With the number of HIV/Aids cases in the UK rising, the response of churches is increasingly crucial, a Christian conference on HIV/Aids will hear this month. Delegates will hear that HIV/Aids is no longer a Third World issue that can be ignored, but something that congregations are regularly facing.
“We tend to think of HIV/Aids as something out there rather than a problem within, yet HIV/Aids is also marching into the church. Any growing church, which is seeing people come into faith is likely to face HIV/Aids sooner or later. It’s important that we are equipped to deal with this, but also that we are able to reach out to care for those in our local communities,” comments Dr Patrick Dixon, HIV/Aids expert and keynote speaker at the conference.
Dr Patrick Dixon will be addressing UK churches at a one-day conference hosted by Tearfund and Oasis Esteem on 15th September. The conference, HIV/Aids Resurgence in the UK - Empowering the Church to respond, will be held at Regent Hall, 275 Oxford Street, London from 10am-5pm, and will also include practical workshops and seminars with speakers Amanda Williams, Director of Grandma’s and David Kabiswa, Director of ACET Uganda.
“Churches’ first priority in addressing HIV/Aids must be to get people, especially leaders educated. Church leaders need to be up to date and well informed. Books, conferences and visiting speakers are all ways to achieve this. Even a ten-minute presentation as part of a Sunday service can be long enough to bring home the impact of AIDS,” continues Dr Dixon.
“There are significant pastoral implications for churches with HIV+ members,” says Dr Dixon. “I talked recently to a mother with a young child who had moved 100 miles away from her church after the news that she had HIV gradually spread. She said she felt accepted and cared for by the leaders and supported by her home group which met in someone's house during the week. Unfortunately, once her situation became widely known in the church, she began to notice a change. She felt people were avoiding her. No one wanted to have her child to play any more. No one wanted to share the communion cup with her. She felt isolated, insecure, rejected and afraid.”
“This conference is an opportunity to explore the shifting needs of today’s churches, challenge complacency, celebrate the many areas of good church practice and encourage more churches to become involved in the years ahead.”