Prison work

I did something I'd never done before last week - I went into a prison. For many years Gerard Chrispin of CPR has worked with others to reach prisoners and he is currently seeking to hand over some of his responsibilities to others and it was thought possible that I may be involved. This initial visit was an exploratory one. As expected there was an understandable lot of rigmarole with keys and security but once we were all sat down in a circle in the very nice chapel they have in our nearest prison things were pretty straightforward. About 10 of a possible 15 or 20 prisoners turned up and we carried on through the book on Mark's Gospel Mark Time that Gerard has skilfully put together. Brad Franklin led and Gerard and his wife Phillippa were also present on this occasion. We spent much of the morning on the end of Mark 7 to much profit I trust and then adjourned to the Breakout Café across the road for a post mortem and lunch on Gerard, which can't be bad. So once this art history course is over perhaps this will be taking up my time in future. Watch this space.