CAPS hosts 'A Patchwork of Positive Stories'

Image: CAPS

Source: CAPS

'A Patchwork of Positive Stories' event was hosted by the charity Catholics for AIDS Prevention & Support (CAPS) in central London yesterday, Monday 8 September.

At the evening event two HIV-AIDS-Quilts were displayed for the first time. Together they represent the Church's response to HIV in the UK spanning the last 40 years. The first quilt, newly-reconditioned, displays patches created by the Catholic AIDS Link (CAL) Charity (1988-1999) remembering people who died of AIDS. The second has been made by members of CAPS' POSITIVE FAITH HIV-Peer-Support Ministry, presenting stories of people living with HIV today.

60 people including HIV-sector clinicians and workers, Local Authority Commissioners, faith-community members and people living with & affected by HIV listened to POSITIVE FAITH members who spoke about their patches. Diverse experiences of living with HIV were shared by men & women, heterosexual & gay, migrants or refugees from Africa and Europe receiving HIV-treatment in the UK.

CAPS' Director Dr Vincent Manning put the quilts into historical perspective noting that the CAL Quilt represents the Catholic response to AIDS in the 1990s and the CAPS Quilt the Catholic response to HIV today. He described how in both cases, whilst supported by individual Bishops and members of the clergy, these pastoral and educational responses to HIV in society were led by lay people. He described the pastoral need of any Christian diagnosed with HIV to address doctrinal issues in order to "make faith-sense of living with HIV". The other speakers emphasised the importance of faith and how belonging to POSITIVE FAITH had helped them to navigate social disadvantage and overcome HIV-Stigma.

With peer-support communities in London, Manchester & Cambridgeshire, CAPS is the only remaining national Christian charity specialising in pastoral support for people living with HIV in Great Britain and Ireland.

The two Quilts will be displayed again at The Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street, London, on Saturday December 6th to coincide with the celebration of a Mass for World AIDS Day at 3pm where CAPS' Patron Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe OP will preach.

For further information please visit: www.positivefaith.org.uk/