IHM: World AIDS Day 2010

World AIDS Day 2010 - Resources

Prayer Service to Mark World AIDS Day 2010 - IHM AIDS Committee.

Because the number of AIDS cases is increasing in Detroit, in the U.S. and throughout the world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, a focus on prevention is more imperative now than ever before. Margaret Farley RSM, has written an excellent essay on this topic entitled, "Prophetic Discourse in a Time of AIDS." The IHM HIV/AIDS Committee believes this is a "must read!" We invite you to read and reflect on Farley's essay and share it with others. A short description of the essay follows:

Essay #1 - Prophetic Discourse in a Time of AIDS
By Margaret Farley RSM, Ph.D.
(from the book HIV Prevention: A Global Theological Conversation)

In this compelling essay, Farley argues that "because HIV and AIDS prevention must ultimately address some of the most profound issues in human life and experience, there is inevitably the need and potential for it to be prophetic." She proposes these changes be addressed using Prophetic Discourse, a process that aims to change hearts by the power of its message.

Regarding the content of prophetic discourse, Farley notes:
1.     As modeled by the Old Testament prophets, who began addressing situations with the articulation of their own and other peoples' grief, so prophetic discourse also begins in grief.

2.     The work of preventing HIV and AIDS crosses borders, and has become multicultural and interfaith. The same must be true of prophetic discourse.

3.     Although aspects of AIDS prevention are controversial, prophetic discourse invites the response of religious traditions and leaders to go deeper and focus on the requirements of justice, compassion and truth in sexual relationships.

Finally, Farley challenges us to become a "world church" in addressing AIDS and to bear each others' burdens in love. If the Church has AIDS, then no Christian is spared the devastation - or the responsibility to offer hope and to energize themselves and others to act.