-
N E W S   R E L E A S E
Los Angeles, CA -- Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC)
For Immediate Release

Reports & News From World AIDS Day 2002

Index:
1.  World AIDS Day Reflection by Rev. Jim Mitulski
2.  AP News Article Mentions MCC San Francisco, Rev. Penny Nixon
3.  AIDS Day Report from Rev. Elder Darlene Garner in South Africa
4.  Join the MCC HIV/AIDS Listserv; Share Your Church's Stories

1.  World AIDS Day Reflection
     by Rev. Jim Mitulski

As the sun set among the redwood trees in this tiny town on the Russian River, a few hours north of San Francisco, three congregations gathered in the Oddfellows Hall in the center of Guerneville for an ecumenical prayer service in observance of World AIDS Day.  

What does it take to bring Catholics, Protestants and members of the gay community together in a setting like this?

-- The experience of having lived with HIV/AIDS for twenty-one years.
-- The palpable grief that fills our bodies and our spirits from past and
    even current losses.
-- The need to connect with other people who understand that AIDS is not over.
-- The desire to pray.

There we were -- about 35 -- not bad for a village of 2000 souls. We did not need to be told that AIDS is not just an urban disease. We were elderly surviving parents, nurses and social workers, caregivers, straight women and lesbians who had lost their gay male best friends, children who remembered gay uncles who died of a disease that made their families uncomfortable to talk about, gay men who had lost their husbands and friends, and several gay men who are surviving and thriving despite the disease. We came together to pray and to remember.

The congregations don't normally pray together: St. Phillips Roman Catholic Church in nearby Occidental, the Community Church of Guerneville, a congregation of the United Church of Christ, and the Metropolitan Community Church of the Redwood Empire, a primarily gay and lesbian congregation that meets every Sunday in the Oddfellows Hall.

As we entered the hall, we saw a huge rainbow flag behind a makeshift altar. The altar was simply decorated with a  bare iron cross flanked by four lit candles, and dozens of tiny unlit vigil lights. The musician played Christmas carols on the synthesizer. Coffee and cookies and cakes were laid out for afterwards.

We sang songs of peace, "Gonna Lay Down My Burden," "Down by the Riverside," and "Let There Be Peace on Earth." Pastor Brian from the UCC Church sang "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" and prayed in the name of Jesus. Fr. Rod, who is also the director of the National Catholic AIDS Network, recounted how Catholics in the midst of AIDS often felt like motherless children, abandoned by church and family. He gave out holy cards with an icon of the Virgin Mary especially designed for people with AIDS, and we read the prayer to her on the back of the card. I invoked the Goddess of healing and compassion, and the congregation invoked the four directions, facing in turn, East, then South, then West, then North.

Then we shared memories of people who have died of AIDS. Some told funny stories, some told sad stories.

Erin got up and gracefully said, "I want to remember all of my gay male friends who have died of AIDS." Then, slowly and thoughtfully she recited about a dozen names, as if she were leafing through  a photo album, recalling them. No stories  were necessary, just her careful naming, the inventory of her  heart, was evocative enough. Gabriel, a self-described pagan, told of his friend's decision to end his life when his quality of life had deteriorated, how his friend and his friends lover made love one last time outdoors, and how the lover held his  beloved after he had taken pills and slipped from this life to the next. These are painful stories to hear, truthful stories, and they need to be told.

Many mourned the loss of talent the world experienced by the untimely deaths of musicians and artists. Some expressed anger, others sadness. I realized that we have these stories in us still, and that we must find ways from tie to time to tell them, and to retell them, for our own healing, and in honor of our loved ones. An hour quickly passed with the telling of these stories -- and many were left unexpressed, but in this sanctuary, it was a safe place at least to remember.

The MCC choir sang a modern Christmas carol "Who would think that what was needed  to transform and save the earth, might not be a plan or army proud in purpose, proved in worth? Who would think despite derision, that a child should lead the way? God surprises earth with heaven, coming here on Christmas Day." Vickey and Carol sang "Amazing Grace."

Fr. Rod challenged the Church to stop stigmatizing people with HIV. Pastor Brian passionately condemned the economic system that provides medical care and medications to privileged people with AIDS in North America and Werstern Europe, while millions in Africa, Asia and Latin America went without treatment.

I recounted my own testimony of how people touching me and praying with me brought me comfort and healing seven years ago when AIDS brought me to the brink of death and I was able to breathe only with a respirator. I exhorted people to work for universal health care as a basic human right.

Though we could not share the Eucharist together because of our different faith traditions, we gathered silently at the altar while Gabriel played the harp, and found communion with each other and with those we mourned as we lit the many vigil lights in memory of our dead. One light remained unlit as we returned to our seats. Michael, whose lover had died just three months ago, approached the altar, and lit the remaining candle: this is the image I think I will never forget, a big strapping handsome bear of a man standing at the altar, crying silently, alone and yet surrounded by all of us, a private moment shared in community.

I have attended many World AIDS Day observances, countless candlelight marches, mostly in large cities. Seldom have I been moved as I was this year  in a small town on the Russian River. AIDS is not over. If it ended tomorrow, which it won't, I realized we who have lived through it and with it will still be marked with it the rest of our lives. I experienced the healing power of prayer in the Oddfellows Hall, so aptly named. I was transformed by the power of unlikely community. We couldn't fix it -- but I felt like we survivors did something profound yesterday simply by praying together.

