about the people who they believed had got them there. The stories they told as they expressed their feelings were often heartbreaking. One ‘lifer’ explained how in her moment of deepest despair she had found God and was able to function from then on; her story brought tears to all our eyes.
The most attendees I counted one day was ten, the girls enjoying the clapping and loud singing the Pentecostal team encouraged. The first time the team came while I was there, their leader was unable to come in as she had forgotten to bring any identification with her. She had to stay in her car while the rest of the group tried to keep us half-heartedly and very apologetically entertained. The small congregation was very disappointed but fortunately the leader managed to arrive with full identification papers next time they tried and great fun was had by all. I had to close the door of the room to muffle some of the sound as my roommates next door were trying to watch TV and I wouldn’t have been very popular on my return at the end of the session, but never have I heard such enthusiastic singing from my fellow residents. The way I managed to keep my roommates on side was by always bringing them back the biscuits on offer; on their return from their eveningcigarette they would find them on their beds neatly put on napkins like offerings before the evening roll call at 8 p.m.
Those sessions became part of life there and I became strangely dependent on them. My period there was punctuated by a number of religious events going on in the national and global stage. First of all was Easter, which brought us all together quite a lot, but then we also had the news of the resignation of the Pope and the vote for the new one – I had no idea that the residents were so interested in the process, the anticipation, the waiting, the endless camera shots of presenters at the Vatican like Jon Snow trying to guess when the white smoke would blow out, the endless interviews with the UK head of the Catholic church, who was there and willing to give interviews, speculation about the way any new Pope would go. There were endless discussions among the residents about who the new Pope might be and what the consequences would be – it was almost outdoing
Casualty
for popularity. I had not realised that we had a number of Catholics among us but there was genuine interest by many residents no matter their religion.
Then there was the ordination of the new Archbishop of Canterbury on 21 March, all happening not that far away from ESP in Kent. Our chaplain was invited to be there – and was clearly very pleased to be going and had warned us (a number of times lest we forgot) that he would have to miss the session we were due to have mid-week as a result. The ‘congregation’ was very excited about it. I had only a passing interest except for the fact that the new Archbishop, Justin Welby, used to work in the oil industry, which I had also done for a while, though for different companies.
But what interested me was that these religious organisations were filling the gap the social services were leaving in the rehabilitation process. The community chaplaincy helps people integrate and connect with faith communities outside which give continuing mentoring and other support and also puts them in touch with other specialised organisations that may be able to provide further help. The chaplain explained to me that although the Christian faith generally encouraged forgiveness and reintegration , some of the other faiths didn’t necessarily as they considered committing an offence an act against their religion; some women often found themselves shamed and ostracised and unable to return to their communities . There had been some cases of girls changing faith and starting new lives but needing extra help to do so which the community chaplaincy tried to provide.
My research assistant, Nicola Clay, currently based at the Institute of Criminology in Cambridge,
The most attendees I counted one day was ten, the girls enjoying the clapping and loud singing the Pentecostal team encouraged. The first time the team came while I was there, their leader was unable to come in as she had forgotten to bring any identification with her. She had to stay in her car while the rest of the group tried to keep us half-heartedly and very apologetically entertained. The small congregation was very disappointed but fortunately the leader managed to arrive with full identification papers next time they tried and great fun was had by all. I had to close the door of the room to muffle some of the sound as my roommates next door were trying to watch TV and I wouldn’t have been very popular on my return at the end of the session, but never have I heard such enthusiastic singing from my fellow residents. The way I managed to keep my roommates on side was by always bringing them back the biscuits on offer; on their return from their eveningcigarette they would find them on their beds neatly put on napkins like offerings before the evening roll call at 8 p.m.
Those sessions became part of life there and I became strangely dependent on them. My period there was punctuated by a number of religious events going on in the national and global stage. First of all was Easter, which brought us all together quite a lot, but then we also had the news of the resignation of the Pope and the vote for the new one – I had no idea that the residents were so interested in the process, the anticipation, the waiting, the endless camera shots of presenters at the Vatican like Jon Snow trying to guess when the white smoke would blow out, the endless interviews with the UK head of the Catholic church, who was there and willing to give interviews, speculation about the way any new Pope would go. There were endless discussions among the residents about who the new Pope might be and what the consequences would be – it was almost outdoing
Casualty
for popularity. I had not realised that we had a number of Catholics among us but there was genuine interest by many residents no matter their religion.
Then there was the ordination of the new Archbishop of Canterbury on 21 March, all happening not that far away from ESP in Kent. Our chaplain was invited to be there – and was clearly very pleased to be going and had warned us (a number of times lest we forgot) that he would have to miss the session we were due to have mid-week as a result. The ‘congregation’ was very excited about it. I had only a passing interest except for the fact that the new Archbishop, Justin Welby, used to work in the oil industry, which I had also done for a while, though for different companies.
But what interested me was that these religious organisations were filling the gap the social services were leaving in the rehabilitation process. The community chaplaincy helps people integrate and connect with faith communities outside which give continuing mentoring and other support and also puts them in touch with other specialised organisations that may be able to provide further help. The chaplain explained to me that although the Christian faith generally encouraged forgiveness and reintegration , some of the other faiths didn’t necessarily as they considered committing an offence an act against their religion; some women often found themselves shamed and ostracised and unable to return to their communities . There had been some cases of girls changing faith and starting new lives but needing extra help to do so which the community chaplaincy tried to provide.
My research assistant, Nicola Clay, currently based at the Institute of Criminology in Cambridge,
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