I remember a sermon, preached by a physician, at the Cathedral Church of St. John in Wilmington, Delaware in the 1980's. By that time the Cathedral was holding an annual HIV/AIDS memorial day and Evensong. The physician said that the virus has been around for centuries, probably millenia. The miracle is that it didn't become epidemic among humans until a time when it was possible to identify it and find treatments for it. Since that sermon, the treatments have been developed that can extend life of those with HIV/AIDS.
However, we are forgetting. It is still here. It is still global. Yesterday, during our church's annual fundraiser luncheon for the school we sponsor in Waterloo, Sierra Leone, the poet who was part of the program included a poem on the "blue stick". In African countries it is used to diagnose HIV/AIDS. The point poignantly draws us to listen to a woman who is monogamous and yet is infected because, in a patriarchal society, she has no choice about having intercourse with her spouse or whether that intercourse is protected sex or not.
On this week of the 30th anniversary of the recognition of HIV/AIDS, please pray. And if there is something you can do, do it.
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