Doctor, Theologian Team Up to Address AIDS in India

A renewed friendship and mutual concern over the barely-acknowledged HIV/AIDS crisis in India has prompted a United Methodist theology professor and an Indian medical doctor to call upon the church for action.

The results, so far, have been well-attended workshops at two theological colleges and plans for the distribution of information and the involvement of church leaders in the issue, according to the Rev. Don Messer (left), president emeritus and Henry White Warren Professor of Practical Theology at Iliff School of Theology in Denver.

Still, the sexual nature of the HIV/AIDS crisis makes it a difficult subject in a country where sex is rarely a matter of public discussion. "Because sex is involved, the church is simply tongue-tied while people are dying around them," Messer said.

Messer's own experience with India began about 40 years ago, when he attended Madras Christian College for a year. He became friends with a fellow student, N.M. Samuel, whose father was a pastor in the Church of South India. They lost contact for more than 30 years, until Messer tracked him down on a return trip to Madras a few years ago.

Samuel, a medical doctor who had devoted his life to caring for people with leprosy, decided to focus on the new plague and was leading the fight in south India against HIV/AIDS. But he was concerned that the church was not involved in this battle in the same way it had been for leprosy victims. Or, as Samuel told Messer, "If only the bite of a mosquito caused HIV/AIDS, then the Christian community would be in the global forefront of the struggle for prevention and care."

With a mutual commitment to remedy the situation, the Iliff professor journeyed to India to speak at two international conferences on HIV/AIDS organized by Samuel at Madras University. But their goagoal was to focus more specifically on the Christian community in India. So two workshops were set: a Feb. 16-17 event at United Theological College, a prominent ecumenical seminary in Bangalore, and a Feb. 21-22 event at Leonard Theological College, a Methodist school based in Jabalpur.

Samuel, along with the Forum for Christian Concern for AIDS in India, did the groundwork with the colleges in India while Messer obtained a $30,000 grant from the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, a sponsoring body, and organized the U.S. team for the workshops. Other sponsors included Park Hill United Methodist Church in Denver, where Messer serves as the interim senior pastor, and the International Christian AIDS Network.

Besides Messer and his wife, Bonnie, a certified psychologist, the U.S. team included Bishop Fritz and Etta Mae Mutti of Topeka, Kan., who lost two sons to AIDS; Betty Gittens, an executive with the Board of Global Ministries; the Rev. Paul Murphy, a retired United Methodist pastor, and his wife, Paula, who has a doctorate in counseling and teaches human sexuality at the University of Denver; and Dean Woodward, a member of Park Hill who has been involved in public health policies in the state of Colorado. Another team member in India was Ashok Pillai, a well-known, 35-year-old Madras musician who has publicly declared he is HIV-positive.

In a sermon at Park Hill just before the trip, Messer noted that although the destruction from India's recent earthquake has been well-documented, a "silent earthquake" of HIV/AIDS has claimed anywhere from 4 million to 20 million lives.

"It is a shattering of lives and communities that is not yet really recognized, but will have serious repercussions in the lives of individuals and throughout the society," he said. "It has the potential of spreading like wildfire across the nation, attacking not just one segment of society, but men, women and children."

The Bangalore workshop, which included a message from Bishop S.V. Sampathkumar of the Methodist Church in India, attracted 140 participants representing a diverse community and ecumenical base. Because HIV/AIDS is a matter of increasing concern in the area, "the faculty agreed they were going to do continuing work" on the issue, according to Messer.

In Jabalpur, the 130 participants at Leonard mainly included students and staff. "They not only endorsed the project, but stopped all classes for two days," he added. "They are beginning to realize that they have a crisis that is escalating and they need help."

At the workshops, Messer described the need for "compassionate Christian companions" to deal with the crisis. He defined such companions as reaching out in prevention and care; speaking for justice in the distribution of the world's medical resources; upgrading the social, economic, cultural and spiritual status of women; and discovering new levels of empathy and care.

Messer and Samuel are working to arrange publications for the Indian church that will deal with theological questions, pastoral concerns and prevention information on HIV/AIDS, and they will try to involve more church leadership in the work.

March 19, 2001

How to Help