Regional AIDS Interfaith Network

"As ministers, we are grounded by our various faith traditions that call us to create a more just, loving and hopeful world. We are also influenced by the transforming power of a caring community."
- Reverends Deborah Warren, Amy Brooks, Stephanie Speller-Henderson and Debbie Kidd, Regional AIDS Interfaith Network (RAIN)

Read Transcript from May 30, 2003 Leadership Talks Archive

Join Leadership Talks on Friday, May 30, 2003 at 1 pm EST for a live, online interview with 2002 Leadership for a Changing World awardees Rev. Amy Brooks, Rev. Debbie Kidd and Rev. Debbie Warren of the Regional AIDS Interfaith Network in Charlotte, NC. The RAIN leadership team will discuss how faith communities in the United States, while often divided along racial and economic lines, can come together to address the common problem of HIV/AIDS.

One of the highest rates of new HIV/AIDS infections in the U.S. is in the Southeast, a part of the country rich in religious heritage. Southern faith-based organizations have great cultural influence, and can be especially important in reducing barriers and shaping public response to HIV/AIDS. A code of silence within this traditional community regarding homosexuality prevents many churches from acknowledging that some of their members are struggling with this infection. However, RAIN has engaged faith leaders of over 20 denominations and faith traditions to confront HIV/AIDS through prevention education and support for persons living with HIV/AIDS.

Through its CareTeam program, RAIN has trained more than 2,200 volunteers from 20 faith traditions to provide practical, emotional and spiritual support to people who live with HIV/AIDS and to their families. Since RAIN’s founding in 1992, its efforts in the religious community have translated into 80,000 volunteer hours and 775 HIV prevention-education programs provided to 27,000 people. In addition to adult leaders, RAIN recruits youth leaders for peer education programs.

CareTeams utilize liturgy, preaching and religious education to encourage compassion. The effect is twofold: support for the person with HIV/AIDS, and the introduction of members of religious congregations to the AIDS community. This connection reduces resistance in the wider community and encourages churches to incorporate HIV prevention programs in their education services and ministries. By adopting this approach, Warren, Brooks, Speller-Henderson and Kidd work to break the silence about HIV/AIDS

The most significant achievement of the RAIN leadership team has been to engage the religious community in a sustained and deepening conversation about HIV/AIDS by challenging the community to grapple with stereotypes, and the social and theological problems that accompany such a diagnosis.

For more information

Leadership for a Changing World profile

RAIN website