AIDS walk: Call to register!

It is time once again for members of Saint Paul’s Cathedral to join our team to contribute, participate in the walk or run, and contact at least 10 friends and family members to commit a donation of any size to our team. Jack and I support this event because we, like many of you, have witnessed devastating losses of friends and family to this disease since its inception. We gather to remember them, their caregivers and the many researchers who were on the front lines of searching for treatment in the absence of any government recognition, support and funding.

Recall that in 1980 Ken Horne of San Francisco was the first recognized case of AIDS, exhibiting Kaposi’s Sarcoma and other symtoms. By 1984, thousands of gay men in the United States were dying every year. Reagan had still failed to mention its existence. In San Francisco, our friend, Dr. Larry Waites along with Dr. Martin Delaney and the immunologist, Dr. Alan Levin, did pioneering work researching dead ends like Compound Q, while also forming advocacy groups like Act Up to change the FDA’s arcane rules limiting access to drugs that showed promise in clinical trials. Today, pioneering work continues on a vaccine by researchers at Scripps and other San Diego institutions.

Thank God for our heroes then and now.

Our goal is to raise vital funds to support those living with the disease today.

To join our team at the march Sept 30:

1. Visit http://www.aidswalksd.org
2. Scroll down to “join a team”
3. Enter the team, “St. Paul’s Cathedral”
4. Click, “join”
5. Select the appropriate participant options.
6. Make a donation online.
7. Share with your friends on Facebook.


Many thanks,

John Clemens, Team Captain

(on behalf of Saint Paul's Peace and Justice Committee)

Blessing the AIDS quilt

On Saturday, Dean Penny went to South Bay Pride and blessed the AIDS quilt

Loving God, you created us to be in relationship and to care for one another. As we view this quilt today, we ask you to open our hearts to the loving relationships that are recorded and reflected in the craftsmanship and beauty of this work. We bring before you this morning all who have been affected by the plague of HIV/AIDS: those who have died, those who live with it, those who live in fear of it, and those whose families and communities have been stretched and torn because of our inability to recognize the humanity and dignity of every person. We ask your forgiveness for the ways in which we have oppressed and stigmatized those with HIV/AIDS. We ask your forgiveness for the smallness and hardness of our hearts. We pray for the healing of memories, relationships, and individuals. We pray for medical breakthroughs that will bring an end to this scourge and for a cure for AIDS. We pray for the grace to celebrate the beauty and worth of every human being. May the beauty of this quilt lift our spirits to contemplate the beauty of all your creation. These things we ask in your holy name.

Photos by Susan Jester

AIDS walk: the view from the Urban Collective

On Saturday September 27th I was very fortunate to be a part of the St. Paul’s AIDS walk team here in our very own neighborhood of Hillcrest.   For those who aren’t familiar, the AIDS Walk/Run is an opportunity to remember those who have been lost to the disease and to raise funds to support the more than 20,000 San Diegans living with HIV/AIDS.

Being relatively new to San Diego, and subsequently St. Paul’s, the event was filled with new faces, new friendships, and many reminders of how far our world has come in treating and understanding HIV/AIDS, and yet how much further we have to go in meeting the needs of those living with the disease while we fight to find a cure. Never having lost anyone I know and love to AIDS, seeing images of men and women who have been lost to this disease, some at a very young age, has stayed with me. These faces remind me that HIV/AIDS is more than just a diagnosis. It is a condition that affects people around our world who live, laugh, love and are loved.

 The walk was an opportunity to remember the human beings behind the diagnosis, human beings that God loves and watches over each and every day, and to consider what I can do to best support their needs.

-Bryan Williams
Bryan is new to San Diego and the St. Paul's community, and is enjoying settling into life here

The AIDS walk team

On Saturday, a small but enthusiastic team from St Paul's headed out for the annual AIDS walk, to raise money for people living with HIV/AIDS.  Thanks to Susan Hulbert for the photos!

Steve Haight Cycles for Life!

Dean Penny blessed Verger Steve Haight and his bicycle as he prepared to begin his 7-day, 545 mile bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles to raise money and awareness in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

 Yes, you read that correctly, 545 miles! Steve is bicycling in AIDS/LifeCycle from San Francisco to Los Angeles to make a difference in the lives of people living with HIV and AIDS.

 He will average more than 75 miles per day and will sleep in tents and get up before dawn each day in order to complete the day's ride. "I'm very excited to be able to do this and am thrilled with all the support and good wishes I've received. A blessing and send off from the St. Paul's community means a lot me. You are all truly the wind at my back!"

You can track Steve's progress online and make a donation to support him in his goal to raise $13,000 to fight HIV/AIDS at his homepage athttp://www.tofighthiv.org/goto/SteveHaight

Global Equality –how do we get there? Forum, Aug 21st

A forum with Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, Brent Sammon and Rev. Canon Albert Ogle, Sunday August 21st at 9am.

