World Day of Prayer Hosted in Nelson by St. Saviour's

BY MICAHEL LAVINNDER

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FEBRUARY 03, 2006 -- This year the World Day of Prayer 2006 was hosted by St. Saviour’s Anglican Pro-Cathedral. Over one hundred attended representing the following churches: Society of Friends, First Baptist Church, Nelson United, Cathedral of Mary Immaculate, Blessed Sacrament, Ascension Lutheran, Salvation Army, Kootenay Christian Fellowship, St. Saviour’s Anglican, and Church of Christ, Scientist.

The focus this year was on the South African AIDS pandemic. Despite division, injustice and suffering, the people of South Africa have been determined to move beyond their history of four decades of oppression and apartheid. Their issues are drought and pollution, violence and drug trafficking, unemployment and poverty, and —possibly the most debilitating of all&mdashthe continued cost of HIV/AIDS. The proceeds from the World Day of Prayer will be distributed for South African relief.

South Africa remains the region worst affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. According to the AIDS Foundation of South Africa, a combination of factors seem to be responsible for this: poverty and social instability; high levels of sexually transmitted infections; the low status of women; sexual violence; high mobility (particularly migrant labour), and lack of leadership.

South Africa has the fifth highest prevalence of HIV in the world, with 21.5 percent of the population estimated to be infected. The UNAIDS Global Report, estimated the number of AIDS related deaths in South Africa in 2003 ranged anywhere between a quarter million and half a million. Given the numbers of people infected and dying, South Africa is regarded as having the most severe HIV epidemic in the world. This epidemic is still seven years away from peaking in terms of the numbers of projected AIDS related deaths.

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