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January - February 2011

WESTERN – CENTRAL EUROPE


Dear European colleagues in Prison Fellowship,

We are happy to welcome new leaders such as Billy Paul and congratulate so much Brian Fraser for his
10 years as ED of PF Scotland. Brian’s commitment towards the European Region has been fruitful
during the years and we hope to count on his expertise in the future also.
We are sharing with you in this Newsletter various news items of best practices in media coverage and in
training led by leaders of the European ministries. The successful programmes we are running such as
Angel Tree and Sycamore Tree are really inspiring and contribute to raise awareness that our movement
of reconciliation is crucial in our world and society. There will be so many stories, experiences and
projects, as well as training opportunities, at our ninth Convocation in Toronto, that you would not miss
it for sure. We will also have our Regional Assemblies for which you will receive soon some information.
Meanwhile, remember we are at your disposal anytime all along the year.

With many blessings


Constantin, Hans, Tobias and Dominique

Leader’s profile:
PF Scotland new ED
The appointment of Billy Paul to take up the role of Executive Director
of PF Scotland was effective February 1st. Billy started as a
volunteer with prison Fellowship in Greenock some 27 years ago, and
has continued to help there over the intervening years, and also been a
regular visitor to Barlinnie and Kilmarnock prisons more recently.
Billy took early retirement following many years of senior
teaching and leadership roles in the west of Scotland in 2008, and is
well known to many in the Fellowship.
“It is my intention to visit all our volunteers, both in-prison and prayer groups, to meet the Prison
Fellowship family. If possible I will attend the groups and also get the chance to listen to the folk
on the ground and the people they are working with. It is my hope that a member of the Board of
Trustees will be able to join me on these visits” Billy said.

Billy is also a great singer (Grammy Award winning soul singer) and will lead part of the music
team at the Convocation as he did in 2007. Be sure to be there in Toronto to meet with him!
Training on communication and
media for volunteers in England and
Wales

Once a month since the beginning of 2011, PF E&W is training 10


volunteers in different regions, on communication and media with
a one-day seminar aimed at helping volunteers raising awareness
for their work in local prisons. The facilitator of the course is the
former advisor to the Archbishop of York. When PF E&W has
media requests, they ring around their prayer groups in the area
concerned and find a volunteer who is willing to be involved in
radio interviews, local papers or magazines. In 2010 PF E&W had about 36 media hits! Their
most recent coverage has been on an Angel Tree programme over Christmas: an article
published in the Woman Alive Magazine in December 2010
http://www.prisonfellowship.org.uk/patchwork/a-gift-from-my-daddy.html

A testimony from the volunteer in charge of


Angel Tree® in Romania
“Through Angel Tree we try to respond to God’s call to
participate in the restoration that He brings in the relationships
between children and their parents in prison. We, as volunteers,
are privileged to witness that a present, a photo and a thought
from the mother or father can make miracles of happiness in
the child who realises that his parent has not forgotten him. We
do it around Christmas but “Angel Tree” does not end here.
We have initiatives planned for 2011 to reach out more
families (in 2010 we followed up 150 of them) which means
recruiting more volunteers who will help us connect with them. There are 30,000 prisoners in
Romania!”

Training in faith communities in Finland


The main objective for PF Finland in 2011 is to build a curriculum for a 1-2 year training for
volunteers in prison ministry. The aim is to have an education “package”, a course, to those
who begin to work in prison ministry of their faith community. The prison ministry training
course will lead to a diploma in prison ministry and the faith communities may request this
diploma if an applicant wishes to be appointed to prison ministry by his faith community. The
training course will consist of: a basic knowledge of the correctional system, legislation, crime,
prisons, foreign prisoners, religions, and a theological and biblical learning, “learning by doing”
(practicing in prison ministry with support from a mentor) etc. The course will be a tool for the
faith communities for recruitment of new volunteers in prison ministry.
A new chairman at PF Guernsey
Billy Gilvear has resigned as chairman of PFG - he had a very stressful year in 2010 with lots
of health problems. PFG Board has elected Alan Taylor as new chairman. Pete Dale remains
as Chaplain at the Prison. He sees prisoners and staff members and does this under the
umbrella of PFG. At the moment 20 people are on the
team...all very focused and very much together in vision
and mind. They have weekly Sunday services with
around 25-30 inmates at the service but follow up 80
prisoners. This month the Bishop of Winchester from
the UK and also the local Guernsey Dean visited the
prison. They were very impressed.

