Holston prepares for AIDS fund-raiser

As United Methodists join others in observing World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, Holston Conference is preparing to raise $2 from every church member to address a pandemic affecting millions.

The fund-raiser is a response to a resolution passed at Annual Conference 2006, establishing that Holston would give double the amount requested by the denomination to the United Methodist Global AIDS Fund.

If each of Holston's 167,340 members give $2, the conference will raise $334,680 for the Global AIDS Fund, according to Steve Hodges, chair of the Outreach/Advocacy Team, which presented the resolution to the Annual Conference in June.

Twenty-five percent of the amount raised will be "retained by the annual conference, to use for HIV/ AIDS-related ministries within the conference," Hodges said.

The remaining 75 percent will be sent to the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) for HIV/AIDS-related ministries.

Holston will begin the fund-raiser in 2007 through the conference's 12 districts. Each district will have proportional goals, according to an October decision by the Council on Finance and Administration.

In 2004, the denomination's General Conference set a 2005- 2008 goal to raise $8 million for the United Methodist Global AIDS Fund – a commitment of $1 for each member of the United Methodist Church.

The resolution passed by the Holston Annual Conference in June 2006 raised the goal to $2 for each church member.

"Our General Conference in 2004 acknowledged HIV/AIDS as a global health crisis whose impact is most severe for those already at greatest disadvantage, affecting 42 million people living with HIV/AIDS," the Holston resolution states. "It is also acknowledged that 39 pecent of the people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States live in the South."

The Outreach/Advocacy Team will distribute the funds retained by Holston Conference, unless the bishop designates a different agency to distribute the funds, according to the Holston resolution.

"I'm deeply moved that Holston Conference cared enough to pass this resolution," Hodges said recently, "and I'm confident that our members will show their typical generosity in raising the funds."

For more on the Global AIDS Fund and World AIDS Day, visit http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/ work/health/hivaids/wad06/ For resources on observing World AIDS Day, visit
http://www.umc-gbcs.org .

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