‘…Remember those who are in Prison, as though in Prison with Them…’ (Hebrews 13, 3a)
“Prison is designed to break one's spirit and destroy one's resolve. To do this, the authorities attempt to exploit every weakness, demolish every initiative, negate all signs of individuality - all with the idea of stamping out that spark that makes each of us human and each of us who we are.” (Nelson Mandela, ‘Long Walk to Freedom’)
“The lowest depth that a human being can reach is to perform or to receive torture. The goal of the torturer is to inflict horrific pain and dehumanize another being. The act not only destroys both parties' souls — the victim's and the perpetrator's — but also the very fabric of a society. By subjecting men or women to enforced violence, sexual violation, or worse, you transform them into something subhuman. How does someone return to the human race after having been so brutalized?” (Janine Di Giovanni, ‘The Morning They Came for Us: Dispatches from Syria’)
‘If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed’
Week 1: Sunday February 18th – Saturday February 24th
Please pray for…
- Prison Chaplains, visiting clergy, faith community reps…
- Lay Visitors, Volunteer helpers of every kind…
- Those who teach, and those who train the prisoners…
- Those who offer therapy, counselling, psychological support…
Please read Acts chapter 4, verses 1 – 20
Week 2: Sunday February 25th - Saturday March 3rd
Please pray for...
- Prisoners on 'Death Row', awaiting execution, whenever…
- Those prisoners on whole life sentences; who will die in prison…
- Prisoners serving 'indeterminate sentences' - no release date…
- Those prisoners serving their time in 'solitary confinement'…
Please read Acts chapter 5, verses 11 - 42
Week 3: Sunday March 4th - Saturday March 10th
Please pray for...
- All those detained in Immigration Removal Centres…
- Those locked up in Youth Custody Centres…
- Patients confined to Long Term Secure Psychiatric Units…
- All those remanded in custody - awaiting their trial…
“The only people who get better are people who know that, if they never get better, God will love them anyway.” (Steve Brown, A Scandalous Freedom)
Please read Acts chapter 12, verses 1 - 19
Week 4: Sunday March 11th - Saturday March 17th
Please pray for...
- Prison Governors - Those with ultimate authority
- Prison officers - Those who are 'on the front line'…
- All support staff - The cooks, the cleaners, everyone else…
- Those who influence prisons policy, & those who enact it…
Whenever a new Christian comes into the church, I wince a bit, because I’m afraid that they will get the “religion disease,” that the “church virus” will kill off the joy and freedom Jesus purchased on the cross to give them.” (Steve Brown, A Scandalous Freedom)
Please read Acts chapter 16, verses 11 - 40
Week 5: Sunday March 18th - Saturday March 24th
"In order for prisons to truly serve the public, the people who run them would do well to aspire to the words of Thomas Mott Osborne, the storied warden of New York's Sing Sing Prison in the early part of the twentieth century, who vowed, 'We will turn this prison from a scrap heap into a repair shop." (Piper Kerman)
Please pray for...
- All newly released prisoners…
- Probation officers, & all after release care providers…
- Those in prison for the first time…
- Women prisoners: particularly those with babies to nurse…
“Jesus invited us to a dance … and we’ve turned it into a march of soldiers, always checking to see if we’re doing it right and are in step and in line with the other soldiers. We know a dance would be more fun, but we believe we must go through hell to get to heaven, so we keep marching.” (Steve Brown, A Scandalous Freedom)
Please read Acts chapter 21, verses 27 - 36
Week 6: Sunday March 25th - Saturday March 31st
Please pray for...
- All Political Prisoners…
- All Prisoners of Conscience - political, religious, moral…
- All Prisoners subjected to torture…
- All so-called 'Prisoners of War'…
Please read Acts chapter 27, verses 1 - 44
April 1st 2018
Easter Day
'(April) Fools for Christ'
“If in that Syrian garden, ages slain,
You sleep, and know not you are dead in vain,
Nor even in dreams behold how dark and bright
Ascends in smoke and fire by day and night
The hate you died to quench and could but fan,
Sleep well and see no morning, son of man.
But if, the grave rent and the stone rolled by,
At the right hand of majesty on high
You sit, and sitting so remember yet
Your tears, your agony and bloody sweat,
Your cross and passion and the life you gave,
Bow hither out of heaven and see and save.”
A.E. Houseman
‘He is not here, He is risen’…He is risen indeed’
Please read 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 18 -31