Bible Society Partnership with Prison Chaplaincy Going from Strength to Strength

At Prison Chaplaincy’s recent staff conference, Bible Society’s Engagement Advocate, Stephen Opie, reaffirmed Bible Society’s ongoing commitment to serving prison chaplains throughout the country through the provision of free scriptures.  For many years, Bible Society has been resourcing chaplains by providing much need Bibles, Testaments and other resources for prisoners, thanks to the generosity of Bible Society’s supporters.   “Resourcing chaplains in this way is a key part of Bible Society’s mission in New Zealand,” Stephen said.

Prison Chaplaincy National Director David Major stated that the partnership with Bible Society remains one of Prison Chaplaincy’s most important as they minister in New Zealand’s 20 prisons.

At the conference Stephen announced two new projects that the two organisations would be partnering in.

The E100 Bible Reading Challenge, with more than 325 churches and 23,000 people involved, will be made available to prisoners by the three organisations that developed the resource (Bible Society New Zealand, Scripture Union and Wycliffe Bible Translators New Zealand). This will be a great resource for prison chaplains as they encourage prisoners to read the Word of God. 

Bible Society also announced that a special edition prison Bible will be produced in 2011, in partnership with Prison Chaplaincy.  The cover of this Bible will feature the winning artwork from the 2010 Prison Chaplaincy art competition.