PositiveFaith Online World AIDS Day Services
PositiveFaith Online World AIDS Day Services
Nadine Cameron Ward
As we prepare for our third online World AIDS Day service, it is pertinent to look back at our first two services and to thank all those who have participated, whether speaking from the heart, leading liturgy or prayer, or listening in quiet contemplation, live or at any time since the first broadcast.
Each online service has been a work of love and solidarity.
In 2020, in the first year of that other pandemic, COVID19, when most people had to stay at home during the winter lockdown, we decided to bring together our friends, members and supporters for an ecumenical online service, the theme of which was ‘Called To Solidarity’. This was an intimate service with contributions from our closest friends where we got together to pray for those who are abandoned, to remember those who have died, and to pray & work for justice.
To watch the whole service, please visit https://www.positivefaith.org.uk/blog/called-to-solidarity-wad-2020
2021 was the 40th anniversary of the HIV pandemic, and to mark World AIDS Day, our online service followed the theme of Struggle, Learning & Hope. We brought together friends from around the world, including Michael O’Loughlin, author of Hidden Mercy: AIDS, Catholics, and the Untold Stories of Compassion in the Face of Fear, and Brendan F who spoke beautifully about struggle and HIV stigma. To watch the full 2021 service, please go to our blog: https://www.positivefaith.org.uk/blog/online-world-aids-day-service-2021
This year, we are returning to the theme of solidarity as per the 2022 topic of Global solidarity, shared responsibility. We will talk about acts of solidarity and will stand together in the hope of a world with no HIV or stigma. COVID19 has demonstrated to the world at large what we have perhaps known for some time: how vulnerable we are and how, in different ways, we all depend on each other. We are stronger when we stand together.
This service will be as much a time to reflect as it will be a time to pray. To join us, please visit https://www.positivefaith.org.uk/blog/2022-virtual-world-aids-day-service and register to attend the 2022 online service.