The conference was an opportunity to discover not only what is already being achieved by local churches around the world, but also the effect that they as individuals might have with the knowledge and resources to help their own churches to respond in the UK.
The Positive Church Conference, produced by Tearfund and hosted by Bracknell Family Church, opened with an emotive and captivating address by Kay Warren, Executive Director of the HIV initiative at Saddleback Church, California.
She spoke passionately of her brokenness and her initial steps into communities torn by HIV and Aids, including a visit to a slum in Calcutta. She also spoke of how a magazine caught her eye with an article on Aids in Africa. She struggled to look at pictures of emaciated bodies and babies so weak they were unable to brush flies from their faces.
As she read the article, held her hand in front of her face, “making the monster of what I was seeing as small as I could”
“How can there be so many children orphaned in one place and I can’t name a single one of them. What’s wrong with me that my faith has not caused me to engage with a problem of this magnitude?” she shared.
Mrs Warren told the conference and those delegates who were there just starting to find out and lift the lid on the issues, “This day could be a decision to move and serve in ways unlike you ever have.
“The truth is it’s not a sin to be sick and how someone became infected should not change the way we respond. We are called to respond to the sick with hope, compassion and healing.”
She continued with a challenge to churches to do their part in the fight to overcome HIV and Aids.
“Every church can encourage people to get tested for HIV,” she said. “Every church can send volunteers into the community to be a part of caring for people doing practical things. Every church can remove the stigma …every church can preach messages that break down those barriers that keep people away.”
