Rick Warren Joins Evangelicals in Faith Response at Major AIDS Conference

|TOP|Ahead of one of the world's largest meetings on HIV/AIDS, evangelical leaders will be speaking to an international audience of experts and leaders this week on the challenges posed by the unabating pandemic to people of faith.

On Aug. 10-12, Rick and Kay Warren of Saddleback Community Church, Bishop Mark Hanson of the Lutheran World Federation and other church leaders will address the Christian response to HIV and AIDS at an ecumenical pre-conference called "Faith in Action: Keeping the Promise," days before more than 23,000 people convene for the International AIDS Conference.

As an evangelical voice opens up the biennial conference in Toronto, scientists, health care providers, political and business leaders, government and non-governmental representatives and people living with HIV/AIDS will join the global meeting on Aug. 13 to provide an international forum for a strengthened effort battling the disease.

"The AIDS 2006 program is designed to harness the knowledge, skills and commitment of thousands of dedicated stakeholders from across the world," said conference Co-Chair Dr. Mark Wainberg, in a released statement.

AIDS 2006 marks the 10th anniversary of the breakthrough in HIV/AIDS treatment known as HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy) and the 25th anniversary of the first reported cases in the United States of what came to be known as AIDS.

|AD|Participants will underscore the urgency of HIV prevention and treatment under the theme "Time to Deliver" and examine the progress made on such areas as universal access.

"Statements and promises have been made that give people hope," said Linda Hartke, coordinator of the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, in a news release. "These words must be put into action."

The major upcoming conference follows the U.N. General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS in June that had disappointed many faith-based organisations and other civil society actors for the lack of follow-up on previous commitments and avoidance of setting clear targets for action.

Christian communities had stressed at the meeting that the result of the fight against the pandemic will be based on the concrete steps of member states in keeping the promises already made, and not on political declarations alone.

Just as Christians made their voices more prominent at the U.N. meeting, their greater response to HIV/AIDS has increasingly involved them in the overall global effort to combat the disease.

Warren, who has become a major evangelical figure in the HIV/AIDS fight, recently ended his P.E.A.C.E. Plan tour on Friday in Rwanda. He visited African and Asian countries in the past 36 days in an effort to mobilise Christians to attack the "five giant problems" in the world (spiritual emptiness, selfish leadership, poverty, disease, and ignorance).

After speaking in Toronto, he will be heading the second annual Purpose Driven HIV/AIDS Conference at Saddleback that will echo a similar sense of urgency in the battle against AIDS with the theme "Race Against Time." The conference will open Nov. 29.






Lillian Kwon
Christian Today Correspondent