Prison Ministries
About the department
The Prison Ministries department within the North England Conference (NEC) has been active for many years under the umbrella of the Personal Ministries department. In 2021, the Executive Committee appointed Pastor Ian Philpott as the first sponsor for the department.
Within the geographical area of the NEC, there are 62 prisons holding nearly 50,000 prisoners. These prisons are a combination of:
Male adult
Male young offenders (15 to 21 years)
Female adult
The main thrust of the various ministries across the Conference is the Sunday morning services provided in the prison chapels. Several churches have been visiting prisons for a while, and others are setting up a prison ministries team. During visits, we provide Discover Bible courses from our Adventist Discovery Centre (ADC), Desire of Ages, Great Controversy, and other literature.
Our department's objectives
The department seeks to empower, equip, and enable its Prison Ministry volunteers to reach those incarcerated in the north of England with love, compassion, and hope for a brighter future. We plan to achieve this by:
Establishing Adventist members as chaplains within the prison system.
Hosting Conference-wide and local church Prison Ministries days to raise awareness of the ministry and encourage member involvement.
Encouraging Adventist members to participate in the "Visit a Prisoner" and "Pen Pal" schemes.
Creating teams to support prisoner resettlement upon release.
Planning an annual overseas trip to develop our volunteers by exposing them to ministry in diverse contexts.
Pastor Ian Philpott
Director
iphilpott@necadventist.org.uk
Director's role
The Prison Ministries Department operates on a 25% budget. The director's responsibilities include:
Raising awareness of prison ministries within the NEC and highlighting opportunities for local Adventist members to get involved.
Encouraging churches to establish their own prison ministries teams to serve those incarcerated in local prisons.
Providing literature, Bible study guides, and other resources for prison inmates.
Supporting local prison ministries teams across the Conference through training and resource provision.