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WHY 'STITCHED UP' SAVIOUR IS YOUNG OFFENDERS' FRIEND
26 August 2008
HE WAS grassed on, stitched up and took the rap for his friends – that’s why young offenders identify with Jesus.
‘The lads I work with have been there, too,’ says prison chaplain Rev Shelagh Jones. ‘They understand what happened on Good Friday and identify with it. For many of them getting baptised is an opportunity to make a fresh start.’
With youth crime high on the political agenda, Rev Jones will address the Northern Christian Resources Exhibition (25-27 Sep, 2008, Yorkshire Event Centre, Harrogate).
Shelagh, who has been at Her Majesty's Young Offender Institution (HMYOI) Wetherby since 1997, believes local churches can bring down crime statistics by nurturing young offenders’ faith after release.
‘The lads I work with understand what it is to be a prodigal son,’ she says, ‘but too often they encounter the judgmental elder brother rather than forgiving father.’
Under the title ‘Help, there’s an ex-offender in my church’, Shelagh will explain how local churches can play their part at a crucial stage in a young offender’s life.
‘Ideally he needs to be in a place with lots of youngsters – and people who don't ask awkward questions,’ she says.
Ex-offender Gram Seed, from Middlesborough, will speak at a special exhibitors’ breakfast at CRE (Sat 27 Sep). In his book ‘One Step Beyond’ Gram recalls being written off as a lost cause. ‘What did Jesus want with a scumbag like me?’ he writes. The book’s publishers, CWR, have given away 20,000 copies to prisons and young offender institutions throughout the UK.
Up to 130 organisations are expected to exhibit at Northern CRE in Harrogate, from vestment suppliers to publishers, children’s charities to retreat centres. More than 4000 people, representing most mainstream Christian denominations, are expected to attend event, the majority with some form of leadership responsibility in their local churches.
