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In a pastoral letter to the Korean Christian Federation, World Council of Churches acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca expressed “very deep Christian concern” over the COVID-19 outbreak in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca expressed grave concern about a major humanitarian crisis following the emergence of COVID-19 in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Authorities have acknowledged the deaths of at least 50 people and that 1.2 million suspected cases – or almost 5% of the entire population – are being monitored.

Thirty-five years into the response to HIV and AIDS, it remains a disease that not only thrives on, but exploits the lines of exclusion and inequality in society. In the Philippines, where there has been an alarming increase in people testing positive for HIV, the country’s National Council of Churches recognized that more than words were needed. While dialogue and debate were important, they needed to translate into action, given the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor in Filipino society, and a faith-based and societal milieu still dominated by a sex-negative theology.

Churches are engaged at the grassroots level throughout the world in the response to HIV and AIDS, but the struggle against the disease and those stigmatized for being HIV positive needs to continue, say church leaders.

As participants in a workshop on HIV offered their personal reflections, they shared how their hearts have been deepened and changed by a dialogue facilitated by the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP).

“I came here to know the difference between HIV and AIDS, and to distinguish the role of women, especially women pastors, in educating, empowering, and enlightening people in her flock about their view on HIV,” said Rev. Mary Ann Kadile, a pastor from the United Church of Christ in the Philippines. She traveled from Mindanao to San Pablo City, Laguna to participate in a workshop on HIV led by the National Council of Churches in the Philippines.

“Vine aquí para saber la diferencia entre el VIH y el SIDA, y para discernir el papel que tienen las mujeres, especialmente las pastoras, en la formación, la capacitación y la difusión de información entre las personas de sus congregaciones sobre sus perspectivas con respecto al VIH”, explicó la Rev. Mary Ann Kadile, pastora de la Iglesia Unida de Cristo en Filipinas.

The “pilgrimage is both a way to continue working for the one ecumenical movement and a way to move forward in our times that offer new dimensions, opportunities and practices,” said the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.

"La peregrinación es a la vez una forma de seguir trabajando por el movimiento ecuménico y una manera de avanzar en un tiempo que ofrece nuevas dimensiones, oportunidades y prácticas", dijo el secretario general del CMI, pastor Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit.

A resource book on HIV and AIDS has recently been launched by a member church of the WCC promoting visions of a strengthening partnership among churches and faith-based organizations in the Philippines to address country’s HIV epidemic.

Dr Erlinda N. Senturias, a physician, educator, ecumenical activist and former WCC staff member from the Philippines, has been named by President Benigno Aquino III to the nation’s new Human Rights Victims’ Claims Board.

"€œA church has to embrace its sick, go out in the world, and work with its people to heal the communities,"€ said Dr Erlinda N. Senturias from the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, in an interview.