Anglicans Less Concerned About HIV, Research Suggests

Anglicans in the UK are less concerned about HIV than other denominations, suggests a survey conducted by the Christian Research group.

According to the research, which was drawn from 1,069 churchgoers from 308 Protestant churches, only 35 per cent of Anglican respondents listed the disease as one of the top three global issues of the day.

Charismatic evangelicals were the most concerned about HIV or Aids, with 52 per cent including it as a top three global concern, according to the survey.

Now the Christian HIV/AIDS Alliance has launched a response to the research and stated that more effort is required in the fight against the disease.

Comprising 19 Christian organisations, CHAA aims to raise awareness about Aids - which they say is now a pandemic.

CHAA wants to see more churches become involved with the life-saving work, to build on the work currently being done out by Christian agencies such as Christian Aid and Tearfund.

Alan Bain, Vice Chair of CHAA, said, "I am aware that there are so many other issues happening in the Church of England.

"However I would like HIV and AIDS to have a higher priority."

He added: "No doubt it will be high up on the agenda at next year's Lambeth Conference [of Anglican bishops from around the world]."

Researcher Bill Lattimer of Christian Research said the results were "surprising" as he thought Anglicans would be "well informed" regarding the global disease.

CHAA is advising individual churches to contact their denominations and dioceses about involvement in tackling Aids and HIV, which infects 12,000 new people every day.

Although Christian Research's study revealed that Christians are better informed about how Aids and HIV are transmitted than the general public, 11 per cent of Christians still regard HIV or Aids as "God's judgment on sinful behaviour".

More churchgoers, 55 per cent, believed that people who became infected by HIV only had themselves to blame - compared with 47 per cent of the public who thought the same.

According to Suzi Howe, director of The Bethany Children's Trust and member of CHAA, this is a remnant of 1980s publicity that Aids was just a 'gay plague' and not transmittable to heterosexual couples by a range of means.