A special message will be read out in St Philip and St James Church in Bath to mark World Aids Day on December 1.

The Bath-based Christian HIV/Aids Alliance (CHAA) has launched a Creed for the Aids Pandemic to help churches to remember the 2.1 million people who died from Aids-related illnesses last year and to support those living with the disease.

The Creed is printed on bookmarks and is designed to be signed and dated by church members as a commitment to slowing down the spread of Aids.

Aids activist the Rev Alan Bain, who is vice-chairman of CHAA and vicar of the church, attended the World Aids Conference in Mexico City earlier this year.

There, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said greater efforts were needed if the world was to meet an international agreement – the Millennium Development Goal – of halting and reversing the spread of HIV by 2015.

Copies of the Creed for the Aids Pandemic are available to order or by download on the CHAA website, http://www.chaa.info.