Priest celebrates 25th year

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      On Sunday, the Rev. Randolph L. "Rand" Frew celebrated his 25th anniversary of priesthood in the Episcopal church with a reception attended by friends, family and colleagues.
      The reception was held at Christ Church, 2000 S. Maryland Parkway, the same parish where he was ordained on Feb. 8, 1973, following years as a student activist and leader, Episcopal deacon and graduate of UNLV and the General Theological Seminary, New York City.
      Whether saving dying churches or serving as an advocate for people with HIV/AIDS, Frew, now living in New York City, has led many grass-roots campaigns.
      His ambition for the priesthood began at age 13, following his baptism in the Post Chapel of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. Up until that time, Frew had wanted to attend West Point and have a career in the U.S. Army.
      By his own definition, Frew is a builder, and his work in the dioceses of Nevada and New York bear testimony to that skill. As vicar of St. Matthew's in Las Vegas, Frew stabilized a dying congregation into a vital community, which during his tenure served as home for many different denominations.
      Simultaneously, he served as visiting priest for St. Bartholomew's Church in Ely, and St. James in Eureka, from 1976 until departing for New York City in the fall of 1978. In these earlier Nevada years, Frew served as a teaching assistant in history at UNLV, assistant priest at Christ Church, coordinator of youth outreach for all the Southern Nevada Episcopal congregations, and was an instructor at Bishop Gorman Roman Catholic High School.
      At age 31, Frew, the youngest rector in Manhattan, once again took a parish some wanted to close and revitalized it. Frew organized a soup kitchen through his parish, the Church of the Holy Apostles, serving its first meal on Oct. 22, 1982. Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen is the largest program of its kind in New York City and the Episcopal Church.
      During his time at Holy Apostles, Frew was confronted with a new issue -- a disease that was killing young gay men. Frew found there was little support or comfort for those afflicted. Nor could he find many masses for those who had died. Frew provided one of the first positive responses to people living with HIV/AIDS.
      Frew wrote letters to Episcopal Church Headquarters in 1983 requesting strong support on behalf of people with AIDS and education to reduce fear and discrimination. This action resulted in the first response of the Episcopal Church through a resolution calling for pastoral care and a nonjudgmental response. Perhaps most significantly, a pastoral letter on AIDS, drafted by Frew, was sent out to be read in all Episcopal churches and institutions by the former presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. John M. Allin.
      Frew was named the HIV/AIDS ministry consultant for the Episcopal Church. His energies focused on people at the local level, in grass-roots work on the front lines, and much of the time, in medium, small and rural communities and dioceses where people were isolated and lacked HIV infrastructures and services.
      This building and empowerment of local ministries, speaking, preaching, teaching, troubleshooting and the preparation of materials for the former national Day of Prayer for persons living with HIV/AIDS, were the elements of 16-hour working days and more than 75 percent of his time on the road. This work included several countries in Central America and by 1992 contact with people in the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries.
      In 1994, Frew founded AIDS Action International following the closure of the AIDS Ministry Office at the church center. In partnerships with volunteers in Clearwater, Fla., New York City and Las Vegas, in the last three years, AIDS Action launched the AIDS Prevention and Education Program of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines; established the AIDS Partnership, a consortium of interfaith communities and AIDS Service Organizations in the Tampa, Clearwater, St. Petersburg, Fla. area; founded the annual St. Nicholas Celebration at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City, which collects and distributes holiday gifts with the help of the New York City Police Department to people living with HIV/AIDS at five AIDS service organizations
      Frew smiles when his friends tell him he needs to get a real job. They say this with kindness and concern -- there is no retirement program and the priest pays his insurance as funds are available. But there is no doubt about his conviction that he has been called to this mission.
      "I don't want one more young person infected with HIV," is his frequent rejoinder.