Head chaplain who doesn’t believe in God

Aug 14, 2022 by

by Ben Leapman, Inside Time:

For the first time a person with no religious faith has been appointed as the head chaplain of an English prison. The woman, 50, who describes herself as a Humanist, leads a team of 20 chaplains including Christian, Muslim, Sikh and Hindu faith leaders. In her first interview, she told Inside Time: “I don’t believe in God … If I go out to see somebody and they want to pray, I’ll be honest and say – I won’t pray with you, but I can come with you and you can pray in the chapel, or I can arrange for a religious chaplain to come with you instead.”

Around 500 chaplains are employed in English and Welsh prisons. Normally the jobs are advertised for candidates of a particular faith, so non-believers cannot apply – but each prison also has a Managing Chaplain, who can be of any faith or none. The woman, a former prison teacher, took up her Managing Chaplain post this year, after the previous post-holder went on sick leave. Inside Time has been asked not to name the woman or the prison.

Rise of the Godless chaplains: Nearly a third of prisoners have no religious faith. Now a non-believer has been appointedas a head chaplain for the first time – and the Non-Religious Pastoral Support Network hopes more prisons will add the faithless to chaplaincy teams. Ben Leapman investigates

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Read also: Atheist prison chaplains? The world has gone mad, by Richard Madeley, Daily Express

 

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