|
 |
A lunch prepared by prisoners at Nottingham Prison is on the menu for the Bishop of Southwell & Nottingham this week, when he spends a day looking round the Prison, meeting the chaplaincy team, other staff and prisoners. The Rt Revd Paul Butler, will be welcomed by chaplain, the Revd Louise Cooper, on Thursday 23rd September 2010 and will be shown the new Faith centre and other building developments. After a tour of the prison, including an introduction to the reception and First Night Centre and looking at the workshop and Education areas, he will have lunch in the Staff Bistro where prisoners work gaining qualifications for careers in catering. Other elements of the visit will include time spent with the Offender Management Unit who link with the Probation service and a wide variety of community agencies to look at the needs men will have on release for successful resettlement. He will also meet with members of the multi-faith chaplaincy team including Muslim, Pentecostal, Quaker and Roman Catholic chaplains, along with Church of England chaplains and volunteers. This will be his first prison visit and will give him a good insight into the work of Prison chaplains – there are three other Prisons within the diocese. Bishop Paul said; “Staff and prisoners in our prisons can easily be forgotten by the rest of the community and we rarely get an insight into what it is like to be shut away from the rest of the world day in day out. I hope to hear from our chaplains and the staff and prisoners they support about the issues they face in prison today, so that I can pray for them more effectively and offer help where possible.” The visit is part of the Bishop’s schedule for his first year in post, which has included ‘getting out & about’ as much as possible across the diocese. Next month he will be visiting a hospital, meeting staff and patients and hospital chaplains.
|
