Displaying items by tag: Brixton Prison Chaplain

Volunteer chaplain Paul Song has shared the gospel with inmates at Brixton prison since 1998. Many have become Christians. Last year, after a Muslim imam was appointed head chaplain, Pastor Song came under frightening opposition. Islamic militants attacked his classes and physically assaulted and abused him because of his faith. ‘My classes were often disrupted. At times inmates openly spoke in the chapel in support of IS and suicide bombers. There was nothing I could do about it. They spoke with such hatred of Britain that it was frightening.’ The imam said that the Christian material used by the pastor (and by churches throughout the world) was ‘too radical’, and called the pastor’s Christian views ‘extreme.’ He was dismissed, but a petition to reinstate him was signed by over 40,000 people. His case was reviewed and he has been reinstated.

Volunteer chaplain Paul Song has shared the gospel with inmates at Brixton prison since 1998. Many have become Christians. Last year, after a Muslim imam was appointed head chaplain, Pastor Song came under frightening opposition. Islamic militants attacked his classes and physically assaulted and abused him because of his faith. ‘My classes were often disrupted. At times inmates openly spoke in the chapel in support of IS and suicide bombers. There was nothing I could do about it. They spoke with such hatred of Britain that it was frightening.’ The imam said that the Christian material used by the pastor (and by churches throughout the world) was ‘too radical’, and called the pastor’s Christian views ‘extreme.’ He was dismissed, but a petition to reinstate him was signed by over 40,000 people. His case was reviewed and he has been reinstated.

Paul Song, 48, was a prison chaplain but claims he was forced out of his job at Brixton prison after the new Muslim managing chaplain there accused him of holding 'extreme' views. He had worked at the jail since 1998; he had started running Alpha courses and the Just10 course, all with the blessing of the former senior chaplain Reverend Phillip Chadder. The demand for the courses over the years was considerable. Mohammed Yusuf Ahmed, who took over as managing chaplain in 2015, told Song he wanted to 'change the Christian domination' at the prison and that the courses he taught were 'too radical'. Pastor Song, a respected AOG Pastor from South Korea, also leads the Shepherd Church in London. He is being advised by the Christian Legal Centre, which said, ‘To call this Christian who has served without a blemish for almost twenty years an extremist defies belief.'