Network of Religious Leaders
Living with or Personally Affected by HIV and AIDS
(ANERELA+) has proposed going global and establishing an
international network for support, education and advocacy.
Canon Gideon Byamugisha, who co-founded ANERELA+
in 2002, says the International Network of Religious Leaders
Living with or Personally Affected by HIV and AIDS
(INERELA+) will continue the vision of the African network.
ANERELA+, he stated Aug. 16 in a news conference during
the International AIDS Conference in Toronto, was founded
to mobilize people who, after breaking their self-stigma
and denial, could be very important resource persons in the
movement against HIV and AIDS.
ANERELA+ currently has more than 1,500 members.
Patricia Sawo, regional coordinator of the East Africa
ANERELA+, says one of the important achievements of the
network is that it has realized solidarity in HIV and AIDS
across faiths.
Regina Molokomme, national coordinator of the South
African chapter of ANERELA+ and a Bahai, says, since
ANERELA+ was begun, she has noticed a decrease in
judgmental attitudes that has led to a more inclusive church
that is accommodating and non-discriminating.
Ecumenical Advocacy
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Rev. Christo Greyling, World Vision International, noted
that ANERELA+ is frequently approached about expanding
the network, and quickly listed more than a dozen countries,
from Canada to Brazil, the UK to Thailand, in which people
have started to say that they needed to be part of a network
similar to ANERELA+. Greyling, who is also vice-chair
of ANERELA+, noted that a core value of the new network
will be to provide support to affected religious leaders,
and continue to fight stigma and discrimination that is still
visible in many parts of the world.
Parts of North America, for example, according to Rev.
James Matarazzo Jr. of the United Church of Christ, USA,
still experience very visible elements of stigma affecting the
few religious leaders who have come out in the open about
being HIV positive.
Rev. Phumzile Zondi-Mabizela, chief executive officer of
the KwaZulu Natal Council of Churches in South Africa,
credits the support she received through ANERELA+ for
giving her the courage to take up her position, noting that
it is not very common for women living with HIV to be
religious leaders. She says that an international network
will strengthen ANERELA+s focus on gender inclusivity.
The support from women in other countries will strengthen
and further develop the work.
Views expressed in this bulletin are not necessarily those of the
Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance.
Produced by the Ecumenical Media Team, media@e-alliance.ch, Mobile: 1.416.825.2256
Photos, stories, audio and video available for free use with attribution at
www.e-alliance.ch/iac_2006.jsp.
The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance is a broad international network of churches and
Christian organizations cooperating in advocacy on global trade and HIV and AIDS.
Back cover photo Jedrzej Chelminski/EAA, remaining photos Melissa Engle/EAA
Interfaith AIDS ribbon logo donated by Andy Marino / Marinodesign LLC