Where Love Thrives
CENTENNIAL, Colo. –The continuing global HIV and AIDS pandemic often is overlooked amid today’s global COVID-19 crisis. But AIDS continues to flourish globally and six organizations committed to HIV ministries are presenting a worship service to observe virtually World AIDS Sunday on Dec. 5 at 8:00 pm (EST) with the theme of “Where Love Thrives.”
Some 40 million people around the world are living with HIV; 1.5 million were infected last year; and an estimated 700 million have died of AIDS. No HIV cure or vaccine exists, and most of those globally who are HIV positive have no access to COVID vaccines. The risk of dying from COVID-19 is double for persons living with HIV.
Rev. Dr. Valerie Jackson, senior pastor of Cameron United Methodist Church, Denver, is spearheading the joint observance sponsored by the Center for Health and Hope, Mountain Sky United Methodist Conference, Reconciling Ministries Network, Tucson Interfaith HIV and AIDS Network, United Methodist Association of Retired Clergy, and the United Methodist Global AIDS Committee.
“Where love thrives, compassion and action are evident,” says Dr. Jackson. “Our speakers exhibit those traits of justice. They include a person living with HIV in the USA, parents in Missouri who lost two sons to the pandemic, an AIDS orphan who became a social worker and now supervises 361 Kenya AIDS orphans, a pioneer AIDS activist who became a United Methodist Bishop and a Filipino couple who have led church educational efforts about HIV in the Philippines.”
The worship service will be premiered on Dec. 5th 8 pm EST | 6 pm MT | 5 pm PT on the Mountain Sky Conference Facebook Page. Gifts from individual and church sponsors can be sent to Center for Health and Hope, 7185 South Niagara Circle, Centennial, CO 80112 or by credit card links at www.centerforhealthandhope.org
Funds raised will help sponsor 361 AIDS orphans for a year in Kenya at $200 each. A community-based Methodist Church of Kenya outreach, the children live with aged grandparents or guardians. They have no opportunity to receive COVID vaccines, since less than 3% of people in Africa have received even one dose.
Program participants will include Rev. Dr. Sunny Farley, Tyler, Texas; Gloria Gitonga, Meru, Kenya; Bishop Fritz and Etta Mae Mutti, Kansas City Missouri; Bishop Karen Oliveto, Denver, Colorado; Bishop Peter and Joyce Torio, Baguio City, Philippines; and George Vissichelli, Tucson, Arizona. Other church leaders will provide music and share in the liturgy.
The Rev. Dr. Donald Messer, a retired United Methodist elder, serves as executive director for the Center for Health and Hope.