‘Loving your neighbour starts with small acts of kindness’

The Bishops’ Advisor on Prisons and Penal Affairs for the London Diocese, Rev Paul Cowley, explains why this Christmas he is helping organise a present for more than 1000 inmates in London’s prisons

Rev Paul Cowley MBE speaking to men in a high security prison in Kenya (Revd Paul Cowley MBE)

As Christmas approaches, we will be considering our family and how to traverse this difficult time. It may make us ponder the bigger questions of life. We may even reach for a Bible to find out about loving our neighbour.

In the gospel of Mathew 25 v35, in the New Testament, we are told by Jesus to look after the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, those who are naked, the sick and the prisoner. You will see this theme of helping others through this book and in the books of other faiths including those with no faith.

It is about humanity. It is about a calling to care for others, not just ourselves, because when we turn inwards, we know all too well that our life becomes small.

That is why this Christmas, we have launched the Love Christmas initiative. Its objective is to to give some of the poorest people in the UK a present at Christmas. This includes over 1000 bags of hope to be given to men and women in our London prisons.

Those in our prisons are a community I particularly think of at these times. Although there are no excuses for crime there are many reasons why people commit crime and many independent bodies link crime to poverty.

If 69 per cent of people will reoffend within the first year of being released, then reducing reoffending should be a concern for all of us. Less crime means less victims and that’s what we all want isn’t it?

I myself was born into a dysfunctional alcoholic family with very little formal education, spent time in prison, divorced, and also seventeen years in the military, where I served in Northern Ireland and the Falklands.

Now I am a priest in the Church of England. It was the small acts of kindness from family, friends and strangers, and the unconditional love of God that changed my life.

The Love Christmas initiative comes from a programme we run called Love Your Neighbour initiative. It started with an emergency pop-up food bank in March 2020 out of Holy Trinity Brompton, an Anglican church in London.

It now stretches across the UK embracing some of the most deprived regions and spans a multi-denominational network of over 1,000 churches and other local organisations Together, we have delivered 3.5 million meals so far as well as with providing services such as debt advice and employment support.

When the pandemic struck back in March, many countries were quick to close their borders, turning inward in the scramble to protect lives and livelihoods. The same applied to individuals, many of us becoming self-protective and insular.

Having been a thief, a prisoner, a soldier and now a priest, I have witnessed in my own life how kindness can change a person’s heart and character.

Working in prisons and social justice for the past 24 years and having visited over a thousand prisons around the world, I have realised that loving your neighbour often starts with small acts of kindness.

That is why this year we are running Love Christmas to show those small acts of kindness to those who most need it.

Rev Paul Cowley MBE is the Bishops’ Advisor on Prisons and Penal Affairs for the London Diocese. Find our more about the Love Your Neighbour programme here