The head of the Revivalist church in PNG, who also happens to be a former Radio Australia journalist, believes he can cure AIDS and bring people back from the dead. But as correspondent Liam Cochrane discovers, this sort of faith healing is killing Papua New Guineans with HIV.

The beach was already packed with worshippers when we arrived: men in shirts and ties; women in colourful dresses, all singing and clapping.

As I set up the camera, a dozen men waded out and formed a line in thigh-deep water, ready for the baptisms.

One of the converts was carried out with a friend following behind clutching a bag of urine still attached to a catheter. He looked like he had come straight from hospital and he looked very ill.

According to the Revivalist Centre of PNG, these baptisms are the moment when people accept the power of God: a power that extends to healing the sick.

After the baptism, the ill-looking man did manage to stumble out, sort of on his own two feet, but mostly supported by a friend on each arm. As he stood unsteadily, receiving further blessing, his eyes rolled around and he still looked very ill.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 3 minutes 43 seconds 3 m 43 s From journalist to faith healer in PNG ( Liam Cochrane ) Download 6.8 MB

Other converts had gone in a different direction. The preachers stood in a tightly-knit group with their hands on the heads of the newly baptised and began talking in tongues, working themselves up to fever pitch.

My colleague Wesley and I left the revivalists to their babbling and walked about a hundred meters away to shoot a piece to camera. The wind was roaring and we knew getting clean audio would be a challenge.

But we also could not take too long: my piece to camera was about how this sort of faith healing is killing Papua New Guineans with HIV. The last thing I wanted was for someone to hear what I was saying and a crowd of worked-up believers turning on us.

Sorry, this video has expired Revivalist preachers in PNG hampering fight against HIV with bogus cures ( PNG correspondent Liam Cochrane )

The head of the Revivalist Centre of PNG says it is the fastest growing religious movement in the country.

Sure enough, the huge open-sided church, where we met Pastor Godfrey Wippon, could seat thousands.

He told us what he thought could be achieved with just prayer.

"It's not AIDS only: ulcers, cancers, TB. We have dead people being raised from the dead here," he said.

Asked what me meant by that, he said: "Seeping! Dying! Dead for 10 hours, eight hours, six hours, a day. And people come and prayed."

It was an astonishing claim. But there was another surprise in store.

It turned out Pastor Wippon is a former journalist with the ABC's international broadcaster Radio Australia.

This was a good 30 years ago, but Pastor Wippon had at one time been employed for his ability to be rational, fair and accurate. And now he thinks prayer can bring the dead back to life and cure AIDS.

It was hard to reconcile, and yet, in the context of Papua New Guinea, not too hard.

Most people here believe in sorcery, and that includes educated professionals, politicians, police officers and, yes, journalists.

But the sort of misinformation being peddled by Pastor Wippon and the Revivalist Centre of PNG is clearly dangerous. Preachers are going into hospitals and encouraging people living with HIV to throw away their medication and be healed by God.

And then they die.

I cannot help but wonder if some of them die still holding on to the hope that the power of prayer will bring them back from the dead.