Praying and Preaching on HIV and AIDS

There are numerous fine resources for praying and preaching on AIDS. Many of them have been prepared for churches to use around World AIDS Day, which is observed on the 1st of December each year. Several local churches hold World AIDS Day services. Some offer quiet space for reflection, and focus on remembering loved friends and family members lost; others focus on the challenge of AIDS and poverty worldwide.

But praying and preaching on AIDS can be part of our worship at any time, not just on World AIDS Day. At one church, the difficulties faced by AIDS orphans formed part of the reflections on Mothering Sunday; a South African theological college did a Stations of the Cross with an HIV/AIDS theme during Lent.

CCOW has a wide range of print resources for HIV/AIDS liturgy, including the South African stations of the cross, past services from Diakonia in South Africa, USPG packs, Christian Aid liturgies (for World AIDS Day pre-2006), and more. We've included links to liturgies, sermons and theological reflections below.

You can also download below our 2008 World AIDS Day resource -- with prayers from the Anglican diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman, The United Church of Zambia, CAFOD, and the Baptist Union -- below (scroll to the end of the page).  If you would like to put together a service with a speaker, get in touch with us: we can put you in touch with people who will be glad to share their experiences, stories, thoughts and prayers. We also have materials from Christian AIDS' campaigns around the world, and CDs of Christian music related to AIDS.

World AIDS Day

The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance has a very helpful page on how your church can get involved in World AIDS Day 

Collections of Liturgies, Worship Resources and Sermon Aids

There are dozens of liturgies and worship resources listed on the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance's HIV and AIDS Resources page.

The Christian AIDS Bureau for Southern Africa [CABSA] "aims to assist and support churches and faith communities in their involvement in the HIV and AIDS field. Their "Christians Praying about HIV and AIDS" page has a wide range of prayer resources; they also have a "Stories and Poems" page.

The World Council of Churches published Africa Praying: A Handbook on HIV/AIDS Sensitive Sermon Guidelines and Liturgy, a very rich resource.

Liturgies, Prayers and Presentations

CAFOD offers a selection of prayers.  

Each year for the past several years, Christian Aid has released a liturgy for World AIDS Day. For 2009, Christian Aid is offering some prayers written by Tony Robinson, Bishop of Pontefract, and also a service prepared by Evie Vernon, who works for Christian Aid partners Jamaican AIDS Support for Life.  As noted above, CCOW has electronic and hard copies of most previous liturgies.

The United Reformed Church's Commitment for Life programme has a "Prayer Partners" resource that includes a prayer for World AIDS Day.

Several networks of the Roman Catholic church in the US combined to provide liturgical resources for World AIDS Day 2006. These are in part linked to the common lectionary (and hence refer to different readings than those for 2009/2010), but also contain many beautiful free-standing prayers, points for meditation, and reflections. The materials will be particularly helpful for churches which also celebrate either Christ the King Sunday or First Sunday of Advent alongside World AIDS Day.

Tearfund offers prayer points for World AIDS Day.  

The United Methodist Church (US) has a responsive litany that calls the church to caring action.

Anglican mission society USPG has placed on its website a number of resources with the theme "How the World Church is tackling the HIV epidemic"