Guernsey’s only prison

Victims and offenders give their testimony in Italy


in front of 230 people
PF Italy started in November 2010 a first
Sycamore Tree programme in Milan-Opera
Prison, one of the maximum security prisons.
The closing ceremony on February 11th was
very powerful. 7 life sentenced prisoners (who
committed several murders) on the stage and
giving their testimony in front of 230 people…
interacting with victims and their families…
The Prison Director did not hide his very
positive opinion about the programme and PF
Italy and his speech impacted the Justice officers in the room. Emotion enveloped the audience
most of the time, e.g. when a father shared how the programme helped him to forgive the man
who killed his son.
The media coverage arranged by PF Italy was very broad and here is a link where you can see
most of the conference filming: Lettera 43: http://www.lettera43.it/attualita/8600/la-sfida-dei-pentiti.htm
with the video at the bottom page.
This seems to be the first STP of a long series: Marcella –PF Italy ED (on the picture with the
microphone) speaks about running the next one in Napoli and then in Palermo…

Sycamore Tree for women in Northern Ireland


PF Northern Ireland has completed its first course in an
adult male prison with 6 attending during October and
November. 4 men have completed and have just received
their Level II certificates from OCN - the awarding body.
Besides, PF Northern Ireland is now coming to the end of
the first Sycamore Tree in the female prison with 10
females attending, with hope to have 10 successfully
complete the course. The PF NI Newsfocus will profile
Sycamore Tree, it is due for publication at the end of
March 2011. If you would like to receive this Newsletter, let Dominique know.
Estonians learn from PF Ukraine leader
PF Estonia invited Pastor Evgeny Dmitrievsky, PF Ukraine Board Member, to lead a training
course on PF Ukraine’s successful restorative justice project for the reconciliation of prisoners’
families. The trainees were a group of Estonian workers and volunteers who learnt how to
prepare and deliver the projects in terms of taping video messages from the prisoner to the family
members or to a victim of crime.
All the participants in the one-day training in February received a diploma for completing a
training on the methodology and implementation of Project Reconciliation, as part of RJ
programme of PF Estonia.
During the visit to Tallinn Pastor Dmitrievsky was interviewed on local radio and by a TV
channel.

Some of the trainees Pastor Uprus and Pastor Dmitrievsky

PRAYER REQUESTS

• Pray for an adaptation of STP in Portugal and the volunteers working on it

• PF Malta appeals for prayers for the neighboring country Libya so that peace may be restored.
Malta is very close to Libya and has a large group of inmates from Libya at their prison. Already
2000 Libyans a week are seeking asylum.

• Pray for new PF Scotland ED Billy Paul and for Alan Taylor new Chairman of PF Guernsey

Peter Walker, has resigned from PFI this month. He leaves


PFI to assume responsibilities as National Director for The
Leprosy Mission England & Wales. Peter’s skill and
experience will be greatly missed. As Director of the PFI’s
Centre for Offender Transformation, Peter has exhibited a
real commitment to serving prison ministries around the
world and the European region will regret him. Let’s pray
for his new mission!
EASTERN EUROPE – CENTRAL ASIA
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We are entering the decisive period in registration and other preparations for PFI Ninth World
Convocation in Toronto. Please be sure to check where you are in your ministry preparations for
this major event in PFI global family:
- Have your delegation been selected, have all the delegates registered on PFI website www.pfi.org ?
- Has you ministry paid the membership fee for 2008, 2009 and 2010 ?
- Have you received visa support letter, have you made the arrangements on how to apply to nearest
Canadian Embassy? Have the names of the delegates been spelled out correctly in the letter ?
- Have you checked your travel arrangements, noting that the official delegate of your ministry
should travel on June 26 to participate in PFI General Assembly, the participants in ILF
Foundation seminar before the Convocation should travel on June 21, while all other participants
may arrive at the airport by 3pm on June 28, as the opening ceremony is at 8 p.m.
- Please note, that all participants need to leave the hotel on July 3.

Yours,
Ivan Sotirov

A Chaplain in every prison in Russia


Patriarch Kirill, the Head of the Russian Orthodox Church, and Mr. Alexander Reymer, the
Director of the Russian Federal prison service have signed Feb. 22 an
agreement for cooperation. The appointment of Orthodox prison
chaplains, will be one of the concrete steps forward. Later on chaplains
from other Christian confessions will be appointed too. The grand
vision is that spiritual care is to be provided for every Russian prisoner
demanding it. Bishop Irinarkh (see picture) , the Chairman of the Synodal
Dept. of prison ministry, and member of the Board of PF Russia took
part in the signing ceremony. This will foster the recognition of the PF
Russia prison work.

