a first prayer for the prison next week We confess that there are times we find living with hope is simply too hard, when it seems easier to focus on miracles of virgin births, shining stars and wise men from the east than it is to have faith that love might come into even our…
It’s been a tough year in the prison this year – a few deaths, lots of grief, and it’s continuing on… I’ve been asked to do a ritual on Christmas morning for all the men in the unit, to remember the people from the unit who have died. This is the current draft. It will…
This Thursday is the last advent service in the prison and Saturday I’m doing a memorial service for those in the unit that have died this year [at the prison’s request – certainly not of my own choosing], along with a christmas service. The memorial service is compulsory, unless we can talk the prison out…
Advent can seem a bit redundant in the prison – how much more waiting can we expect a group of people do? – so we’re spending it getting ready for the christmas day service. On Thursday we talked through Isaiah 35 and reworked it together with new images for this time and place. It was…
The woman who made my coffee this morning, when I told her I was spending Christmas morning in the prison, said, ‘That’s very good of you’. I instinctively responded ‘It’s very good for me’. I don’t mean that in a sanctimonious, martyrish way. I’m not that selfless. Last night I went into the Marlborough Unit…
We are currently talking to some rural congregations about the connection they have with the prisons in their community, and how we might develop those relationships more fully. I’ll talk more about that down the track – it’s a really exciting new direction – but a lovely part of the process at the moment is…
just thought i’d throw this out there to see what anyone thinks… it’s a draft of a paragraph in the book i’m writing for the prison. Christian witness sometimes confuses hope with optimism, and pastoral care with making people feel better; and the harder a situation is, the more desperately we cling to the belief…
[Christop and Craig have more comprehensive wrap ups of Just Worship, including photos… Craig’s blog includes more detailed stuff about Peter Majendie and Dave White’s presentations] [photo stolen shamelessly from Christop] I am back in Melbourne which is deliciously balmy after Christchurch. I had a fabulous time. It’s really good to be home. Just Worship…
We blessed the new chapel at Barwon Prison yesterday. The chapel is gorgeous; designed by one of the inmates, and built by some of the men. They were rightly proud as punch. the liturgy went as follows: Welcome to the Land: This chapel is on land of which the Wauthurong people have been the custodians…
