The Church’s Changing Mission: Working with HIV/AIDS among the Shona People of Zimbabwe

Focusing on a case study “The Church’s Changing Mission: Working with HIV/AIDS among the Shona People of Zimbabwe”, this research focused on how to make the ministry of the church relevant to particular contexts; and on addressing the traditional, cultural and social experiences of the target community.

The devastating and unhealthy consequences of HIV/AIDS pandemic in the midst of a growing church among the Shona people of Zimbabwe suggest the need to investigate characteristics and factors that expose the Shona to HIV/AIDS risk behaviors; and formulating recommendations to the church for effective ministry with the Shona community. The study was carried out among Shona cohorts in the urban area and rural area. For the urban area, the study was done in Harare targeting the Shona Community and United Methodist congregations whose membership are largely made up of the Shona Speaking people. For the rural area, the study was carried out in Murewa and selected United Methodist churches in the same area.

The study examined what was fueling HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe and how the families, communities, the government and the United Methodist churches were responding to the scourge of HIV/AIDS. The study also investigated and contrasted the nature of the disease in urban and rural areas. In order to come up with recommendations the study explored and evaluated Uganda’s successful response to combating HIV/AIDS.

Data was collected through the use 100 questionnaires distributed equally and with sensitivity to gender in rural and urban areas. Other methods used to collect data were interviews (telephone and person to person), focus groups, participant observation, church reports and library research.

The results demonstrate that churches are involved in some kind of AIDS ministry. What lacked, and is vital for successful HIV/AIDS intervention, is a cooperative and coordinated approach to fight the epidemic. Results also suggest that there is need for the clarification and transformation of the Shona cultural values and traditional beliefs, a process that will help the Shona people move from current beliefs to where God desires them to be. The faces of AIDS discovered in this study expose the theological moral confrontations that emerge in caring for people affected with the disease; a reality that challenges the church to redefine its theology and find new ways of doing ministry in the wake of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.