World AIDS Day devotional reflections

Five World AIDS Day Devotionals

Written by the Rev. Dr. Sandra Bochonok

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Devotional # 1 World AIDS Day 1999 and the labyrinth

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." Matthew 5:4

From time to time, I have been invited to facilitate labyrinth walks for specific events with churches, community centers, retreat centers, conferences and special days of awareness such as World AIDS Day.

The labyrinth offers safe space for each walker to reflect, pray and meditate. I have seen individuals overwhelmed with life, experience deep moments of inner strength and peace while walking the labyrinth.

I clearly remember my first invitation to provide the labyrinth on World AIDS Day through the local county health department. A nearby Episcopal Church offered us their sanctuary free of charge along with ample votive candles to bathe the indoor labyrinth with their soft lights. Soft, classical and yoga music filled the air as people stopped by and walked the labyrinth in loving memory of those with HIV/AIDS.

My particular labyrinth canvas has a small circular area to place an optional centering object to assist walkers in their meditations. I had chosen a number of teddy bears for this spot, for many children and young people are affected by the AIDS pandemic/epidemic. One walker actually picked up and cradled a teddy bear in her arms while she slowly walked the path.

Many people take a moment to prepare for their labyrinth walk. It helps them gather their thoughts and feelings. As the evening progressed, I noticed a number of older women walking the labyrinth. Most quietly arrived alone but obviously recognized friends at the event. Some hugged each other and cried, for they belonged to the local support group of grieving parents who had lost children to the dread disease.

The labyrinth is a safe place to cry both alone and with friends. Please honor your body and spirit. Those tears are healing.

Prayer: Loving Labyrinth Presence, comfort all who mourn today. Amen.

Selected recommended labyrinth websites:
The Labyrinth Society (www.labyrinthsociety.org)
Geomancy (www.geomancy.org)
Labyrinth Enterprises (www.labyrinth-enterprises.com)
Grace Cathedral (www.gracecom.org)

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Devotional # 2 World AIDS Day 2000 and "Just the Facts."

Once again the local county health department invited me to facilitate another labyrinth walk on December 1st. This year’s theme is strikingly simple. "Remember. Remind. Renew." World AIDS Day aims to increase awareness of the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS epidemic globally and in the USA.

The USA has actually declared AIDS to be a national security threat. In my local county, 164 people have been diagnosed and reported with AIDS. 95 of them have died. On December 1,2000, even the White House dims its lights in the evening as a visual demonstration to signify the commitment to fight the AIDS global epidemic and give tribute to people living with HIV/AIDS and to those who have died from AIDS. One hundred ninety-one countries around the world are observing this day to draw attention to the AIDS epidemic.

It seemed to me and the local Unitarian minister that last year’s event was incomplete without an interfaith service honoring and remembering those living and who have died from HIV/AIDS. So we volunteered to provide the interfaith service and the local county health department was delighted. Once again the nearby Episcopal Church generously offered us their sanctuary to lay the labyrinth without cost while providing votive candles to provide their soft, flickering lights around the canvas. And our local newspapers included an attractive press release about the event.

It seemed important to include a reading titled: "Did you know? Just the facts on current HIV/AIDS Statistics." I’d like to share these with you for your walking meditation today.

According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, as at the end of 1999, the following trends of the worldwide epidemic (pandemic) of HIV are evident:

Today 33.6 million people are estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS. 32.4 million are adults. 14.8 million are women and 1.2 million are children under 15. This means that one in every 100 adults aged 15-49 worldwide is infected.

An estimated 16.3 million people have died from AIDS since the epidemic began. 12.7 million were adults including 6.2 million women. 3.6 million were children under 15.

During 1999, HIV-associated illnesses caused the deaths of an estimated 2.6 million people, including 1.1 million women and 470,000 children under the age 15.

7,000 young people aged 10-24 are infected with HIV every day. Five young people are infected with HIV every minute. AIDS-related illnesses are the sixth leading cause of death among 15-24 year olds in the United States.

HIV is increasingly affecting women. Approximately 46% of the 32.4 million adults living with HIV/AIDS worldwide are women.

The overwhelming majority of people with HIV-some 95% of the global total-now live in the developing world. Most of these do not know they have HIV.

By the end of 1999, the epidemic had left behind a cumulative total of 11.2 million AIDS orphans, defined as those having lost their mother before the age of 15. Many of these maternal orphans have also lost their father.

By the year 2020 there will be over 40 million orphans under the age of 15 in 23 countries highly affected by HIV/AIDS. Most of these children will have lost their parents to AIDS.

There are 250 million working children under the age of 18. At least one-third are performing dangerous work such as bonded labor, commercial sex work, and domestic service which violates their rights to health and development and makes them particularly vulnerable to HIV infection. Young people who are commercially sexually exploited have little or no power to negotiate safer sex.

AIDS is wiping the gains made in life expectancy in many countries.

In 1998, AIDS dropped into second place among leading causes of death in the United States for the first time since 1992. The 1996 introduction of combination therapies has slowed the progression of the disease. However, in many countries, HIV remains the leading cause of death. In some places, it accounts for 90% of the adult deaths.

Prayer: God of comfort and hope, hear our prayers for a cure and help all suffering from HIV/AIDS. Amen.

Selected website for learning resource:
World Health Organization (http://www.who.int/hiv)
Global HIV/AIDS & STD Surveillance for statistics and information.

