Making Sense of Hiv and Aids: Community Conversation in the Papua New Guinea Context

Individual conversion and personal salvation are stressed in some church circles, however, in the history of the Church there has always been a strong interest in the well-being and “conversion” of the community. Consider, for example, Paul’s approach to the Corinthians, and the analogy of the community as one “body” in chapter 12 of his letter to the Corinthians. We see this viewpoint emerging strongly in Catholic Social Teaching, and in Papua New Guinea (PNG) one finds the interdependence of the individual and the community enshrined in the PNG Constitution. The constitution of the Republic of France is based on the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity, organising sovereignty around the “people,” and the United States named the authors of the Constitution as “We the People”, confirming the community of all citizens as the basis for modern political life. The Papua New Guinea Constitution puts even greater emphasis on the social and cultural importance of the community. The authors of a recent report on communities in PNG state the following: