Transforming lives behind bars

Jim Fisher, left, founder and patron of Prison Fellowship Australia, Ron Nikkel, Prison Fellowship International President and Tom Scarlett, right, founding Board Member of Prison Fellowship Queensland. Photo by David Way 

A NUMBER of Uniting Church chaplains and lay volunteers have pioneered a new program for Queensland prisons.

Kairos Prison Ministry Australia was given approval to conduct a six month pilot comprising the Kairos five day short course and the ongoing fortnightly journey of discovery within the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre, Queensland’s primary remand centre with a capacity for 890 prisoners, in Wacol, west of Brisbane.

The ultimate goal of Kairos is to build a Christian community inside the institution and to encourage, support and nurture the witness of the chaplains through participation in church services, bible studies and the various other Christian activities held at the Centre.

Management and prison chaplains nominated 24 inmates for whom the program had potential to impact within the Arthur Gorrie Centre. These inmates were invited to voluntarily attend the Kairos short course.

Twenty-six volunteer team members entered the Arthur Gorrie Centre each day while five other team members worked behind the scenes ‘on the outside’.

Kairos volunteer Greg Trosts said the program was designed to “bring Christ’s love and forgiveness to the inmates”.

“The ‘outside’ progam works with their families to assist in the inmates transition to becoming productive citizens and to foster a reduced incidence of repeat offending,” he said.

“We were thrilled to hear from one man who, after experiencing wonderful things of God during the week, had rung his wife in the evenings to tell her about what was happening.

“His wife googled Kairos and rang the Sydney office to thank them for what they were doing for her husband in prison.”

The week-long short course culminated in a closing ceremony in the gymnasium at the Arthur Gorrie Centre. Fifty invited guests, including denominational leaders and senior correctional managers, attended.

The Kairos ministry was designed for use in men’s, women’s and juvenile correctional institutions and has been used in prisons interstate and overseas. It is run by lay and clergy volunteers under the auspices of prison chaplains.

Team members were selected through the Emmaus, Catholic and Anglican Cursillo and similar faith communities.

In line with the Greek idea of ‘kairos’, everything has a place and an order in God’s special time.

For more information visit www.kairos.org.au