CHAPLAINS FOR PRISONS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28747, 19 November 1958, Page 5

CHAPLAINS FOR PRISONS

Training Course Proposed (New Zealand Press Association) [ WELLINGTON, November 18. “From the beginning of next year, no one entering any of our prisons or borstals need lack spiritual help and care from men who are becoming increasingly skilled in this specialised field.” said the senior prison chaplain in the department of Justice (the Rev. L. C Clements) at the chaplains’ training course at the Staff Training School, Mount Crawford, tonight. Mr Clements, who was reviewing the chaplaincy service, traced the growth of the scheme from the tentative beginnings in the Invercargill Borstal seven years ago to the present stage where three fulltime chaplains and nine part-time chaplains had the pastoral oversight of all those inmates whose denominational affiliation lay within the constituent churches of the National Council of Churches He said the greatest need in the prison chaplains’ service was for better training for a ministry in institutions. It was gratifying that the theological colleges of New Zealand had set up a committee in Christchurch under the National Council of Churches to explore the possibility of establishing a school for clinical pastoral training. Interest had already been shown by theological students and the way was now open for a few to serve in the long vacation as student chaplains in New Zealand's penal institutions.