Sound the gong, ring the bell - Services and worship outlines for World Aids Day

For World AIDS Day the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance has prepared a moving liturgy during which a bell or gong will sound and a candle be snuffed out every 15 seconds to represent a person dying of AIDS. This is to raise awareness that despite medecine being available many thousands of people are still dying every day of AIDS. If you click on the links in the last paragraph of this post you can find the liturgy in four languages and also other worship resources from previous years.

This is how this year's liturgy opens:

bell
“Nobody dies of AIDS anymore”. This is the dangerous perception in rich parts of the world.
bell
Some claim that AIDS is just another chronic illness that one lives with. But there is another reality.
bell
Leader 1: According to UNAIDS, every 15 seconds someone in the world dies of an AIDS-related illness.
bell
Leader 2: We may not know their names, or their histories. We may not know their joys, or their dreams.
bell
Leader 1: But they die. They keep on dying.
They keep on dying, dying.
bell
Leader 2: When no one weeps for them, God weeps.
God weeps.
bell
Leader 1: Every 15 seconds God weeps for someone dying of illnesses related to AIDS.
bell
Leader 2: We pray that God remembers those we don’t know how to remember.
bell
Leader1 : We mark the time with a bell, each death -- happening at this moment.
bell
Leader 2: We worship the Blessed Trinity, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Your church, youth group, women's or men's group, prayer circle, club or school is encouraged to join people all over the world in prayer as we observe World AIDS Day. Why not plan a special order of worship on World AIDS Day or the Sunday before? We have several worship service outlines including a new ecumenical liturgy for 2008 in English, French, Spanish and German. These can be used or adapted and are available as Word documents to make it easier for you to adapt it for local use. Other worship resources, including prayers, images, and sermon ideas are also available.