Good news from Latvia


PF Latvia has a new Board Chairman – Mr. Maris Luste, Projects Manager in
the Latvian prison administration (see picture on the left). Mr. Leonid Yefremov,
the former Chair has remained as Board member.
The ministry has won a grant from the Swiss funds for support of the new
member countries of the European Union. The project concerns renovation of
prison libraries in cooperation with the National Library of Latvia. The
European office and the Association of Friends of PFI provided best practices information on
the role and management of prison libraries in Switzerland.
Eye glasses in Lithuania
PF Lithuania has developed an innovative approach to providing eyeglasses for prisoners. Lina
Rapalaviciute, the project manager has mobilized local
opticians to measure the eyesight of prisoners who needed
help, and send the list of prescriptions to the British charity
Vision Aid Overseas, courtesy of Peter Walker.
So now almost 100 prisoners have received glasses made
for them. The story was
covered by a national TV
channel and other media
(on the pictures the official
ceremony)

A fruitful visit to partners in Czech Republic


A seminar to present a number of PFI programs to potential partners and key volunteers was
organized in Prague in February upon initiative of the Steering Committee (picture on the left below)
of the future Prison Fellowship ministry in the Czech Republic. Over 70 people came to the
seminar, including the chaplain-general of the prison
service and the president of the chaplaincy
association. PFI leaders from Germany, Scotland,
Latvia and Slovakia lectured at the seminar sharing
best practices in implementing PFI programs in
different
areas of
ministry.
A pre-
charter
survey,
checking
on the level of readiness of the ministry to apply for
chartering with PFI at Convocation was
successfully carried out.

Training the trainers in


Bulgaria
In mid February in the town of Vratza, where PF
Bulgaria has a regional office, a seminar on training
the trainers in mentoring was organized. 7 trainers
(on the picture) were trained. The two-day seminar
was facilitated by Peter Walker of PFI Secretariat.
The goal of the seminar, an initiative of the
Executive Director Elena Yoncheva, was to train
mentors in the framework of a large project aimed to avoid institutionalizing young men and
children at risk. Instead of entering the justice system as offenders, they are coached by mentors
on how to correct their behaviour, strengthen their positive social ties, and lead a law-abiding
life. This is a joint project of the ministry with CARITAS Russe.

Prisoner Art competition prepared in Kyrgyzstan

The ministry is preparing for participation in Toronto in the prisoners art competition in several
categories, and especially in applied arts. Syrga Sarukieva, a Board member and an artist herself
is working with a number of prisoners throughout the prison system. More than 90 women
prisoners have taken part in the applied arts courses taught by Syrga in a women prison.
The prisoners learned how to produce handicraft, goblins,
embroidery, etc. The best works will be selected for the
competition and the exhibition during PFI World Convocation
in Toronto (June 28-July 2).

→ Consider that your ministry also participate in this venture!

PRAYER REQUESTS
• Please pray for the leadership of the new ministry in the Czech Republic, Gabriela Kabat, Ales Malach
and Pavel Olsanik, and for their relations with the chaplaincy service and the chaplaincy association.

• Please pray for the ED of PF Kazakhstan Dmitriy Dobrolyubov in his efforts to increase the number of
churches partnering with PF Kazakhstan in prison ministry. Pray for Alexander Karimov, the
coordinator of the new regional office of the ministry in Southern Kazakhstan.

Resources
You will receive the 2011 Week of Prayer and Transformation materials in the next
few weeks. The theme for this year’s Week of Prayer is “Jubilee: Hope, Forgiveness,
Restoration, and Freedom.” The materials will again include a CD that will provide
the Microsoft Word and art files for customization and additional print runs. You can
also access materials at the PFI website.

The PFI Convocation is only a few months away. Please be sure to register as soon
as possible online at www.pfi.org. If you have any questions about Convocation,
please email convo@pfi.org.

ALL YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS FOR THE NEXT EUROPE NEWSLETTER ARE MORE THAN WELCOME:
Please send them to dalexandre@pfi.org (Western Europe) or isotirov@pfi.org (for Eastern Europe
and Central Asia)

PFI Europe News is brought to you by Prison Fellowship International. Compiled and edited every other
month by Dominique Alexandre and Ivan Sotirov - PFI Europe Secretariat, Rue du Panorama 4, 1800 Vevey, Switzerland
© 2011 by Prison Fellowship International - All rights reserved - Reprints permitted with acknowledgement

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