prisons
Ministry where people work as well as in places like colleges, prisons and hospitals is an important expression of the incarnation - we go where people are whether that is our local community or the workplace.
Chaplains in schools, hospitals, prisons, and the military engage most often with those farthest from the Church.
prisons through befriending
I have also helped run Alpha courses in the men’s and women’s prisons at Haverhill, Suffolk.
I have been involved with running parenting groups and helping on courses in prisons and during my time as a Trustee of MU in Manchester was responsible for all outreach programmes both national and local.
I then became Diocesan President for six years, continuing work with all three of our prisons, Domestic Abuse organisations, refuges, victims of modern slavery and refugees, as well as our Away From It All Holiday (AFIA) scheme.
I am also on the steering groups for Safeguarding, AFIA, Prisons, Domestic Abuse and Modern Slavery.
Alongside others, some of our work included, outreach to the homeless and vulnerable, work with women in the sex industry and those experiencing gender-based violence, children and families, youth, students, prisons, providing food banks, support for relationships and the Alpha Course.
I work in prisons and secure mental health units, which gives me experience of safeguarding, the criminal justice system, mental health, and chaplaincy in complex environments.
For example, the Worcester Diocesan Synod Motion, which discussed the role of faith in the rehabilitation of offenders, inspired me, in partnership with the Exeter Diocesan Safeguarding Team, to run an event for all those involved in ministry to prisons leavers.
My journey has included work as a pipefitter and in IT, street outreach, prisons, schools, housing estates, rural communities, and life on a substance rehabilitation working farm.
If elected, I would seek to Champion mission in parish and beyond, including prisons, hospitals, schools, universities, the armed forces and workplaces.
I served in High Security, Female and Sex- Offender prisons as the manager and then dropped my hours for a final 4 years as the Anglian Chaplain at HMP Sudbury.
In my local church, Lay Chair of PCC, Small Groups Lead, Member of Pastoral Ministry Team, Small Group Leader, Prisons’ Ministry advocate.
I would work to increase the voice of chaplains, often working in isolation in schools, universities, prisons and hospitals; they are the first contact for many searching for a faith.