Where and when it hurts most: the theology of hope and accompaniment in the context of HIV and Aids in marriage and family life

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Periodical article

Title:	Where and when it hurts most: the theology of hope and accompaniment in the context of HIV and Aids in marriage and family life
Author:	Mashau, T.D.
Year:	2008
Periodical:	Exchange: Journal of Contemporary Christianities in Context
Volume:	37
Issue:	1
Pages:	23-34
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Africa
Subjects:	AIDS Church family
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1163/157254308X251331
Abstract:	The reality and effects of HIV and AIDS in Africa are enormous and devastating. Marriages are broken, the married are widowed and children become orphans. This has direct impact on Church life in that some of the people infected and affected by the spread of HIV and AIDS are members of the global Church. In most cases these people are rejected and judged by the Church without realizing that the Church is rejecting its own. Metaphorically speaking the Church of God is HIV positive whenever one of its own is positive. The main question addressed by this paper is: what should be the response of the Church when and where the effects of HIV and AIDS shake marriages and families? The paper proposes a theology of hope and accompaniment that seeks to stand in solidarity with those infected and affected by HIV and AIDS, thereby providing them with hope that enables them to deal with the present as they wait for the future. Ref., sum. [Journal abstract]