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Global Summit on AIDS and the Church Begins Today and Concludes With Youth Summit on World AIDS Day:

Thursday, November 29, 2007 General News
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LAKE FOREST, Calif., Nov. 28 The third annualGlobal Summit on AIDS and the Church hosted by pastor and "The Purpose DrivenLife" author Dr. Rick Warren and his wife Kay will be held at SaddlebackChurch in Lake Forest, Calif., beginning today through Friday, Nov. 30 with aYouth Summit on Saturday, Dec. 1.
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"One of the most exciting things about this third conference is that weactually have progress to report," Kay Warren said. "The first conference wasabout casting a vision; the second conference was about gaining momentum; andthis conference is about reporting what has worked, what has really workedwell, and what still needs to be done."
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The HIV/AIDS initiative of Saddleback Church is a key part of theP.E.A.C.E. plan, an overarching humanitarian strategy launched three yearsago. This goal of this worldwide effort is to mobilize one billion churchmembers to Promote Reconciliation, Equip servant leaders, Assist the poor,Care for the sick and Educate the next generation. One session of the Summitwill feature a report about the P.E.A.C.E. plan progress and the lessonslearned over the past three years as a result of sending out more than 7,500members to test the plan in 69 countries.

"The Bible commands the church to care for widows and orphans," RickWarren said. "With 143 million orphans in the world, I'd say that we haveplenty of opportunity to make good on that mandate and demonstrate the love ofChrist to children who have nothing to lose but hope. And we should neverdiscount the power of hope."

This year's conference features more than 90 speakers, including PeterPiot, M.D., Ph.D., executive director of UNAIDS; Ambassador Mark Dybul, M.D.,United States global AIDS coordinator; Her Excellency Mrs. Jeannette Kagame,first lady of Rwanda and co-founder of The Organization of African FirstLadies Against AIDS; and Her Excellency Mrs. Maureen Mwanawasa, first lady ofZambia and president of The Organization of African First Ladies Against AIDS.

Additionally, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., is the first candidate toaccept an invitation extended to the presidential frontrunners to address theSummit attendees. Video messages are forthcoming from Sens. John McCain,R-Ariz., Barack Obama, D-Ill., John Edwards, D-N.C., and former Govs. MikeHuckabee (R) and Mitt Romney (R).

"We wanted to extend a platform for presidential hopefuls to offer theirideas and plans to either continue or raise the bar on the efforts already inplace from the government, businesses, the medical community and now finally,the church," Mrs. Warren commented.

Having come under fire in the past for engaging in conversation withorganizations that are not necessarily aligned with the church's perspective,Mrs. Warren is quick to say that while there are many issues on which theydisagree, they are coming together this week to discuss how they cancollectively work toward a solution to stem the overwhelming tide of theHIV/AIDS pandemic and care for the sick and dying.

An estimated 1,500 people representing local churches; para-churchministries; non-governmental organizations and legal and medical organizationsare registered to attend the three-day conference. In addition to generalsessions, participants will be able to attend break-out workshops to focus onspecific areas of interest, such as how to start an HIV/AIDS ministry in theirown church or community and overviews of the most current treatments andtherapies.

Following the Global Summit, the first-ever Youth Summit will take placeon Saturday, Dec. 1 -- World AIDS Day -- with video messages from Bono, JordanPruitt, the cast of One Tree Hill and a personal appearance by First DaughterJenna Bush. This portion of the Summit will be simulcast to more than 200churches nationwide.

"This week, there is nothing more important that we can talk about thanthe subject of HIV/AIDS and how
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