Alongside You
Supporting children & families living with HIV in East London
020 7473 5050
Information for churches
As a Christian Charity, we passionately believe that all should experience acceptance and love and that as Christians we are responsible for caring for those in need and challenging stigma and discrimination.
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Speaking at local churches about local issues helps to raise awareness, grow compassion and correct wrong beliefs about HIV.
Training and church talks
We are able to send one of our team to speak to your congregation in a Sunday service or to a small group during the week. We have spoken in around 45 churches in East London, representing a wide range of church denominations.
We use Bible texts to explore issues related to HIV. Such as attitudes and behaviours related to stigma and the damage it can do, along with looking at God's heart and in turn our responsibility to care for those in need. This can help church families to become more aware of hidden issues and unconscious attitudes and enable a growing understanding and compassion.
“I have never disclosed to anyone in church, because I never felt comfortable to open up. I’ve talked openly in other contexts, but not in church. It is fear of being judged and I want to protect my children.” Mum living with HIV
“I think I could disclose to my Pastor because of what I hear in sermons. How leaders approach life issues, help you to know”. Person living with HIV
“In an ideal world, I’d love to disclose to church. I would love the support coming from my church, as church becomes your family”
Person living with HIV
“It would be good to hear sermons that relate HIV to the scripture. That would make it safe to talk and help people to start showing a bit more love in this church” Person living with HIV
“You would expect them (people with a position in church) to encourage you and help you get strong. Being judgmental is a problem and gossip. I’ve heard a few things said about other people and it made me think it’s good I’ve not opened up to you” Person living with HIV
“I have never really spoken about HIV at church, probably because I am not aware of anyone who is positive” Pastor
Research and Report on Church and HIV
We carried out research in 2012-13 in partnership with Tearfund. We conducted in-depth qualitative interviews amongst Christians living with HIV, church leaders and anonymous questionnaires of whole congregations. In total, 600 people from 30 churches were included and a report was published. It aims to help churches understand issues and take steps to address them. Check out our blog post on HIV and Church to learn more.
World AIDS Day
We encourage churches to mark World AIDS Day on the Sunday closest to the 1st December. One way you can show your support is by including prayers for those living with HIV. Providing red ribbons to wear is another simple act that people living with HIV within your congregation will find supportive.
You can also help us by praying for our work or advertising our volunteer training programmes and opportunities to help local families. If you have one of our volunteers as part of our church, giving them opportunity to share and pray for them is a great way of doing this. Please feel free to get in touch if we can help enable you with resources.
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