Blog post
Fear, grief, and uncertainty can spread through communities almost as quickly as a virus—especially in the absence of a widely available vaccine. When people feel excluded from decisions affecting their families, traditions, and faith, mistrust can undermine even the best public health interventions.
Churches are uniquely positioned to help prevent that from happening.
I learned this during my years working in the HIV and AIDS response. As a church leader living openly with HIV, I saw how fear and stigma could deepen when faith communities lacked accurate information and compassionate theological reflection. But I also saw how quickly attitudes changed when faith leaders became part of the solution rather than part of the problem.
That lesson became even clearer during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
One of the greatest challenges was not simply the virus itself. It was the growing gap between public health requirements and deeply held cultural and religious practices, particularly around death, mourning, and burial.
For many families, burial rituals are sacred acts of love, dignity, and spiritual responsibility. Yet some practices also carried a high risk of infection. When communities felt that loved ones were being taken away without dignity or proper religious observance, fear and mistrust grew rapidly. In some places, unsafe burials continued in secret, rumours spread, and health workers became targets of suspicion and violence.
It became clear that medical interventions alone would not stop the epidemic.
Drawing on lessons many of us had learned through HIV, Channels of Hope was adapted for Ebola, with technical support from the World Health Organization, to help faith leaders engage communities with accurate information, compassionate care, and practical responses to the outbreak.
Research later showed that roughly 70% of respondents received Ebola prevention information from religious leaders. Faith leaders also played a critical role in promoting safe and dignified burial practices that helped rebuild trust while protecting communities from infection.
This experience offers important guidance for the current outbreak.
Communities are not simply resisting public health measures because they reject science. Fear is colliding with grief, religious obligation, cultural identity, trauma, and longstanding mistrust of institutions. If these realities are ignored, communities can become alienated from the very systems trying to protect them.
The question is not whether churches have a role to play. The question is how they can use their trust and influence to protect communities during this outbreak.
Three priorities stand out.
First, build trust before fear takes root.
Faith leaders are often among the most trusted voices in their communities. Churches can create spaces for honest conversations, listen to community concerns, address rumours and misinformation, and help communities engage constructively with public health guidance before fear becomes entrenched.
Second, become trusted bridges between science, faith, and communities.
Faith leaders are uniquely positioned to translate scientific information into language and practices that people understand, trust, and embrace. They can counter rumours and misinformation, challenge harmful theological interpretations that portray disease as God's punishment or judgement, and use existing communication networks—from sermons and Bible studies to radio programmes and WhatsApp groups—to share accurate, lifesaving information. Churches can also help public health authorities better understand the concerns, fears, and realities of local communities.
Third, champion safe and dignified burial practices.
One of the most painful lessons from previous Ebola outbreaks was that public health measures can fail when they disregard the spiritual, cultural, and emotional realities surrounding death and mourning. The development of safe and dignified burial protocols became a turning point because they demonstrated that communities do not have to choose between safety and dignity.
Church leaders should familiarise themselves with these protocols and help congregations understand why they matter. At the same time, churches can play an important role in working alongside health authorities, humanitarian agencies, and local response teams to ensure that these practices are implemented in ways that genuinely respect religious beliefs, family participation, prayer, and mourning rituals.
Faith leaders can become advocates for both dignity and safety—helping communities embrace lifesaving measures while ensuring that no family feels excluded, dishonoured, or abandoned in their time of grief.
Trusted faith leaders also need practical tools that help them engage communities in ways that are both scientifically informed and theologically grounded. One such resource is Channels of Hope for Ebola. These materials are already available and can be downloaded for immediate use to equip and mobilise faith leaders, helping them become trusted sources of accurate information, compassionate care, and responsible theological reflection during outbreaks.
Today, as Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo once again face the threat of Ebola, churches have an opportunity—and a responsibility—to act.
By building trust, promoting dignity, and standing alongside communities, faith leaders can help create the conditions in which effective public health responses can succeed.
Before fear takes root, trust must.
About the author :
Reverend Christo Greyling has been living with HIV since 1987 and became the first Southern African faith leader to disclose his HIV status in 1992. After his theological studies, Christo completed his Masters in Public Health (Cum Laude) He then joined World Vision International from which he retired recently after 21 years. During this time with World Vision, he led the development of the Channels of Hope methodology which has catalysed more than 600,000 faith leaders in 50+ countries to respond to difficult development issues, such as HIV, child protection, maternal and child health, gender and Ebola. He served as their director for HIV and Infectious diseases, and senior director for Faith and external engagement.
Christo was instrumental in founding the Christian AIDS Bureau of Southern Africa, Stellenbosch AIDS Action and a founding member and chair of the African Network for Religious Leaders Infected and Affected HIV/AIDS (ANERELA+). He is the chairperson of HIV and Reproductive Health Working Group of the WCC Commission of the Churches on Health and Healing.