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Devotional # 3 World AIDS Day 2000 Multi-faith Labyrinth Service

"Wisdom cries out in the street…" Proverbs 1:20a

Labyrinth love and wisdom can be a blessing. For our multi-faith labyrinth service honoring and remembering those affected by HIV/AIDS, we chose a short candle lighting litany. God’s light is generous to all. Never, ever underestimate the power of a single flame of hope. Soft candlelight is a universal symbol we can all learn wisdom from.

Our litany was chosen from an amazing variety of Internet free resources and we gratefully chose one from UFMCC.COM. Perhaps this litany will be useful for whatever your own wellness and health needs may be. Feel free to insert the name(s) of your own specific disease that affect your very life, while praying for a cure and others who suffer as you.

Litany:

One: We light this candle to remember those who have lost their battle with AIDS. We light this candle to honor those who bravely face the on-going challenges of HIV infection.

All: We light this candle to bless those who care for People Living with HIV/AIDS. We light this candle to express on-going hope for a cure. We light this candle to remind us all that HIV is still around, and until it is defeated, we will continue to work and hope and pray.

Prayer: Amen.

Another suggested website: The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (http://www.unaids.org/)
Information is available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

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Devotional # 4 Worlds AIDS Day 2000: Beloved musings

While preparing the labyrinth World AIDS Day service, my interfaith ministerial colleague and I had a remarkable conversation while in the planning stages. She and her church had been active during the past several years in HIV/AIDS memorials and had thoughtfully prepared a short form for parishioners to offer names of loved ones and friends who had died of the disease. It was tastefully and sensitively done.

She asked that I revise the form a bit for our particular service. I brought it home and walked my yard labyrinth in the brisk, autumn afternoon. I listened to the wind and the birds. I kicked through fallen leaves and noticed the flowers had withered and died. Autumn has a particular beauty that I love. I love the dormancy and promise of new life under the surface of the earth, among the bulbs planted with next spring in mind.

While lingering in the labyrinth, I found myself changing the naming form for our service by including the word, "beloved." During our next planning meeting, my colleague asked me why I changed the wording. I shared with her that in my pastoral experience, many grieving families are actually afraid and ashamed to openly grieve the loss of their beloved friends and family members when it comes to AIDS. I felt it was important and even essential to honor all beloved relationships without apologies in safe places such as our interfaith memorial service.

We then decided to use a Tibetan prayer bowl during the naming part of our interfaith service. The soft "gong" following each name would provide a universally respected call to prayer. Good grief is dramatically enhanced when we can name our loved ones and remember our relationships with them.

Overt and covert homophobia often deny and suppress our honest grief. Over the years of my ministry, I remember family after family apologizing through their tears to their comforters because their loved one died of AIDS. I also remember hearing judgmental clergy preaching hell, fire and brimstone with eternal damnation for those who died of AIDS. Dying of AIDS is nothing to be ashamed of. What is shameful is the hostile bias and judgmental prejudice so many homophobic people express towards those struggling with AIDS.

And so it was decided that I should be the person to offer the loving and compassionate pastoral homily for this particular interfaith service.

We finally chose for our community prayer of response, after reading the names of those who had died of AIDS, an adapted meditation by the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh. Perhaps this could be our common prayer for today.

Prayer: "Let us be at peace with our bodies and our minds. Let us return to ourselves and become wholly ourselves. Let us be aware of the source of being, common to us all and to all living things. Evoking the presence of the great Compassion, let us fill our hearts with our own compassion-towards ourselves and towards all living beings. Let us pray that we ourselves cease to be the cause of suffering to each other. With humility, with awareness of the existence of life, and of the sufferings that are going on around us, let us practice the establishment of peace in our hearts and on earth. Amen."

A helpful website with useful resources:
UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) (http://www.unicef.org)
Children Youth & AIDS multimedia exhibition shows impact of HIV/AIDS on children and youth, serving as an educational forum on AIDS awareness and prevention. Site in French, Spanish and English.

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Devotional # 5 World AIDS Day 2000: Be safe and well.

Always remember that AIDS affects us all and is no respecter of sexual orientation, gender, culture, economic status or religious preference. We must continue to remind others that it is not "just a gay disease." So renew your dedication to honor the beloved lives and memories of those you know and love who have struggled with AIDS, while working for a cure.

Perhaps we could join in this litany of unity for our final World AIDS Day meditation.

One: we will remember and remind others that AIDS is an illness that knows no boundaries of race, nationality, economics, sexual orientation or religions. We will keep hope alive through love, while working to educate others, even in the face of fear, hatred, bigotry and ignorance. Draw strength and courage from each other.

Readers: We renew our determination to work for a cure, while providing help and compassion locally and globally. "Let us be united. Let us speak in harmony. Let our minds apprehend alike. Common be our prayer. Common be the end of our assembly. Common be our resolution…United be our hearts…Perfect be our unity." (Adapted from the Rig Vega)

A famous Arabic blessing reminds us to be safe and well. However HIV/AIDS affects you, may you experience profound moments of peace, joy and courage. God bless you.

Prayer: Amen.

Suggested website: American Association for World Health (AAWH) (http://www.aawhworldhealth.org) coordinates World AIDS Day in the USA. They have resources, facts and links.

About the author: Rev. Dr. Sandra Bochonok earned her Doctor of Ministry degree at Wesley Seminary in Washington, DC and Masters of Divinity degree at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. She studied at the famous ecumenical Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in Bethesda, Maryland. Her ministry training includes four units of Clinical Pastoral Education. She facilitates retreats and labyrinth events, provides ecumenical and interfaith pulpit supply and writes spirituality materials for international Internet readers. You may email your comments to her at revsandyb@aol.com.