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Good morning! Today is World AIDS day. It’s been on the calendar of worldwide awareness days since the late 1980s. Because of education and antiretroviral drugs which prevent the HIV infection becoming full-blown AIDS we’re less aware of it in our daily life in the UK than we were. But worldwide, HIV/AIDS continues to destroy families and curtail lives and livelihoods. In 2019, there were 38 million people worldwide living with HIV, including nearly 2 million children. Since the epidemic began, over 32 million people have died from AIDS-related illnesses.

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This year’s pandemic has highlighted how the poorest and most marginalised suffer most. As with Covid-19, solutions to HIV/AIDS will have to take a global and interconnected approach, which is why this year’s World AIDS day slogan is ‘Global solidarity, shared responsibility.’

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In the Bible, Isaiah imagines a day when there will be a new heaven and a new earth, where every person flourishes and health and longevity are the rule and not the exception. In this season of Advent dreaming, when we imagine such a world coming to birth, may we glimpse the possibility of global co-operation and investment and our part in it.

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God of justice and joy

Who is present with all who suffer

And who longs for wholeness and flourishing for all,

May solidarity around the globe

And responsibility shared

Especially by those with economic power

Be more than a dream this Advent season. Amen.