Sr. Teresa Doherty RSC (on the right in photo) attended the International Prison Chaplain’s Association conference in Stockholm from August 20 – 25th. There she met an Australian RSC, Sr. Patricia Staunton (left in photo) who also works in prison ministry. Teresa also attended a workshop there on human trafficking. Teresa has worked for over 35 years in Los Padrinos, a detention facility for incarerated youth under 18 years of age in Los Angeles.
The conference, with its approximately 300 participants, received greetings from the Director General of the Swedish Prison and Probation Service Lars Nylén, the Lutheran Archbishop and also President of the Christian Council of Sweden Anders Wejryd and the Lutheran Bishop of Stockholm Eva Brunne.
The opening ceremony, also containing folk dancers and a presentation of the participants per continent, was led by Birgitta Winberg, (Swedish) President of IPCA since 2005.
Keynote speakers were professor Andrew Coyle and baroness Vivien Stern and and many other workshops.
Participants from all the six regions of IPCA gave information about their work, showed film clips, taught songs and told stories. With the very different situations in different parts of the world, and very much so in prisons, the evening was a very touching one, for example through the glimpses that was given from the African realities.
The theme song of the conference was “Forgotten People” – lyrics by the Swedish prison chaplain Anders Caringer.
