March - April 2011

WESTERN – CENTRAL EUROPE

Dear European colleagues of Prison Fellowship,
This month we as the European Support Group met in Zurich and discussed the critical issues
facing the region, we prepared some aspects of the Regional Assembly that will gather one delegate
per country on the 27th of June in Toronto and met with PF Switzerland.
Convocation is just a few weeks ahead of us. Let it be a wonderful opportunity of fellowship and
sharing best practices in our region! The Regional Assembly will be electing the PF Regional
Assembly Chairperson for the next 4 years, a role that Constantin is currently fulfilling for 6 years.
You will receive a letter on this subject next week and you will be free to nominate candidates. For
Convocation deadlines please read below where you can also find Ivan’s editorial.
May the blessings of the Risen Lord be with you all!
Constantin, Hans, Tobias and Dominique

Leader’s profile
PF Norway ED
Odd Arvid Stykket was appointed as PF Norway first ED in March 2010.
He participated in the Cluj seminars last year but many of you do
not know him yet. "The seminar gave me a lot of ideas on how
to convince donors, to be more specific in my approaches'' he said.
Learning from Ingvald Viken’s huge experience as Chairman, Odd
Arvid started his work mainly dealing with secretarial work and
fundraising, but also establishing a members database (200
classified list of volunteers, donors, prayer partners, leaders etc),
visiting the existing PF groups serving 18 of Norway’s 50 prisons,
attracting Christian groups that are not yet into PFN but do prison
ministry, developing a new visitors' group in some places or
running some courses for volunteers in prison, following up on the people engaged in
aftercare , defining a specific way to approach foreign prisoners. He is also planning to
prepare agreement letters with volunteers, so that prisoners and volunteers alike know
what is expected. Odd needs to travel a lot around this expansive country to develop the
groups. The Pentecostal Church that he belongs to in Skien has been convinced to support
Odd with part of his monthly salary during three years. Besides PF where he works at 60%,
he is chairman of a regional board organizing common the activities of 32 small Pentecostal
churches, and taking the lead to rebuild a campsite to lodge 200 people, he is also a singer
who has recently released a CD of Christian worship, run his own company and is a young
father to 4 kids, so he is a very busy leader!

PF Norway website: www.pfn.no

 PF Netherlands’ 500th volunteer welcomed by
the State Secretary
On April 21st the deputy minister of Justice visited
PF Netherlands’office. The deputy minister is
responsible for prisons and prison work. He met
with the PF Board, staff and volunteers and on this
occasion he welcomed symbolically the 500th
volunteer in the prison field (see pic). "You have a
busy job, a family, your church -but still you make
time available to supervise prisoners. I have great
admiration for you " said the State Secretary.
An article has been published in the Newspaper ‘Reformatorish Dagblad’, read the web
version: http://www.refdag.nl/nieuws/binnenland/gevangenen_bezoeken_wekt_bewondering_bij_teeven_1_547470
→ PF NL is facing a major development perspective of several projects including the
Sycamore Tree Project to be potentially implemented in 6 new prisons in the future!

Poland Annual National Conference

The 2-day Conference / General Assembly
gathered 110 people, mostly volunteers from
all over the country. It took place on April 8 th
and 9th in the Prison Administration main
building and in a retreat centre of the
ministry of justice.
The main speakers were Bernardyna

Wojtowska, PFP ED (at the centre of the pic),

Fr Pawel Wojtas, prison Chaplain General, Fr
Jan Sikorski, PFP Founder, Mrs Ostrowska (on
the left), a Director of a rehab centre, -who
gave a lecture- and Dominique Alexandre
representing PFI. (See pieces of Mr
Pawlowski, former prisoner, in the
background of the picture, to be exhibited in Toronto).
Warm words of gratefulness to Bernardyna who retired after 20 years in Prison fellowship
Poland ! And Mrs Elzbieta Krzywik was elected as new ED (President) – Congratulations!
PF Poland’s tight connexions to the Church, the Prison Chaplaincy and the Prison
Administration remain an asset for the organization; the programmes of the regional PF as
well, such as pilgrimages. The main goal of PFP is to be present in every prison in the country!

News Article about PF in Malta

Mark Vella, PF Malta ED, has been interviewed by a left
national newspaper printed by the General Workers Union
very popular in MALTA. They interviewed him regarding
his joining in Prison Fellowship in 1993 onwards. It describes the work done with foreign
prisoners and the fruitful activities done within the Angel Tree Club. It includes a poster
which had won the prevention of crime campaign. The poster was done by a 16 year old
student at one of Malta's secondary schools. It it depicts a young person thinking of his
father in prison (see pic). → Have a look at the article and know more about Mark Vella!
http://www.it-torca.com/news.asp?newsitemid=11349
Hopefully PF Malta will receive queries and feedback

PF Hungary youngsters volunteer in prison!

