Event: Day Conference: Spiritualities and Prisons.
Speakers: Elizabeth Allen, Phyllida Anam-Aire, Dan Gunn, Dr Giuseppe Maglione, Dr Harry Schnitker, and Pete White.
Venue: Sanctuary, Augustine United Church, 41 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh, EH1 1EL.
Date: Saturday 6 May 2017.
Time: Registration: 9.30am-10am. Day Conference: 10am-1.20pm.
Event Description: This Day Conference will look at issues associated with spiritualities and prisons.
The day conference will particularly highlight, evaluate and reflect upon some instances of inspiring and transformative spiritually-resourced work and activities taking place in prisons in Scotland, and elsewhere, including involving spiritual practices and processes, artistic and creative processes, and actions and interventions that support prisoners to successfully re-integrate back into society. Those instances would be of particular interest, among presentations that touch upon some of the challenges and opportunities of working in prisons, from a spiritual perspective, policy considerations, and some of the successes and opportunities for further work in this area.
Event: Day Conference: Spiritualities and Prisons.
Venue: Sanctuary, Augustine United Church, 41 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh, EH1 1EL.
Date: Saturday 6 May 2017.
Time: Registration: 9.30am-10am. Day Conference: 10am-1.20pm.
Organised by Edinburgh International Centre for Spirituality and Peace, EICSP,
Scottish Charity, SC038996, www.eicsp.org
Chair: Dr Giuseppe Maglione.
Conference: 9.30am-1.20pm.
9.30am-10am: Arrival, Registration and Refreshments.
10am-10.30am: Plenary address: Dan Gunn.
Title: Faith in the Prison.
I will take as my starting point the verse from Hebrews – ‘Remember those in prison as if you were in prison with them’. My talk will be in 2 parts. The first will offer a perspective looking in from outside at ‘Faith in Prison’. What does the world outside expect of the world inside? The second will try and offer an individual based take on Faith in Prison concentrating on prisoners but including staff and the various partners now embedded in prison life.
Biog: I retired in 2014 from the SPS as Acting Director of Operations having been ‘inside’ for 38 years and Governor of 5 prisons. My particular interests included Youth Justice, health particularly in relation to the ageing prisoner population, Equalities and restorative justice. I am now a Board member/Trustee of several criminal/community justice voluntary bodies and am a member of various Church of Scotland committees including the Church and Society Council. I chair the Stirling Interfaith Community Justice Group which runs the Cornton Vale and Glenochil Visitor Centres and the Joint Faiths Board on Community Justice.
10.30am-11am: Plenary address: Dr Harry Schnitker.
Title: The Spirit Moves: Faith and Transformation in the Scottish Prison Service.
Biog: I am the Principal Catholic Chaplaincy Advisor to the Scottish Prison Service, as well as prison chaplain in HMP Perth. I am also the Senior Supervisor for post-graduate research at Maryvale Higher Institute of Religious Sciences, Birmingham; Senior Research Fellow, St Ninian Institute, Dundee; Associate Member, St Andrew's Foundation, University of Glasgow, and a Bridgettine Oblate.
11am-11.30am: Plenary address: Phyllida Anam-Aire.
Title: "the undoing" ...
What I learnt about suppressed emotions from the men in Saughton and Peterhead prisons, when I lived for one week with them in the early 1990s. How can we in society help those removed from us to begin the undoing of past deeds of violence and build a new being worthy of self-honour? What is my part in the doing and undoing?
Biog: Phyllida Anam-Aire is a native speaker of Gaelic who was brought up in a small mountain village in Donegal, where she learned Celtic mythology and rituals such as singing for the dying. She studied to become a Catholic nun, but changed course to learn humanistic psychology with Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. She is now a bereavement counselor and the author of A Celtic Book of Dying.
11.30am-11.50am: Tea/coffee break.
11.50am-12.20pm: Plenary address: Pete White.
Title: HMP Edinburgh and the Art of Happiness.
A journey through imprisonment, the awakening of a pro-social conscience and the discovery of self…
Biog: Pete White, Chief Executive, Positive Prison? Positive Futures ...
12.20pm-12.50pm: Plenary address: Elizabeth Allen.
Title: Creative listening - a route to fellowship in depth and spiritual renewal.
The practice of creative listening is simple but challenges us to listen deeply, to both ourselves and to others. It can be used as an aid to our spiritual life both as individuals and as a community. A participant in a creative listening group wrote,
“Courage grows as we experience the concerns of others touching us where we feel the pain most deeply. Compassionate listening involves the total engagement of the heart. It is through strength and grace that we are able to achieve spiritual intimacy.”
Biog: I am a Quaker and currently serve as Clerk of South East Scotland Area Meeting. My interest in community justice comes from my faith and belief that justice should be compassionate, forgiving and healing - restorative, not retributive. It was triggered by my experience of visiting women in prison and as an Alternative to Violence Project facilitator, helping people in prison and in the community find non-violent ways of addressing the conflict in their lives. I served for many years on the Joint Faiths Board on Community Justice.
12.50pm-1.20pm: Plenary address: Dr Giuseppe Maglione.
Title: The role of apology and forgiveness in restorative justice. From theory to practice.
Restorative justice is a unique way to think about and respond to crime. It centers on the involvement of direct stakeholders through meeting and dialogue, on the repair of the harm caused by the crime and on personal accountability. From this perspective, restorative justice assigns a unique role to apology and forgiveness. Whilst these are not compulsory requirements of any restorative process, it often happens that the harm is symbolically repaired when an apology is given and accepted, and when forgiveness is granted, during the meeting between the victim and the offender. This symbolic repair of the fracture between the victim and the offender, is frequently the condition for the material compensation or restitution. This presentation aims to describe and discuss, drawing upon research, theory and professional experience, the role of apology and forgiveness in restorative justice, to contrast this with ‘conventional’ criminal justice, and to reflect on the future of restorative justice in Scotland.
Biog: Giuseppe Maglione is a Lecturer in Criminology at Edinburgh Napier University. He received a PhD in Law from the University of Florence and carried out research on restorative justice at the universities of Cambridge and Oslo as well as at the Max Planck Institute in Freiburg and at the International Institute for the Sociology of Law (IISL). In addition to his research activity, Giuseppe has worked extensively as victim-offender mediator and trainer in mediation for Police forces and NGOs in Italy and Norway. He is member of The Scottish Restorative Justice Forum and fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Contact: Neill Walker, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 0131 331 4469.