Daylight Christian Prison Trust
The general director of Daylight Christian Prison Trust, Gerard Chrispin, will be stepping down at the end of this year, when the general director designate Paul Harrison will be taking over.
Gerard, who with his wife Phillippa started the work over ten years ago with DayOne Prison Ministries, says, ‘Whilst keeping the gospel at the heart of Daylight, we need someone to build on what has been established and take it to the next stage’.
Paul comes from a non-Christian background. He had been studying Zen Buddhism for nearly sixteen years before becoming a Christian. He recalls, ‘I come from a totally non-Christian background and never attended church. In my late teens, I took up karate and started to practise Zen Buddhism. It was not until I was 29, when I found myself reading Matthew’s Gospel and a focus on Jesus’ teaching, that I was surprisingly and wonderfully converted’.
For several years Paul worked with young people in a city centre church in Coventry, before moving to Cambridgeshire as a social worker. Subsequently he worked for three and a half years in full-time ministry in one of Her Majesty’s prisons.
He was greatly blessed by two years at London Theological Seminary, after which he was ordained into the ministry in September 2005. For the last three years he has been working with the Grace Baptist Churches of West Anglia as their area evangelist.
Speaking about his new appointment Paul Harrison says, ‘Daylight is a wonderful means of taking the good news to people trapped in a life-cycle of crime, and I am thrilled about my new role with the Daylight team’.
