PRISONS WEEK WILL BE MARKED FROM 11th UNTIL 18th OCTOBER THIS YEAR – TWO SUNDAYS
We are pleased to give you a link to ResourcesForPrisonsWeek-LPM2020 the new edition of the London Prisons Mission booklet of resource material. The purpose of this is to encourage and enable ordained and lay people of churches of all denominations to arrange interesting services, as well as discussions during Prisons Week.
You will see that this year the booklet focuses on women in prison. There are too many men, women and children in overcrowded British prisons and all of them need care and attention. The plight of women and girls involved with the criminal justice system, in prison and at risk when leaving prison to homelessness requires our deep concern. The reasons for this are explained in the Foreword by the Rt Revd Rachel Treweek, Bishop of Gloucester and Bishop for Women’s Prisons and by other contributors with substantial inside knowledge and experience .(See pages 5,8,18,19, 22 & 23). We hope the information in the booklet will be useful for 52 weeks and not only Prisons Week.
In recent years, some churches have made good use of the booklet by reprinting the Quiz, artwork, or other sections for their local Orders of Service, which is welcomed. This year, in the light of Covid the booklet has been primarily produced for digital distribution. Individual pages can still easily be printed out but we would ask you to please accredit Koestler Arts and the London Prisons Mission if you do so. Please contact LPM if you particularly need hard copies of the full booklet, but ask you to accredit Koestler Arts and the London Prisons Mission if you do so. Please contact the LPM if additional hard copies are needed as we have a limited number available.
WIDER CIRCULATION. The Prisons Week booklet has been circulated wider and wider each year via a variety of informal networks. Although the initial users are CTiW member churches, we heard last year from churches in all the nations of the UK as well as the East and West coast of the USA, which used it as well. Please circulate the booklet to your friends, via your own networks and tell us how you have used it and give us your suggestions for future improvements.
John Plummer
Coordinator London Prisons Mission
Member of the CTiW Executive