Some news from the steering committee

A year ago we got elected at the 2023 conference in Llandudno. It has been a busy and interesting year, to get to know IPCA Europe and Middle East.

It took the first seven months to get the hand over from the previous steering committee ready and after that we have been working with a couple of practical things that we see needs to be done.

Now, after working together for one year we think it is time to send our first newsletter. Here are the high lights;

Membership

We have gotten questions about how to become a member and we realized that it was not as simple as we would like it to be. The list of newsletter subscribers has been seen as the member list, but to be a member one must be “a serving prison chaplain located in Europe and the Middle East”. And anyone can subscribe for the newsletter. Hence, we have been working with a solution, where we have two lists. One with the newsletter subscribers and one with the members. So that we know how many members we have. We are of course happy about all our subscribers, and really hope that you will keep subscribing, even though we now are making two lists. 

At the Llandudno conference it was voted for a membership fee, but there is a couple of practical things yet to sort out. Before that can be a reality. So for the moment, that is not going to happen.

Due to this new membership list, we ask those of you who are serving in the prison ministry in Europe and the Middle East to send an e-mail to:

ipcaeuropevicechair @ gmail.com 

(The link that was here before did not work, so please write the adress manualy.)

We want to know in what country, what town and prison you are working and when you became a prison chaplain.

It will take us some time to get our new list of members ready, but at the end it will be helpful both for us at the steering committee and for you as a member in IPCA Europe and the Middle East.

This is of course now also the address on the website, where new members registers.

Contact

There has been an IPCA Europe g-mail address on the website, but we have decided to make g-mail adresses for the different roles in the steering committee. Addresses that can be handed over to the next steering committee, as they are and with log-ins that we all know, so that it is not only one that can handle it.

You have all ready noticed the secretary g-mail and can find the rest on our website.

Website

At the IPCA Europe website you can find new and some old information. There has been some issues with publishing pictures, but hopefully that will get sorted out so that the forthcoming updates will include pictures.

Facebook

Since the log-in information for the old Facebook page has got lost, we have started a new one. If you have Facebook, we recommend you to “Like” this page:

IPCA Europe and Middle East

We will try as much as possible to update it with both texts and pictures. Unfortunately, there is no possibility of linking the Facebook page to the website. Which would have made it possible for those of you who do not have a Facebook account to see the updates there.

Future

We will have a steering committee “face-to-face” meeting in September.

We are planning for the Day of prayers for prisoners at the 25th of August.

We are discussing the possibility of a joint mini conference with the ICCPCC (International Commission of Catholic Prison Pastoral Care).

We are still trying to find a solution for the IPCA Europe account, where it can be placed and stay there even though the steering committee changes in the future. As some of you know, that has been an ongoing problem for many years.

We are thinking of finding ways to use the newsletters and the Facebook page as good as possible, hopefully with some help from our members. It would be great if we could use the newsletters to tell about things going on in our region!