NEW YEAR’S MESSAGE FROM IPCA WORLDWIDE PRESIDENT DAVID BUICK

2023 has been a year of ‘in-person’ for IPCA. In-person national meetings were held in Africa; IPCA Europe held the first IPCA in-person regional conference since the pandemic; IPCA’s UN team were again able to attend UN events in Vienna and New York in person; and the current Worldwide Steering Committee was able to have its first in-person seminar in Thailand.

All of us have no doubt realised how much better it is to meet in person than virtually! ‘In person’, meeting inmates in their own prison environment, is also central to what we do as prison chaplains; and of course it is at the heart of the Good News which proclaims that God came to humankind ‘in person’ through Jesus Christ.

Through 2024 IPCA will be continuing to seek opportunities to link chaplains from different Christian backgrounds, cultures, and prison environments, advocate for prisoners’ rights and encourage access to academic research relating to justice and spiritual care. We’ll be striving to improve our organisation – and also to maintain that all-important ‘in-person’ ethos that is so important for all of us.