African churches resisted calls ahead of World AIDS Day to agree to promote condoms to fight the disease, drawing fire from activists who said they would end up preaching over the graves of the epidemic's victims.
The All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), which groups 120 million faithful across the continent, closed a conference in Cameroon late on Thursday after adopting a resolution to promote "protected sex" that did not mention condoms.
Condom advocates said the churches' reliance on encouraging people to abstain from sex and be faithful to spouses had failed to stop the epidemic's march in Africa, where the disease killed 2.3 million people this year.
"What about those who cannot abstain or be faithful? Are they not members of our community?" said Joseph K'Amolo, a Kenyan lay Christian at a meeting in Yaounde of the AACC General Assembly, which sets policy for the body.
"Is it better to prescribe condom use and save lives of people with the hope that if we continue ministering to them they may change one day, or wait and watch them die and we come to preach over their graves?" he told Reuters.
Opponents of condoms within churches often argue that they promote promiscuity which will lead to more people becoming infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
African churches are often on the front line in the battle against AIDS, caring for sufferers on a continent where governments often provide little assistance.
An estimated 26.6 million Africans carry the HIV virus, while the continent is struggling to cope with 11 million children orphaned by the scourge.
The mainly-Protestant AACC's backing for "protected sex" was part of a 10-point pledge to fight AIDS, including speaking out against stigma linked to the disease and encouraging people to take HIV tests.
"As far as we are concerned this is war," the AACC General Secretary, Bishop Hamilton Mvume Dandala, told the six-day conference ahead of World AIDS Day on Monday.
"We declare unequivocally that HIV/AIDS is not the will of God for Africa. We will try with all we have to resist it," he told hundreds of members of the AACC, which is based in Kenya and has members in 39 countries.
In Zambia, where one in five people have HIV or AIDS, a senior official said on Friday a project to provide free AIDS drugs had been extended but the government was still struggling to assist many people infected with AIDS.
"Our goal is to reach 10,000 people but we have difficulties at the moment because of lack of funds," Central Board of Health (CBoH) spokesman Victor Mukonka told Reuters.