Every December 1, the world stops to remember the tens of millions of people AIDS has taken and to stand with the millions living with HIV today. For progressive and affirming congregations, it is also a day to tell the truth about the church’s part in the story — and to be the church that shows up now.

This page gives you everything you need to mark World AIDS Day in worship: a free, complete liturgy built around a reading of the names, guidance on the calendar, pastoral notes for the people in your pews, scripture for preaching, and worship media for the day.

What World AIDS Day is

World AIDS Day was first observed on December 1, 1988, established by the World Health Organization to bring global attention to the epidemic and to the people living with it. Its symbol, the red ribbon, was created by artists in New York in 1991 and has been worn ever since as a sign of remembrance and solidarity.

The day holds two things at once. It is a memorial for the people who died, many of them young, many of them buried by friends because their families or their churches would not. And it is a public witness for the roughly 40 million people living with HIV around the world today — most of whom, with access to treatment, can expect long and ordinary lives. A congregation that marks the day should make room for both.

The December 1 question: which Sunday?

World AIDS Day is fixed on December 1, so it moves across the days of the week. The Sunday nearest December 1 is always the first or second Sunday of Advent. Most congregations that observe the day in worship do it then. Some keep it a week early, on Reign of Christ, the last Sunday of the church year, so that Advent can begin on its own terms. A third option is a short service on the evening of December 1 itself.

The free liturgy works in all three. Nothing in it depends on the season, and it includes a section of adjustments for an Advent Sunday — how to hold the Advent wreath and the World AIDS Day candle side by side without asking either to carry the other’s meaning.

A free liturgy for World AIDS Day

A Liturgy for Speaking the Names is written for progressive, affirming, and mainline congregations, in expansive language. It does not treat HIV as a moral category, and it does not pretend the church was a bystander. Inside, you will find:

• A word of welcome, a call to worship, and a prayer of invocation built on Jesus weeping at the grave of his friend
• Eleven scripture readings, each with a note on why it fits the day
• The reading of the names — a litany with a place for your congregation’s own names and your town’s own history
• An optional action with red ribbons and a single candle
• A prayer of confession, with clear guidance on which congregations should pray it and who should never be asked to
• A prayer of thanksgiving for the churches that held the funerals others refused
• Prayers of the people, a section for an Advent Sunday, words for the communion table, and a sending
• Five short texts for your screen or bulletin, and public-domain music suggestions

Download the World AIDS Day liturgy — it is free, and it is yours to adapt.

Reading the names

The heart of the service is simple: people your congregation has lost, spoken aloud by name. It is the same instinct behind the AIDS Memorial Quilt, begun in San Francisco in 1987 so that the dead would be remembered as people rather than as a number.

• Gather the names before Sunday. Ask in the bulletin and from the pulpit for the names of people your members have lost.
• Ask how each name should be read — first name only, full name, or held in silence — and never read a name without the blessing of someone who loved them.
• Never read the name of anyone living. This is a memorial, and a person’s HIV status is theirs to share.
• Find your local history. A hospice ward, a clinic, a congregation that opened its doors or one that closed them. The litany leaves a line for it.

The church’s part in the story

In the first years of the epidemic, prominent preachers told their congregations and television audiences that AIDS was the judgment of God. Many churches refused funerals, and many more said nothing. Partners were turned away at hospital doors and left out of obituaries, and families were told their grief was a scandal.

That is not the whole story. Congregations — many of them queer-led — buried their own members and held the funerals others refused, and chaplains, nurses, and volunteers from across the church sat at bedsides when no one knew what was safe. Both belong in a World AIDS Day service. The free liturgy includes a confession for congregations with their own history to name, and a prayer of thanksgiving for those who showed up.

The Gospel had the answer all along. In John 9, the disciples see a man suffering and ask whose sin caused it. Jesus refuses the question. A World AIDS Day sermon can start right there.

Pastoral care around the service

• Assume someone in the room is living with HIV. They may not have told you, and the service is not the place to find out. Speak every word as if they are listening.
• Use person-first language: people living with HIV — not victims, sufferers, or carriers. Never say “clean” for negative.
• Say once, plainly, what medicine now makes true. A person living with HIV who is on treatment and keeps an undetectable viral load does not transmit the virus sexually. Public health agencies call this Undetectable = Untransmittable, and many people in your pews have never heard it.
• Do not make anyone the program. Many older gay men in your congregation buried their friends by the dozen. Invite, once, and accept no with grace.
• Keep testing out of the liturgy. If a local clinic offers free testing, put the details in the bulletin, and direct the offering to a local AIDS service organization.

Liturgical color for World AIDS Day

Keep the color the day already gives you: purple or blue on an Advent Sunday, white if you keep the day on Reign of Christ. There is no World AIDS Day color for the altar. The red ribbon belongs on people — hand them out at the door and invite everyone to wear one out of the building.

Scripture for preaching on World AIDS Day

The free liturgy includes five more readings with notes, including 2 Samuel 1, Ezekiel 37, and Revelation 21.

Worship media for World AIDS Day

Pair the liturgy with visuals built for the day: red ribbon and remembrance designs for your screens, a worship service video, PowerPoint backgrounds, and social media graphics to invite your community.

Browse the World AIDS Day collection

Looking for a single piece? The World AIDS Day Worship Service Video opens a service or introduces the reading of the names.

Write your own prayers for the day

Want a prayer of the people that names your own community, or a bulletin note in your congregation’s voice? PCM Lumen is an AI writing tool built for progressive ministry. It will never write your sermon, but it can help you draft the words around it.

Try PCM Lumen

More resources

• Transgender Day of Remembrance in the church
• A free Longest Night liturgy for Blue Christmas
• Funeral and memorial liturgy for affirming congregations
• Planning an Advent service
• Advent worship resources
• How to be an Open and Affirming congregation