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Grateful for the opportunity of working for a global fellowship of the churches, the two new interns at the WCC aspire to use their personal and professional experiences from Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the WCC’s work on gender justice and health issues.

Women from churches across Africa have gathered in Kenya to focus on the achievements, challenges and opportunities of women's ministry in African churches over the past 30 years, as well as their responses to the HIV and AIDS pandemic.

Religion is a double-edged sword for women healing from violence and trauma, yet they find their way out of pain in amazing ways, say two scholars whose work investigates and analyses this.

African churches must confidently step into the lives of minority groups suffering from HIV and AIDS supporting them irrespective of their circumstances, said, author of A Walk at Midnight: Journeying with Abused Women and Girls towards inner Dignity and Wholeness, Catherine Mumbi Wanjohi, known for her work with sex workers facing the threat of HIV and AIDS in Kenya.

Faith-based organizations, with the United Nations, have urged expansion of access to anti-retroviral treatment for persons living with HIV and AIDS in a consultation organized by the UNAIDS and Caritas Internationalis, from 25 to 26 February in Rome, Italy.

Representatives of faith-based organizations at the International Conference on AIDS and STI’s in Africa (ICASA) have called for the recognition of a clear link between sexual and gender-based violence and the continued spread of HIV and AIDS. Together they affirmed their significant role in the post-2015 agenda to turn the tide of HIV and related inequities.

Botshelo Moilwa, a young African woman from Gaborone, Botswana, called on churches to affirm the dignity of women amidst the realities of HIV and AIDS and sexual violence, if they are to realize the Christian vision of justice and peace.

Christian theology regarding all people as created in God's image can help overcome the HIV and AIDS pandemic. This and other views on the impact of HIV in Africa, its gender dynamics and the role of people living with HIV, were shared by Prof. Musa W. Dube, a former consultant of the Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiative in Africa (EHAIA) in a recent interview.

A staff member of the Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiative in Africa (EHAIA) has been elected as general secretary of the Council of Christian Churches in Angola (CICA). She will be the first woman to serve as general secretary of the CICA, a position she considers an “opportunity to mobilize African churches to do more” in healing HIV affected communities.

By Marcelo Schneider (*)

At the recent International AIDS Conference, ecumenical participants focused on the need to intensify churches’ efforts to support women trapped in societies marred with sexual and gender-based violence. There was also an emphasis on reducing stigma attached to HIV in communities.

Jessie Fubara-Manuel shares her views on violence, the HIV pandemic and struggles of women in churches to become part of the solution in Nigeria. She is a Presbyterian elder, a poet and a human resources consultant and has been involved with the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiative in Africa (EHAIA) programme.

By Astrid Berner-Rodoreda (*)

"€œChurches should not shy away from discussing health issues. The more we remain in denial, the more we end up promoting a culture of silence," said Dr Sr Elizabeth Vadakekara from India, representing the Medical Mission Sisters in London.

The shock expressed by members of a rural congregation when offered an opportunity for voluntary HIV testing and counselling, and other similar experiences have taught Pauline Wanjiru Njiru that it is not the Human Immunodeficiency Virus that kills people, but fear, stigma and ignorance.

“The speed with which you run depends on what is chasing you.” One of Ezra Chitando's favorite African proverbs also captures his beliefs regarding the church's long-term commitment to meeting HIV-related challenges.

The HIV pandemic has been on the world stage for three decades now.  For most of that time the World Council of Churches (WCC) and its member churches have been deeply involved in making churches and theological institutions HIV-competent, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

By Nyambura Njoroge (*)

By Stephen Brown (*)

On International Women's Day, 8 March, ecumenical leaders have urged churches to work to end violence against women in its many forms across the world.