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Gracia Violeta Ross only understood the meaning of her first name (grace) after discovering she was HIV-positive.
At that point in her life, she thought she was going to die soon, and asked God for forgiveness for a lifestyle that she felt had separated her from God's will. "God healed me completely then, although I am still living with HIV," she told participants at the Conference on World Mission and Evangelism in Athens.
Ross, a 28-year old Bolivian who grew up in an evangelical family, spoke at the conference plenary session on Friday, 13 May. Her moving testimony strongly made the point that healing and cure don't necessarily come together. "Actually my life became better after becoming HIV-positive."
Ross shared the floor with Johannes Petrus Heath, an Anglican priest from Namibia living with HIV, Erika Schuchardt, a professor at the University of Hanover, Anthony Allen, a psychiatrist from Jamaica, and Bernard Ugeux, a Roman Catholic theologian from France.
All five agreed that in both highly modernized societies and those ravaged by poverty and lack of basic health care, people yearning for healing of body and soul knock at the door of churches that are not always open. While healing doesn't necessarily mean physical cure, churches are called to be inclusive communities where people feel accepted and experience God's love and compassion.
"We need a theology of healing that includes the person, the community and the society," Allen affirmed. Such a theology has to "help Christians to deal with the stigma and discrimination that condemn people living with HIV/AIDS," Japé said. For that to happen, the theology must state clearly that "sickness, and particularly HIV/AIDS, are never a punishment for sin," Ugeux added.
Equipped with such a theology, Christian communities are able to provide the "welcoming space of acceptance and non-discrimination that allows people to face the crisis that illness poses to their lives," Schuchardt said.
You can watch the full video recording of this plenary on our website:www.mission2005.org/webcast.html
Free high resolution photosto accompany this story are available at:cwme.wcc-coe.org/High_resolution.884.0.html
Conference website:www.mission2005.org