On April 14th, 35 juveniles (aged 16-17 years old) from the Lutheran church and the
secondary grammar school students visited one of the biggest prisons in Budapest to
perform a theater play of the passion of Jesus Christ to the prisoners. They decided to go to
prison to play for the inmates after Marton led a workshop with them about prison ministry
and about PFI. This has never happened before in any Hungarian prisons ! Below the age of
18 normally no one can visit a prisoner except a family member!

News websites for Prison Fellowship

. www.prisonfellowship.is PF Iceland new small and dynamic team has opened
the website of PF Iceland although little has been written on it yet, it is encouraging!
. http://prisonfellowshipew.blogspot.com/ PF England and Wales new
blogspot in which Dave Walker, programmes administrator for Prison Fellowship, posts a
new article each week, which may interest you! Have a look! It is a great example on how to
promote PF ministry!

PF Switzerland ministry development seminar

As a suggestion, Tobias Merckle who is helping
PF Switzerland in its current reflection on vision
and strategy, Hans Barendrecht member of the
European Support Group was invited to lead a
seminar on Ministry Development for 4 Board
members and a new young volunteer of PF S.
Hans made a PPT presentation on the way PFNL
developed for the last 15 years. The following day
the General Assembly of PF S gathered 18 people
and another hope came out of the ‘open day’ of
the Lenzburg prison that the group visited after
its meeting. Hopefully PFS will soon start
programmes in this new prison thanks to good
connections with a prison officer and prison director.
Everybody found this newly built prison quite ‘dark’
(see left pic). Constantin also took part in the General
Assembly and encouraged it.
Every year the European Support Group (RLT) likes to
meet in a different country where it can bring expertise
to or just share experiences and at the same time have its
annual meeting.
→ Feel free to tell Dominique if you would like to have the group visiting you in 2012!
 ALPHA International Conference
th th
The Alpha International Week will be from 6 to 10 June in London. Some national prison
commissioners and national chaplain generals from around the world will meet there as well as
receive training on Alpha for Prisons and hear back from prison chaplains and course leaders
who have run courses. A team of Prison Fellowship regional coordinators from Norway,
Romania and other countries will be attending.
→ Please let Dominique know if someone from your ministry is planning to attend!
Anyhow, there will be an Alpha team doing a presentation on Alpha for Prisons and Caring for
Ex-offenders during the PFI Convocation in Toronto. http://www.alphafriends.org/prisons

PRAYER REQUESTS

• For Bernardyna Wojtkovska’s family. Bernardyna lost her youngest brother on the very same day
she retired after having served the ministry during 16 years as ED. For Elzbieta Krzywik as new
ED of PF Poland

• Give thanks for Father Pawel who is in process of being healed from a very bad tumor

• For PF Scotland hoping to build a fruitful partnership with the newly elected Scottish
Government on restorative justice issues

EASTERN EUROPE – CENTRAL ASIA

Dear Brothers and sisters in Christ !

We have less than 2 months to go before the opening of the 9-th PFI World Convocation in Toronto,
Canada. An impressive list of speakers will address a gathering of more than 800 delegates from
more than 110 countries. Over 45 workshops on different topics will offer a wide range of best
practices exchange. The 5-days Foundations seminar on the eve of the Convocation will offer the
best in leadership development!
Now is the time to turn to the checklist:
• If you are the official delegate, be sure to arrive in Toronto on June 26.
• If anyone of your delegation had to cancel for whatever reason, please inform us.
• If anyone has problems with their Canadian visa application, please inform us.
• If you still have entries to submit to the Prisoners Art Competition, please do so ASAP.
If you have a video of your ministry (no more than 7 min.) please inform us!

Looking forward to see you in Toronto!

