There are 33 million people round the world living with HIV – 96% of them in developing countries.

As we approach the 21st international World AIDS Day on December 1, we look at the vital role of the church in the fight against HIV.

Below the photo gallery is a worship resource from John Bell.

Photo gallery

The photo-gallery below includes World AIDS Day messages from church leaders around the world.

‘HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care is one of the greatest health-care challenges of our time. We give thanks today on the 20 th anniversary of World Aids Day for all the HIV awareness raising work which is undertaken by many organisations including Christian Aid, UNICEF and WHO.

It is my prayer that globally we move from attitudes of stigmatising people living with HIV/AIDS to supporting them in our congregations and communities.’

Dr. John Sentamu, Archbishop of York. Archbishop Sentamu was born in Uganda – one of the few countries in the world to have successfully reduced HIV infection rates in recent years.

The photograph shows Ugandan teenagers from an anti-AIDS club taking part in a dance to raise awareness of HIV.

Photo credit: Christian Aid/Caroline Wood

‘We want to show the rest of the people that testing for HIV is for all and not only for those whom people consider being at risk. The test is healthy and we will use information for campaigning and to encourage others take the test.

‘We theologians and religious leaders are in the forefront of the HIV/AIDS campaign and we must show that by examples not just by words’

Rev. Dr. Marshal Olal Johnson, Sudan Ecumenical Network of Theologians on HIV and AIDS (SENTHA).

In November 2008 SENTHA ran the first ever HIV training session for faith leaders in Sudan. Following the training, 22 participants chose to take HIV tests.

Photo credit: Lino Baba Diye

‘On Monday 1st December, let it be our prayer that all people of the world will renew their commitment to tackling HIV, walking alongside those who suffer or struggle. Mark World AIDS Day with rededication and a fresh determination to ‘keep the promise’’.

Right Rev David Lunan, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

With anti-retroviral drugs, people living with HIV, like seven-year-old Jaime, can lead full, healthy lives. In 2003 the UN committed to providing universal access to anti-retroviral treatment by 2010. But today only one in three people living with HIV has access to these life-saving medicines.

On World AIDS Day this year, campaigners around the world will demand that governments and policy makers ‘keep the promise’

Photo credit: Christian Aid/Hannah Richards

‘Churches and their leaders must show the way in overcoming ignorance, prejudice and intolerance, and demonstrate in words and actions, that God’s love does not discriminate among any of his children.’

The Most Reverend Thabo Makgoba, Archbishop of Cape Town.

Of all the countries in the world, South Africa has the highest number of people living with HIV – 5.7 million.

With support from the British government’s Department for International Development (DFID), Christian Aid helped the Anglican Church of Southern Africa launch an international HIV programme. All 24 dioceses in Southern Africa now have an HIV co-ordinator.

Photo credit: Christian Aid/Guy Tillim

‘My disclosure has really helped my congregation…It has transformed my ministry. By the last Sunday of the month when I told people, three quarters of the congregation had gone to be tested. They saw me as a role model.’

Maxwell Kapachawo was the first pastor in Zimbabwe to openly acknowledge that he was living with HIV. He is now playing a key role in helping his own congregation, and other faith leaders, to understand and confront the HIV epidemic.

Maxwell is the founder member of ZINERELA+, the Zimbabwean Network of Religious Leaders Living with or Affected by HIV.

Photo: Christian Aid/Siân Curry

‘The Church as the community of the faithful is the natural home of all people living with HIV.  Where this is not a current reality we the Church have to make it so’

Rev. JP Heath – Founder member of INERELA+ (the International Network of Religious Leaders Living with or Affected by HIV).

As respected community figures, faith leaders have a vital role to play in the fight against HIV. In the photograph Anastasia (centre) attends church in Lusaka, Zambia, with her friend and caregiver Faustina. Celebration, worship and acceptance within her church community enable Anastasia, who is HIV-positive, to stay strong.

‘Some persons who are HIV positive no longer wants to come to the church because they feel that the church people are rejecting them. Now we need to change that. We need to have that corrected, not only in Jamaica I would say but worldwide.’

Rev. Delroy Harris, Castleford United Church

After HIV training with the United Theological College of the West Indies, Rev. Delroy Harris is working with his churches to change the congregation's attitude to HIV, encouraging lots of people to take the test and others to accept people living with HIV.

His vision to make sure the church is ready to accept and welcome HIV positive people.

Photo credit: Christian Aid/Hannah Richards

Worship resources

John Bell’s service, Flesh of our flesh, will provide inspiration for anyone marking World AIDS Day or wanting to incorporate HIV in their worship throughout the year.

The service features Christian Aid partner stories from Ethiopia and El Salvador and provides powerful accessible liturgy. Further materials for corporate worship and personal reflection will follow.

• Download Flesh of our Flesh (pdf 255kb)
• Download Cnawd o'n cnawd ni - Welsh version (pdf 255kb)

Additional resources to accompany Flesh of our flesh

Artists: Wild Goose Collective
Title: Woza Nomthwalo Come Bring Your Burdens To God (South African traditional)
Recording copyright: (c) 2006 WGRG, Iona Community, Glasgow G2 3DH, Scotland. Used by permission.
Download mp3 file here (right-click and save).

Optional monologue to be used as a sermon

The leper
You should have seen the priest’s face
when I arrived at the door.
I suppose me grinning all over didn’t exactly help.

He knew my family … especially my father
Who had helped to build the parish hall.
My dad and the priest were very close,
But they never talked about me.

You see, when you get leprosy
you don’t belong any more.
you don’t belong to your family;
you don’t belong in the church.

This was the priest
who had confirmed the diagnosis,
the priest who had sent me from the sanctuary,
never to return,
asking God to ‘have mercy’ on my soul …
the kind of things you’d say
to a criminal en route to the gallows.

But here I was back …
seven years later,
minus an arm,
presenting myself as cured.

He didn’t know what to say.
He didn’t know which book to look for
or which page to turn.

He had only been taught the ceremonial word
with which to send lepers away.
He had never learned
how to receive them back.

It took a long while,
a long while for him to come
within three feet (a metre) of me.

He wanted me to tie a blindfold on
until I said,
‘I’ve only got one arm.
You’ll have to do it.’

But he couldn’t bring himself to touch me.
So he asked me to put a sack over my head,
and then he took a pin
and began to stick it
into different parts of my body
saying, ‘Where am I touching?’

And every time I knew;
Because every time it hurt.
Pain had returned because I was healthy.

He even pushed the pin into my stump
and I yelled.
Actually I yelled louder than I needed to,
but I reckoned that if this guy
was going to give me a hard time,
he should feel some of the pain too.

Then he took the bag off my head
And said…
‘How is this possible?’

I said,
‘It’s possible
because in a world where everybody,
including my religious friends,
has kept back and avoided me,
somebody…
one man…
touched me.

No, he didn’t just touch me,
he embraced me
as if I were the lost brother
he’s always wanted to find.’

The priest didn’t ask his name.
It was as if he knew,
and as if he were disappointed
that what religion turned away from
God embraced.’

© Wild Goose Publications