International Lutherans Counsel ELCA In Developing HIV And AIDS Strategy

Discrimination and stigma, poverty and hunger, distribution of medicine and access to health care are critical issues to consider in addressing the HIV and AIDS pandemic, according to Lutherans from Africa, Asia, Europe, South America and the United States.

In an effort to inform and advise members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) as the church develops an HIV and AIDS strategy, some Lutherans from around the world were invited here Sept. 10 to share with ELCA churchwide staff their experiences in HIV and AIDS work.

The center of the church's action is not on the virus but on the person, not on the disease but in the discrimination, said the Rev. Lisandro Orlov, a pastor of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Argentina (Iglesia Evangelica Luterana Unida), Buenos Aires. read more