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The
Open Door AIDS Ministry
“The Open Door” AIDS ministry program has
been an outreach program of St. John’s in the
Village since March 1998. It offers one-day Workshops
on AIDS and Christian Spirituality, Support Groups,
counseling and spiritual direction. All are conducted
in a safe and confidential environment with respects
the privacy of the individual. There is no charge to
participants.
The Support Group, which is limited to people living
with AIDS/HIV, meets on Thursday afternoons on the first
floor of Wade House. This private space is also used
during weekdays for counseling and spiritual direction.
May of its furnishings and fixtures have been generously
donated by parishioners.
Workshops are open to people living with HIV –
and to family members, spouses, lovers, and care-partners
of HIV+ persons. Counseling and spiritual direction
is also available to individuals in these categories.
Workshops are held in the Parish Hall, where attendees’
privacy is ensured by signs directing people attending
other events at St. John’s to enter and exit via
other doors where the workshop is in session. In 2007
the two Workshops were organized around the liturgical
seasons of Lent and Advent: “Preparation for Holy
Week” (March 10) and “Preparation for Joy”
(December 1). The 2008 schedule is: “Pentecost:
Gifts of the Holy Spirit” (Saturday, June 14)
and “Advent: Journeying to Bethlehem” (Saturday,
December 13).
The Open Door program is unique in that it is faith-based.
Unlike secular programs, which rely on government funding
and cannot mention God, we focus on our individual spiritual
journeys and our relationship with God. In the Workshops
and the weekly Support Group, the facilitator interfaces
Christian faith, theology, and spirituality with tools
of psychology to help deal with the prevalent and persistent
issues, feelings, and experiences which surround living
with AIDS or caring for someone with AIDS. Sacraments,
prayer, meditation, and the presence of the Holy Spirit
in our lives, are explored to help those infected with
the AIDS virus, and those seriously affected, to live
in the present, the NOW. In the midst of great uncertainties
facing issues of body, mind, and spirit, these are ultimately
matters of the soul. The goal is always: Finding God
in AIDS.
The Open Door was expanded from an outreach project
to a full ministry program in 2000 by a generous start-up
grant from the Trinity Grants Program. It has been fully
funded by St. John’s since 2003. Beginning in
2005, and at the suggestion of Father Prator, the Vestry
has also provided a modest Open Door Discretionary Fund,
which enables the program chaplain to assist people
living with AIDS/HIV expeditiously and confidentially
as needs arise and funds are available. The ODDF provides
financial assistance to persons living with AIDS/HIV
for food, rent, health care premiums, medical bills,
medical procedures, and transportation to and from hospitals
and doctors’ offices.
In addition to the parish funds budgeted, we are grateful
for generous donations received during 2007 from individual
parishioners to Open Door and to its Discretionary Fund.
We are also grateful to many parishioners for their
tireless work at the October Courtyard Sale, where more
of artist Mark Mutchnik’s work was sold to benefit
Open Door, the generous and continuing gift of David
DePorte.
None of this would be possible without the continued
unwavering support of the Rector, Vestry and parish
family for this program, which has helped me to help
many people living with AIDS/HIV.
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