by Julian Mann
As well as funding more frontline vicars, the Church Commissioners’ £100 million earmarked for slavery reparations should be going on Church of England prison chaplains.
In a story about Muslim gangs forcing ‘lonely’ white prisoners to convert to Islam, The Telegraph’s Home Affairs Editor, Charles Hymas, reports:
‘Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data show that one in five Muslims in prisons in England and Wales is white, nearly four times the rate of 5.8 per cent in the general population.
‘The number of Muslim prisoners in jails in England and Wales has also increased and accounts for nearly one in five (18 per cent) of the prison population, despite making up 6.5 per cent of the general population.’
The figures have been revealed by Nick Timothy MP, the Conservative shadow justice secretary. He urged the Labour Government to stamp out forced conversion.
Timothy, a practising Anglican Christian who opposes the Project Spire scheme, told the paper: ‘The percentage of Muslims who are white in our prisons is so vastly higher than in the general population it raises serious questions.
‘We know that experts have warned repeatedly about forced conversions taking place behind bars, driven by Islamic gangs.’
He said the Government ‘must urgently investigate and stamp out forced conversions in prisons’.
According to the latest MoJ data, there are more Muslim chaplains in England and Wales than there are Church of England and Anglican Church in Wales chaplains.
The number of Muslim chaplains is now 140, up from 128 in 2023-24, compared with 87 for the Church of England, down from 97 in 2024-25. There are in addition 94 Roman Catholic chaplains, 64 from free churches and 23 described as ‘Christian’, The Telegraph reports.
The falling numbers of C of E prison chaplains should be of serious concern to the new members of the General Synod due to be elected this autumn. They should be pressuring the Church Commissioners to dip into the £100 million Project Spire fund to help pay for more chaplains willing and able to offer Christianity Explored and Alpha courses in English prisons. The rest of the £100 million should be used to fund frontline vicars.
With their investments now worth more than £11 billion, the Church Commissioners can well afford to fund more parish vicars and also more workers to go out into the harvest field behind bars to offer eternal salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ to lost and lonely souls.
Julian Mann, a former Church of England vicar, is an evangelical journalist based in Lancashire, UK.