Some prisons are without a Buddhist Chaplain and volunteers are urgently needed.
Buddhist Prison Chaplains are there to make available Buddhist Teaching and Practice in their prison. They are to encourage the development of Morality, Meditation and Wisdom and to be a ‘good friend’ to Buddhist inmates and staff. I hope they will succeed in making a real Buddhist contribution to the life of their prison. To join our team and be a Buddhist prison chaplain you need to be a committed Buddhist living by a moral standard of at least the Five Precepts, which includes the fifth precept practised as it says in the texts as abstention from alcohol and drugs, and you should be a regular meditator. You also need a competent understanding of Buddhist Teaching and Practice with a knowledge of Buddhist schools other than your own and you must be willing to help those of other schools. We have developed a Prison Dharma course that should be a help and that we require all our Buddhist chaplains to complete, not necessarily before they begin but at some time early in their ministry. I hope that anyone doing this will enter into the work whole-heartedly and will be prepared to devote a certain amount of time and trouble to it. All Buddhist prison chaplains should be members of Angulimala and it is important to our drive to gradually raise the standard of our work as well as to the well-being of everyone concerned that all our chaplains regularly attend the training workshops held quarterly at The Forest Hermitage. The commitment we require is that for the first three years a new chaplain attends at least two workshops a year and thereafter at least one a year. At these you will find support and advice, resources and training, encouragement and companionship.
Please get in touch with me if you would be interested in serving as a Buddhist prison chaplain or if you would like to support our work and help in any other way.
Thank you.
Venerable Ajahn Khemadhammo OBE
Angulimala 