Bible forms basis of response to challenge of AIDS

n His Holiness Abune Paulos, Patriarch of Ethiopia and Archbishop of Axum, considered the 'pope' of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, delivers his homily during Trinity Day celebrations at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa. Ethiopia. Photo: UBS/Larry Jerden (ETH02DJ-34)

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — If Islam is mounting a spiritual challenge to Ethiopia’s Christians, the country also faces a major physical and economic threat in the form of AIDS. The HIV-related disease is a recognised threat to the future of the entire nation.

According to figures for 1999, HIV/AIDS affected 10.63 per cent of people aged between 15 and 49, some three million people were living with HIV/AIDS, and 280,000 had died from complications arising from the syndrome.

All levels of society, from the government to schools, churches and development officials, are trying to alert a population that is among the youngest in the world to its dangers.

As with the threat of Islam, the AIDS epidemic is also rallying the fractured Christian population to work together.

The Patriarch of the Ethiopian Church, in his ‘Trinity Day’ sermon on the steps of the Holy Trinity Cathedral, called for the young to follow the teachings of the Bible in order to thwart the spread of the disease.
And it is this emphasis on the Bible, on which all three churches agree, that propels the Bible Society into the forefront of Ethiopian church unity today.