Minneapolis (May 1, 2007) – The worst health crisis in the world in 700 years, the global HIV/AIDS epidemic is overwhelming in scale: 40 million people are infected worldwide (75% of them in Africa); 7,000 people die daily; each day 1,600 people are infected. Some 26 million people have already died. More than twenty years into the global AIDS pandemic, the efforts of Christian congregations and denominations have been less than minimal.

John Brooks of the ELCA News Service reported yesterday that the Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America recently recommended that the 2007 ELCA Churchwide Assembly adopt a resolution that commits the church to a “deeper engagement” in addressing the AIDS pandemic through development of a churchwide strategy for action in the coming decade.

The council, the ELCA’s board of directors, asked the assembly to request the ELCA Church in Society and Global Mission program units to take the lead in developing a strategy to address HIV and AIDS. The council recommended that a strategy be brought to it for adoption in 2008 and that the strategy be reported to the 2009 Churchwide Assembly.

Published by Fortress Press as a resource for engaging congregations in efforts in fighting this disease, Breaking the Conspiracy of Silence: Christian Churches and the Global AIDS Crisis by Donald E. Messer is aimed to awaken Christian compassion in the coming years to this fathomless tragedy.

Drawing on his own involvement in global AIDS education in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, Messer uses stories, basic factual information, and theological insights to motivate lay and clerical Christians to assume leadership and form partnerships with Christians around the world in this struggle. Messer shows how churches can partner with ecumenical organizations, relief agencies, volunteer mission programs, healthcare programs, and other agencies to engage global AIDS directly and effectively.

Donald E. Messer is a United Methodist theologian and author of twelve books. Currently the Executive Director of the Center for the Church and Global AIDS, Messer was President of Dakota Wesleyan University from 1971-1981and President of Iliff School of Theology from 1981-2000. He was named both President Emeritus and the Henry White Warren Professor Emeritus of Practical Theology at The Iliff School of Theology. Concern for the escalating global HIV/AIDS pandemic has prompted Dr. Messer to travel and speak in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, as well as to initiate a Center for the Church and Global AIDS that serves as a catalyst for Christian involvement in the major issues related to global HIV and AIDS, world hunger, and clean water. A college and seminary president for 29 years, Messer holds a Ph.D. from Boston University in social ethics. In 2005 he was honored with a "Lifetime Achievement Award" from a medical university in India for his humanitarian work. Among other awards received over the years was being named "One of America's Ten Outstanding Young Men" in 1976 by the United States Jaycees. Throughout the world, the Center supports various projects of education, prevention, care, and treatment, aimed at helping to create an AIDS-free and hunger-free world.

Breaking the Conspiracy of Silence: Christian Churches and the Global AIDS Crisis
By Donald E. Messer
Format: 216 pp; 6” x 9”; paperback; 4-c cover; perfect bind
ISBN: 978-0-8006-3641-8
Price: $15.00
Publication Date: March 2004

For more information about this book visit Breaking the Conspiracy of Silence