'We cure HIV with anointing water': Six die after churches tell sufferers they don't need medicine



Church boasts it has a '100% success rate'



Department of Health says 'faith and prayer are not a substitute for any form of treatment'

At least six people with HIV stopped taking their medication and died after churches claimed God could cure them, an investigation has found.

Undercover reporters who posed as worshippers infected with HIV in south London were told that pastors could heal them.

The journalists underwent a 'healing process' where they were sprayed in the face with water while a member of the church called for the devil to come out.

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Claims: An undercover reporter tells a member of the church she has HIV. She responds that God can help free them and set them free

Pastors at the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Southwark boasted that they had a '100 per cent success rate', said Sky News which carried out the investigation.

The church holds the healing sessions once a month and asks people to hand over medical notes to prove they have an illness.

They use special 'anointing water' to 'cure' people.

The bizarre claims have been refuted by the Department of Health and a former Health Secretary.



Rachel Holmes, one of the pastors, told a reporter that if symptoms persist it is simply HIV leaving the body.



'We have many people that contract HIV. All are healed,' she told Sky News.

'Healing': The reporter is told that if it is 'God's plan' she can be cured

The woman at the church tells the HIV sufferer that she will be cured and will no longer need her medication

'We've had people come back before saying, "Oh I'm not healed. The diarrhoea I had when I had HIV, I've got it again".

'I have to stop them and say, "No, please, you are free".'

The Synagogue Church of All Nations has a presence around the world and members are expected to give money.

It is also a registered charity in Britain - which confers a variety of tax advantages.

A man called Emmanuel, who went to another church, stopped taking his pills a year ago after being told he was cured.

He said the priest told him being cured does not take one day.

Former Health secretary Lord Fowler said: 'It is bad advice, it is foolish advice and it is tragic advice because the consequences of this kind of advice can only be that people pass on HIV and can only be seriously bad for the individual concerned - including death'

'Cured': Emmanuel says he stopped taking medication after being told by a church in another area of the country that he had been healed

Documents reveal that at least six people have died across the UK - three of them in London - because they have stopped taking medication after they were told by a church they were healed.

There is no evidence that any of the people who died went to the Synagogue Church of All Nations.



In testimonies on its website, the church claims it has 'cured' people of cervical cancer, anorexia and heart disease.



A spokesman for the Department of Health said prayer is not a substitute for taking medication.



He said: 'We are very concerned if people are not taking their HIV medication based on advice from faith leaders.

'HIV treatment is highly effective but it requires patients to take their HIV medication as prescribed by their doctor.



'Our advice is clear that faith and prayer are not a substitute for any form of treatment, especially for HIV treatment.'



A spokesman for the Synagogue Church of All Nations, London branch, said: 'We are not the Healer; God is the Healer. Never a sickness God cannot heal.

'If somebody is healed, it is God who heals.

'We don’t ask people to stop taking medication. Doctors treat; God heals. Medical doctors do their work, just as ministers of God do.

'We sent a team of doctors, nurses and counsellors to help after the earthquake in Haiti, as well as to many other troubled nations, as you can see from our full documentary on Emmanuel TV. You will see the regard we have for medical doctors; I mean, the power of nature.