Recently returned from Uganda, where he helped Bishop Christopher establish an HIV outreach program to “criminalized” LGBT people (through a $145,000 grant from the Elton John AIDS Foundation) Albert Ogle will talk about why it is important to decriminalize homosexuality globally. One immediate context makes this goal very clear-HIV. He will also be joined by Brent Sammons who just returned from the Middle East.

“One of the things I feared most about the work that was not done at the United Nations in June, when the family of nations agreed on a five year global AIDS plan, was what happened two weeks ago in West Ghana. A government minister called for the immediate arrest of homosexuals when a simple United States Agency for International Development workshop revealed preliminary findings there may be up to 8,000 people - Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) in the region. All hell broke loose as a local ecumenical council also called for their arrest”, reported Ogle.

Homosexuality is illegal in Ghana as in 75 other countries. Ghana is part of the British Commonwealth as does 45 of these former British colonies which are heavily influenced by Anglicanism. Lesbianism was never outlawed, allegedly because Queen Victoria could not believe women could be so sexually deviant. So colonial laws, used to oppress the natives are now being revamped in places like Malawi, where lesbianism was recently criminalized and Uganda is another more public example of recent institutionalized homophobia.

The High Level Meeting on global HIV the UN failed to come clean on the issue of criminalizing homosexual relationships and so one of the most important “At Risk” communities –millions of people mainly in Africa (35 countries where homosexuality is illegal) are deemed criminals. So how do you provide services to “criminals” who sign up for HIV programs while their names and addresses could be seized by politicians seeking reflection?

Bishop and Mrs. Mary Senyonjo will be in San Diego August 19th-27th 2011

Bishop Christopher has just started a new program that could potentially land him and his staff in jail. Until homosexuality is decriminalized, it is going to be very difficult to provide universal HIV prevention and there will be a huge hole in the world AIDS plan through which the virus will get to more of us.






What is the role of the Anglican Communion in a call for Global Equality? What can Americans do to end this appalling international situation? The bishop will preach at the 8 a.m. and 10.30 a.m. services.

A party at Albert Ogle’s home is scheduled for 12 noon, so please RSVP to aogle@cox.net

More information at the St Paul's Foundation website.


The Rev Canon Albert Ogle

Report from the UN AIDS meeting

This is an extract from a longer article by the Rev. Canon Albert Ogle on the recent UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDSs. Albert writes,

“Whenever AIDS is part of the equation, the United Nations is working to be part of the solution,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his remarks to the meeting. “Now we understand that UN troops and police are part of prevention, treatment and care.”

...Reaction to the Political Declaration on AIDS and three days of deliberations remains mixed. For many who attended the 2001 and 2006 UNAIDS Summits, this one lacked the urgency and optimism of the previous two.

The Global Fund for AIDS and significant measurable targets through the Millennium Development Goals were all created at these previous gatherings. The goal of providing “universal access” was inspirationally created by al 174 member states. By the time diplomats gathered in New York to reflect on what had been learned and data of the previous years analyzed, it was clear many of the issues that needed to be addressed at this years summit were seen as highly controversial i.e. dealing with care and prevention efforts for men who have sex with men (MSM), sex workers and IV drug users. Global South delegates felt this was a Global North (activist) agenda.

...Religious extremists also attempted to derail important civil society dialogue with the diplomats and politicians by submitting their own annotated forms of the draft Declaration.

In one case, the Arizona-based Family Watch International held a weekend retreat earlier this year for 30 delegations where all references to LGBT people and MSM were replaced by an their explicit emphasis on “behaviors” that needed healing. This is consistent with so called “ex-gay” therapy where the case is made for non recognition of LGBT issues that are only seen as manifestations of sexual illness. Fortunately, FWI’s recommendations were not incorporated into the final document.

...On the more positive side, the Declaration did set clear targets for reducing HIV by 50% by 2015 and the elimination of vertical transmission from mother to child.

The document also called for closing the gap between funds and needed resources, estimated to be $6 billion a year and greater Global “North South” cooperation as well as a distinctly new emphasis on “South -South” co-operation.

Leaders called on the need to strongly overcome stigma and discrimination, but did not go far enough to acknowledge the damage and insurmountable challenges that existing legislation and societal attitudes towards populations presently excluded from prevention education and health care delivery.....

The Declaration is a simply a photograph of who and where we are in 2011 and our reaction to it will determine the success or failure of our common struggle with AIDS. I am hopeful, as was the case 30 years ago, the Declaration will create millions of global activists, new civil society organizations to meet unmet needs and new partnerships with the religious community to “heal without judgment.”

Read the entire piece here.

The Rev. Canon Albert Ogle