2.  Associated Press Article Mentions
     MCC San Francisco, Rev. Penny Nixon

Activists, celebrities, religious leaders
gather at U.S. events recognizing World AIDS Day
By JEAN ORTIZ

12/02/2002
Associated Press Newswires (EXCERPTS)
Copyright 2002. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - More than 2,300 people gathered to listen to Irish rocker Bono, even though he wasn't in town to sing.

The U2 lead singer appeared in Lincoln on Sunday to urge Americans to do what they can to help stop the spread of AIDS in Africa, headlining one of the many events held around the nation to mark World AIDS Day.

"It's not about charity. It's about justice and equality," Bono said. "I'm not here to lecture, and even though it's Sunday I'm not here to preach."

Bono has called on Americans to try to persuade their lawmakers to increase funding for the fight against AIDS in Africa. He also wants the American government to forgive the debts of African nations so money can be used to battle the disease.

In New York, the HIV + Sinikithemba Choir, composed of HIV-positive South Africans, marked World Aids Day by singing in Zulu and English on a Harlem church altar.

"To have AIDS is a stigma and we are trying to help people share the information and to accept their illness," said choir member Ntombi Mbuthu, 39, a mother of three children, all of whom have tested negative for the disease.

Mbuthu, who gets medicine through her work as a clinic counselor, is the only one of the 21 traveling choir members who is undergoing treatment for HIV. The others are too poor.

Former President Clinton, in an opinion column published Sunday in The New York Times, urged governments to do more to bring treatment to the developing world.

"Given that medicine can turn AIDS from a death sentence into a chronic illness and reduce mother-to-child transmission, our withholding of treatment will appear to future historians as medieval, like bloodletting," Clinton wrote.

About 1 million Americans are infected with HIV, which causes AIDS. Worldwide, there are 42 million HIV positive people, with sub-Saharan Africa home to 75 percent of them, according to UNAIDS, the U.N.'s AIDS agency.

President Bush, in his World AIDS Day proclamation, praised groups that are working to combat AIDS and help the people who suffer from it. He noted that his administration is seeking increases in spending for domestic and international AIDS programs.

In San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, about 250 people, many wearing red ribbons and some carrying flowers, attended a quiet ceremony Sunday in the National AIDS Memorial Grove.

Singer Jaqui Naylor performed a song written for World AIDS Day and the Rev. G. Penny Nixon (left) of the Metropolitan Community Church spoke about working toward a cure for the disease.

"The theme of World AIDS Day is live and let live, but I want to have a different theme for a moment. I want to talk about hope," Nixon told the crowd. "It is more important than ever that we feed the hope."

3.  AIDS Day Report from Rev. Elder Darlene Garner
     in South Africa

I was the keynote speaker at a World AIDS Day Interfaith Service sponsored by the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. Their Director of Events occasionally attends Good Hope MCC and invited me a year ago after he heard me preach at Good Hope MCC on World AIDS Day 2001.

Co-sponsors and key participants included the Premier of the Province of the Western Cape, Planned Parenthood Association of South Africa, the Waterfront Rotary Club, Somerset Hospital (the oldest hospital in the Western Cape and the first to admit PLWAs), Joy for Life (an AIDS respite/hospice care facility in Cape Town), and the South African Navy.

People of faith were represented by a Buddhist monk (a woman who leads the largest Buddhist temple in the Southern hemisphere), the head of the Muslim Judicial Council, a Hindu, two African traditional healers, and a Jewish rabbi; I represented the face and voice of Christianity.

The event was held in the outdoor amphitheater and was attended by over 1500 people. The service began with the arrival of torchbearers who had run over 50 km from the Naval Station to the Waterfront bearing the Flame of Hope. Their arrival was accompanied by trumpet heralds from the South African Navy Band. Then there was a presentation of the SA Naval AIDS Memorial Wreath.

Following the service, there was a candlelight procession to a waiting barge. The procession was led by a bagpiper playing "Amazing Grace." The religious leaders, the director of nursing at Somerset Hospital, and the Navy Admiral boarded the barge and tossed the wreath into the sea as an act of dedication.

The theme of my presentation was "AIDS: Active Individuals Doing Something."  The audience was in shock when I spoke about the impact that AIDS has had on MCC and expressed awe when I told them about all of the ways that our churches have been ministering with compassion to people affected by AIDS.

After the service, the Buddhist monk donated wheelchairs to Good Hope MCC, Joy for Life, and Somerset Hospital.

This morning [Monday AM], I happened to hear a radio announcer actually using my phrase to encourage people in South Africa to get educated about AIDS and to become involved in providing care to people affected by HIV.

Peace,
Rev. Elder Darlene Garner

4.  Join The MCC HIV/AIDS Listserv;
     Share Your Church's Stories

This is a YahooGroup specifically for people involved with MCC and who want to share information regarding HIV/AIDS. This group was co-created by Rev. Jim Mitulski and Bill Gallimore.

We encourage your to share stories about your church's World AIDS Day events and services with the entire MCC Fellowship by posting them on this list.

Here are some important MCC HIV Group E-mail Addresses:

-Post a message:  UFMCCHIV@yahoogroups.com     
-Subscribe:            UFMCCHIV-subscribe@yahoogroups.com    
-Unsubscribe:      UFMCCHIV-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com    
-E-mail to list owner: UFMCCHIV-owner@yahoogroups.com

To learn more about the MCC HIV Group, please visit: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ufmcchiv

Information on MCC is available at http://www.mccchurch.org/ .
You may register online for a free MCC e-mail newsletter: click here