World Aids Day 2009 Poster and prayer of Confession for the Church

Tomorrow is World Aids Day (Dec 01).

Almighty God, whose compassion is known throughout the world and whose love has endured across the centuries, we humbly come to You seeking forgiveness for our pride and pardon for our many mistakes.

As a Faith, we have failed to live by the words of Christ Jesus our King.

As the Church, we have mistakenly chosen to condemn other people to loneliness, suffering, and unbelief because of our self-righteous ways and bitter words.

As Christians, we have walked away from those who have HIV/AIDS. We have created a new class of lepers and pariah by withholding our love, protecting our religious values, and shunning those who needed our understanding and compassion.

Lord God, forgive our failures and help us to seek the pardon of those people we have offended most. Chide us for being spiritually and emotionally blind. Challenge us to become healers and helpers, supporters and servants to those whose hearts we have hurt and whose spirits we have damaged.

Sacred Savior, as the Church, we brought this upon ourselves. We failed miserably because we loved conditionally. We are ashamed of our arrogance and attacks. We are guilty of godlessness and insincerity. We are the hypocrites who smugly condemned others to hell, instead of graciously attracting them to heaven.

May this World AIDS Day be a time of remorse and atonement, as well as a call to compassion and mercy. May we be allowed to return to the embracing fold of humanity and be accepted in the global community as humble and contrite servants wherever we can help those afflicted by this disease, as well as becoming honest and combative soldiers in the fight to find a cure for HIV/AIDS.

In Christ’s Holy Name, we sorrowfully confess and humbly pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. 

A larger version of the poster can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/traqair57/4134107040/sizes/l/