History
We began to meet together in 2004, as an attempt to address some of the issues we encounter as people with faith, also living with the virus. Many of us have experienced the difficulties of being unable to find sympathetic or understanding people, with whom we can share our HIV status in our faith communities, or families. Similarly, many of us find that a faith perspective is often not understood within other social groups, or health related networks.
Our small voluntary network includes people of all types: male and female, married and single, young and old, recently diagnosed and people who have lived with HIV for more than twenty years. We are from Africa and Latin America and Europe including the UK and Ireland. We are gay and straight men and women living with HIV. We include catholics active in church life and catholics who have been 'away' from the Church for many years. Some of us feel secure in our faith and identity as catholics, others struggle with faith and find ourselves in uneasy relationships with the wider Church.
Activities
Our core activity is to meet about once every two months to share food, prayer and conversation, in each others homes. At the moment, these meetings take place in London.
Currently we provide some telephone support to individuals.
We also meet for our own liturgy during Lent.
We go away together annually, for a weekend retreat in the countryside. During this event, we take time out from our ordinary lives, to pray together, share stories and experiences, relax and reflect upon our lives as people living with HIV and seeking the presence of God in the midst of it all. We also manage to get in some quiet walks in the countryside and some jokes and conversation down the local pub.
We are supported by a Roman Catholic Priest who has been our 'Chaplain' since the begining and has many years experience of ministry with people living with HIV.