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Quakers in Scotland uphold the Prisoners Week Trust’s objective to support prisoners, in particular by helping them to have a greater sense of self-worth and dignity, and to advance conflict resolution and reconciliation.
I want to encourage individuals and congregations to support Prisoners Week this year. Now is the time to be planning and preparing ways in which we might be involved. We need to support those who are in prison, their families, those who work in prison, prison chaplains and other Christian groups that get involved. There’s a way for you to be involved too in this ever so important ministry. I commend it to you.
In a society that largely finds it convenient to forget about prisoners, the voices that draw our attention to the experiences and needs of prisoners are critically important. Prisoners Week Scotland is one such voice. In calling us to remember, love and pray for people in our prisons, it echoes the way of life Jesus commends when he says, 'I was in prison and you came to visit me' (Matthew 25:36).
Prisoners Week reminds the church and its people of the thousands of people currently in Scotland’s prisons. It helps us to be aware of the impact that incarceration has on so many families and communities. We as a church want to keep putting the words of Hebrews 13:3 into practice, ‘Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison.’ The cycles of despair can only be broken by the Lord Jesus Christ who spoke these words, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28.