Ivan Sotirov
 Prisoners Art Competition Update
In Belarus , the ministry has arranged a system-wide action to encourage
participation in the Prisoners’ Art Competition in Toronto. The best 12 entries in different
categories have been selected to go to the Convocation; in Kyrgyzstan , the Board
Chairman Alin Kier and Syrga Sarukieva a Board member, who is an expert in applied
arts, have organized workshops in several prisons in order to
generate entries for the Prisoners Art exhibition (see our
pic). Some former prisoners also worked on preparing goblins
depicting Biblical scenes; in collaboration with the Federal
prison administration, PF Russia has organized
preparation and collection of entries for Toronto. The
response was overwhelming, the ministry is sorting the works. A
professional jury is making the selection in all categories; finally
PF Bulgaria has organized a prisoner’s art
contest in all 12 Bulgarian prisons. 70 prisoners took part.
The results were shown at the exhibition in Sofia central prison. The deputy Minister of
Justice welcomed PF Bulgaria’s initiative and stated at the opening, that the
administration looks for opportunities to bring activities to the prisons aimed at spiritual
and moral values. “Prisons should offer chances for re-socialization of every prisoner” the
high official said. The best works have been selected to be presented as entries in the
Prisoners Art Exhibition in Toronto- Kazakhstan is also participating in the
event.

→ If your ministry wants to participate, you’d better fill the application form today as the
deadline has just past!

Commission on Regional issues

PF Latvia has assisted the European Office in organizing the meeting of the Commission
on inter-confessional cooperation in prison ministries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
st nd
The meeting took place from March 31 -April 2 2011 in Riga. The report will be
available to PFI national ministries in Toronto.

PF Slovakia national conference

took place from April 18th –19th in a rest house of the prison
administration. Over 70 people attended. The Board Chairman
Jan Kerekreti coordinated the event in an excellent manner.
Key leaders and volunteers, the chaplain-general, the chief of
psychology services, a prison director, etc., took part in the
discussion. Ivan made a presentation of PFI work in the region
and beyond. CRJ brochures and other PFI publications were
much appreciated. Each participant got the PFI pin.
Neighboring ministries took part as well. Gabor Roszik, the
leader of PF Hungary shared their work on STP, while leaders of the new ministry in the
Czech Republic expressed their hopes to join PFI’s global family soon.
Easter celebration in Moldova
The ministry’s Easter program in all 17 prisons in the
country was a success, due to good coordination
among the churches and the dedication of volunteers.
Church services, concerts, special sweets for Easter
demonstrated God’s love for all people, and honoured
the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

Distribution of Easter gifts in the women’s prison

A potential future PFI affiliate: Uzbekistan

PFI partners in Uzbekistan have submitted

the paperwork for chartering with PFI. The ministry, based in the capital city of Tashkent
operates a rehabilitation and vocational training center for released prisoners. Most of the
residents have learned to produce wrought iron and other decorative metal ornaments. A
second center of the ministry has recently opened in a distant province to respond to local
needs. The government appreciates the important social work being done by the two
centers. On the photo above – are a group of residents in the “Shelter” rehabilitation center
in Tashkent.

Ex-prisoners becoming leaders in Kazakhstan

A prayer and fellowship group of former prisoners started by the Executive director
Dmitry Dobrolyubov. Some 12 years ago what
united them was a prison term in a high security
prison where volunteers of PF Kazakhstan
regularly visited. Today these people have become
leaders of prison ministry in their churches and
witness as ambassadors of Christ in all 16 prisons
of East Kazakhstan.

the prayer group of former prisoners now ministry leaders

 PF Russia news
The presentation and awards ceremony of the system-wide competition on poetry took
place at the end of April in the hall of the Russian Film Academy (VGIK). Gen. Sushkov
(see pic below) presided over the event at which a professional jury selected the winning
authors. Over 40 students in the Academy recited poetry written by prisoners.

.
The ministry is the primary partner of the Russian Federal Prison Service in a new
initiative – Parents Day in the juvenile colonies. The idea is to have about 15 juvenile
prisons staging the event, which goes a long way to prepare the young people and their
parents for re-entry. PF Russia raises funds and in-kind donations in support of the
initiative.

PF Lithuania supported by the government

At the end of April the ministry signed an agreement in cooperation with the prison
administration. PF Lithuania’s expertise in vocational training, and other forms of
preparing for a life of freedom, has won the ministry another large grant for 2012 with the
challenge to find employment for at least 36% of the participants in the program.

PRAYER REQUESTS
Please pray for
- a positive outcome of Canadian visa applications for ministries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
- delegates who had to give up on their participation in the Convocation due to lack of funds.
- the General Assembly of the Association of Friends of PFI in Switzerland taking place May 12th.

Resources
The closing date for the Global Service Award nominations is 15 May! Please be
sure to recommend a person or organization that you know has made a special
impact or influence in prison ministry. This is a great opportunity to recognize an
“unsung hero” in your midst. You can download the nomination form from the PFI
website by clicking on the Convocation image and then on the Global Service
Awards link. Please email your completed form to info@pfi.org or fax it to
1.703.481-0003.
The PFI Convocation is only two 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