2024 Christmas Message from IPCA Worldwide President
Christmas is of course a time when we as Christians remember the Incarnation, a central tenet of our faith. Incarnation is also a concept that’s close to my heart as a chaplain, as we in some small way bring the fellowship of Christ to inmates through our bodily presence alongside them not only at crisis points during their incarceration but also in the humdrum of prison routine. As we have all learned from covid, there’s something about in-person encounters that technology simply cannot replace.
That’s why IPCA’s Worldwide Steering Committee is working hard on preparations for our IPCA VIII worldwide conference in Bangkok from 2-7 October 2025. It was a huge disappointment for us not to be able to hold the conference in person in 2020 as planned. We “kept hope alive” with a webinar at which it was exciting to see faces from all over the world, but this only strengthened our resolve to hold the conference in person when this again became possible.
The world has changed almost beyond recognition since then. The threat from covid has been replaced by geopolitical upheaval and instability, increasing evidence of climate change, and in many parts of the world a greater tendency towards polarization and protectionism. All this is a long way from the winds of globalization and financial growth that were blowing when IPCA was founded in Bossey, Switzerland in 1985.
Some might question whether international gatherings still have their place 40 years on in this changed world. It is my conviction that just as face-to-face encounters are a crucial part of our ministry as chaplains, so face-to-face meetings are a core component of what IPCA and indeed our Christian faith is all about – and that today, a global gathering representing diverse cultures and strands of Christianity, welcoming representatives of other faiths is something truly prophetic – as the IPCA VIII tagline has it, “A Living Hope”.
I know that attending our conference in Bangkok will be a huge challenge for many, not least from a financial point of view, but I do invite you to prayerfully consider taking up that challenge so that after ten long years, we can once again enjoy all the benefits of ‘incarnating’ worldwide prison chaplaincy.
Wishing you a peaceful Christmas and every blessing in the New Year in Jesus’ name,
David Buick
President, IPCA Worldwide
IPCA Worldwide