December 5, 2023
It takes a special sort of person to enter a jail to support prisoners but Blackbutt resident David Urquhart did it for a decade.
David was a volunteer prison chaplain with Inside Out Prison Chaplaincy which has been supporting people in Queensland correctional centres since 1973.
Inside Out Prison Chaplaincy, operated by not-for-profit Carinity, recently held its 50th anniversary celebration in Brisbane, with the gathering attended by guests from as far away as Cairns.
The event included presentations from past and current chaplains and Inside Out Prison Chaplaincy co-ordinators, as well as former prisoners whose lives have been transformed thanks to prison chaplains.
David was a founding member of Prisons Mission Association Queensland, which is now called the Inside Out Prison Chaplaincy.
He served as a volunteer chaplain visiting prisons in Woodford and Maryborough in the 1970s and 1980s.
“I found it to be hard work. You hear stories that you don’t hear outside prison. You don’t get a lot of thanks, but when you do, it is worthwhile,” David said.
“There was a senior officer at Maryborough who used to ask me, ‘What is the feeling in the prison today?’
“He felt that the chaplains had a better appreciation for the contentment or lack thereof in the prison than the officers did.”
David says prison chaplains help a group of people that the rest of society has rejected.
“I have spoken to people who told me that certain people in prison should be executed,” David said.
“For me, having a discussion with an inmate about spiritual things is enormously rewarding.
“When you sit down and talk to a guy who beat a person to death, but now talks about the love of Christ – and you can see the change in his life – you cannot do anything but be thankful to God.”
Inside Out Prison Chaplaincy currently has about 30 volunteer chaplains providing pastoral care to men and women in 14 correctional centres around Queensland.
- You can support Inside Out Prison Chaplaincy by donating online
