Nobel Prize for Hope

By: Katherine Marshall

February 24, 2009

The Niwano Peace Prize isn't nearly as well known as its Nobel counterpart, but the work of its recipients is just ast important and meaningful, as exemplified by this year's winner, Rev. Canon Gideon Byamugisha, an Anglican priest in Uganda.

In 1991, Canon Gideon learned that he was HIV positive. At that time, such a diagnosis was considered a death sentence in Africa. For a priest, it also a cause of deep shame. Canon Gideon agonized in solitude for a time, but then he decided to share the news with his bishop and then with the public. He was the first African priest to do so.

Since 1992, he has helped to raise public awareness about the disease across the continent and around the world. Canon Gideon's story is one of great personal heroism that challenges the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS and introduces hope and faith into the struggle to combat it.

Canon Gideon has traveled the world, speaking the truth and changing hearts and minds. Whenever I hear him I sit in wonder at his blend of wisdom, spiritual strength, common sense and humor. He always has a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his face. And his message is clear: we (all of us) have the means to stop HIV/AIDS and we have a deep moral commitment to do so. The answers are not simple, and judgments are not helpful. Working together creatively and with compassion and conviction are what it's about.

"We must not just view HIV/Aids as a problem that has to be dealt with, fixed and then be gone. We should view it as an opportunity to decide what direction we want our world to go," Canon Gideon wrote several years ago.

Canon Gideon believes that religious leaders who live with HIV and AIDS are often the most persuasive advocates, able to navigate moral quicksands with skill and reach out with compassion to those in need. His organization, ANERELA (African Network of Religious Leaders living with or personally affected by HIV/AIDS), combines support to its members with outreach that includes "speaking truth to power". He also started an organization to bring hope to children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

The Niwano Peace Prize was established by a Japanese Buddhist monk in 1983 to honor and encourage individuals and organizations that have contributed significantly to inter-religious understanding and cooperation, thereby furthering the cause of world peace.

Canon Gideon will receive the Niwano Peace Prize at a ceremony in May. He will be deservedly praised for his courageous ministry. But his work has barely begun. After the ceremony, he surely will hurry back to Kampala to his children to deliver his message of love and hope.

Opens in a new window