HIV is No Curse- it is just a virus.

HIV is No Curse, No Moral Condition - it is just a virus.

HIV-POSITIVE AFRICAN CLERGY URGE HIV TESTING

Publicizing HIV Status To Fight Stigma

A group of HIV-positive African clergy members is urging people to undergo HIV testing and make their HIV status public in order to help fight the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS on the continent.

The African Network for Religious Leaders Living With or Personally Affected by HIV/AIDS (ANERELA), which was established in 2002 to encourage openness about HIV/AIDS, recently held a conference in Nairobi, Kenya, to allow clergy to share their experiences of HIV/AIDS-related discrimination and use their influence to fight the spread of the virus.

"HIV is a virus, it's not a moral condition," Father Jape Heath, an Anglican Vicar and a senior official with ANERELA, said, adding, "What we're encouraging people to do is to know their HIV status and to know there's no concept of sin attached to HIV."

Zambian Muslim Cleric, Sheikh Ali Banda, said a lack of education about HIV/AIDS and many cultural practices put people at risk of contracting the virus:

"As religious leaders, we should understand that it's not a curse, not everyone that is HIV-positive is promiscuous, not everyone who is HIV-positive is sexually immoral," Banda said. About 25 million HIV-positive people live in Africa.

Kaiser Network 24/Jun/05

 

Launch of INERELA+
Positive interfaith in Action
2007-01-31

Prior to the year 2000 there were only two religious leaders living openly as HIV+ on the African Continent; the one was Ds Christo Greyling , a Dutch Reformed minister living and working in South Africa; the other, Revd. Gideon Byamugisha, an Anglican Priest from Uganda. Both were working independently of the other, desperately trying to make some inroads into the reality of HIV and AIDS that was not so slowly tearing the heart out of Africa. In response to a call from the Primates of the Anglican Communion in April 2001 Archbishop Ngongonkulu Ndungane of South Africa drew together Anglicans from across Africa for an August meeting held in Boksburg in South Africa – “The All African Anglican Consultation on HIV and AIDS”.

 

What the Archbishop could not possibly have known was that as a direct result of that meeting three Anglican priests got together: Revd. Gideon Byamugisha, who spoke at the opening ceremony about being a priest living openly with HIV; Revd. Francis Karemera, a Rwandan priest who lost his wife to AIDS-related illnesses on their wedding night; and Revd. Japé Heath, a priest in the diocese of Johannesburg. At that meeting, dreams were dreamed of just having one retreat for priests and pastors across the African continent who were living with HIV. That simple dream has grown into so much more! Instead of having just one retreat a network of support was formed in November 2002 not only for Christians but for religious leaders of all faiths.

 

How is it possible that we are speaking about religious leaders being HIV positive? I remember speaking to an Anglican in Durban at one stage where she was saying that in their parish they absolutely insisted on having an unmarried priest – why? – because they could not cope with the fact that the night before saying mass “Father” might have been lying in bed having sex with his wife! While many may find this a really strange way of looking at the priesthood it is never the less true that religious leaders are seen as bastions of moral living. Where HIV and AIDS are regarded as synonymous with immorality, it is virtually impossible for religious leaders living with HIV to be open about their HIV status. Remarkably, ANERELA+ not only targets religious leaders living with HIV, but seeks to empower them to live openly with their HIV status. In this, common understandings about HIV are challenged and we can finally move to a position in which we will simply be able to say; “HIV is a virus – not a moral condition!”

 

The past four years have been filled with building capacity, giving hope, initiating country-based networks, kick-starting congregational responses, developing messages and engaging in massive advocacy work. From a network which was run on a part time basis from a church house in one of the less desirable suburbs of Johannesburg, ANERELA+ has grown to a continental support structure with eleven country-based networks, and more than 1600 members from the Christian, Muslim, Baha’i, Hindu and African Indigenous religions. ANERELA+ currently receives funds from faith-related charities like Christian AID, ICCO, Church of Sweden, NCA and Bread for the World as well as Government-based agencies like SIDA and USAID. In addition to this, regional NGOs like Southern African AIDS Trust (SAT) also support the work of ANERELA+. We have partnered closely with World Council of Churches (WCC), Churches United Against HIV and AIDS in Africa (CUAHA), Tearfund, World Vision, Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) and worked closely with both GNP+ (Global Network of People living with AIDS) and ICW (International Community of Women living with HIV and AIDS).

 

Why has ANERELA+ been able to generate this level of interest and funding? There are many answers to this question, but probably the two most pertinent are firstly that there has NEVER before been anything like ANERELA+ and secondly that ANERELA+ is a network filled with the most amazing people, people who have embraced positive living to such a remarkable extent that their messages of hope go far beyond HIV and AIDS. Faith communities have traditionally been somewhat reticent to embrace on an equal footing people living with HIV. Much of this has flowed from the initial moralisation of the pandemic by which people living with HIV were judged to be sexual sinners. “AIDS is God’s punishment for sin” has been the mantra bandied about mercilessly for more than two decades. Into this environment which in and of itself caused so much stigma, discrimination and pain, stepped ANERELA+ which is a network of the very people who were giving negative messages but who now preach inclusion, acceptance, hope and above all God’s unfailing and never-ending love. This unique approach has signalled a turnaround within the faith community.

 

Many wonderful people have over the past few years joined ANERELA+. Positive stories of religious leaders who have changed from walking corpses to heralds of hope have been recorded. Every year for the past few years as we approached World AIDS Day requests for speakers have flooded in from all over the world. The more remarkable thing is that the pool of people we can call on to fill these slots is ever-growing and with it the messages of hope going far and wide in a world that seems filled with too much despair. The genesis of this unique network has been different in one other way – today people from across the globe are looking to Africa as part of the solution when it comes to HIV and AIDS, not only seeing us as the ones who need to be guided, helped and supported. ANERELA+ has now formally launched “INERELA+” (International Network of Religious Leaders Living with or Personally affected by HIV and AIDS). In the years to come this light which first burned on African soil will spread across the world to bring hope to people living with HIV. HIV is something you can live with, NOT something you have to die from.

 

The Revd. JP Heath


 

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