Church Leaders' Resolution on HIV/AIDS

		CHURCH LEADERS' RESOLUTION ON HIV/AIDS

Resolution from meeting of church leaders convened by
the South African Council of Churches on 11 April 2003,
at the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Houghton

South Africa faces an immense crisis as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Unless we can substantially alter the course of the epidemic, half of our children under the age of 15 yrs will become infected with HIV over the course of their lifetimes.

The main driver of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is high risk sexual behaviour among young people.

Patterns of high risk behaviour have become entrenched through the effects of poverty, family disintegration and loss of human dignity as a result of apartheid.

There is a window of opportunity to reverse the course of the epidemic - but this window is rapidly closing. We have to mobilise now at national level and in local communities if we are to avert national calamity among our young people. If we act now, and act together, we could prevent millions of HIV infections.

Churches have played an important role in reducing the impact of the epidemic - caring for adults and children affected and infected by HIV.

A core mission of the churches is to demonstrate the love of God in the world with the purpose of effecting behaviour change, improving the quality of life and developing a strong sense of common future. Churches have not used this very strength and responsibility to strategic advantage in combating HIV/AIDS.

Churches have not done enough to stop new infection - particularly by active engagement with young people. The traditional teaching and practice of sexuality of the church has failed to assist the youth in dealing with the extraordinary challenges and pressures they face. Churches need to respond by finding effective ways of communicating with young people.

Young people are grappling with ways to reconcile popular youth culture - including exposure to television and other pop icons - with family, church and traditional cultural values. Young people have not abandoned their culture and heritage - rather, they are seeking to shape a future for themselves of which they are proud and which keeps them safe from HIV.

Young people expect honesty from the church - and looking to churches for an honest morality in the face of HIV/AIDS, as opposed to moralistic and judgemental positions.

The church is well placed to hold high values of fidelity, responsibility, and respect. But it needs to be where young people are - grappling with the same issues - rather than be seen to be holding out against perceived erosion of morality.

The crisis is so great and intricate that it requires concerted action and collaboration from even those who hold opposing positions on theological issues, belief and practice.

There is considerable common ground that enables us to develop a concerted and urgent response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

This common ground includes:
- Recognition of the importance of church leadership across all elements of a comprehensive national effort to combat HIV/AIDS, including prevention, promotion of wellness, treatment, care and support.
- Commitment to addressing the underlying drivers of high risk behaviour, including poverty and low education - but also pervasive coercion in relationships, low self-esteem and pessimism, sex for money and other favours, peer pressure, and lack of communication between parents and children.
- Urging parents to become more involved in their children's lives - talking about their dreams and aspirations, HIV/AIDS, relationships, helping them grow a healthy sexual life, dealing with the pressures to have sex, and become empowered to make appropriate sexual decisions consistent with a healthy future.
- Promoting healthy sexuality, underpinned by values of respect, dignity, shared responsibility and love.
- Working to overcome stigma and encourage people to know their HIV status.

This meeting calls on all churches to accept the urgency of the challenge to:
- Act with unprecedented commitment and impact, with the same passion and vigour with which apartheid was fought.
- Acknowledge their failure to communicate an effective message of sexuality.
- Move beyond the negative views of sex and sexuality embedded in much of Christian theology, and move to embracing sex and sexuality as a gift from God.
- Listen to young people in order to learn what their real experience is.
- Prevent our combined efforts from being side-tracked by the diversity of opinion about sex, sexuality and relationships.
- Make young people feel that they belong to the church.
- Make the engagement relevant to the lives of young people.
- Tackle the underlying determinants of high-risk behaviour in promoting a healthy lifestyle for young people.
- Ensure that debate about sexual practice recognises both individual choice and contextual realities.
- Recognize that prevailing culture and attitudes have created an environment of coercive sex for young girls.
- Encourage parents to talk openly with their children about their lives, sexuality and relationships.
- Talk about the HIV/AIDS epidemic, relationships, sex and sexuality from the pulpit and in other forums.
- Challenge parents to adopt the same positive lifestyles and healthy attitudes to sexuality that they expect of young people.
- Listen to the needs and issues of people living with AIDS, and involve them in communicating with young people and other parishioners.
- Seek support from youth-focused organizations, including loveLife affiliated centres and volunteers, and other available resources in meeting this challenge.
- Participate in national campaigns and efforts with which churches feel able to identify, in extending national efforts into local communities.

11 April 2003

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