Prison Service by Eric Wood
As a result of Eric Wood’s involvement with Prison Fellowship of Parc Prison, Bridgend for the past four years, the Worldwide Church of God in West Wales has begun to conduct the occasional service at Parc Prison, Bridgend. Parc Prison is the largest prison in Wales and its capacity exceeds all the other prisons combined. These Sunday morning services are shared between chaplains and local churches.
On Sunday 27th April, a combined Cardiff and West Wales Worldwide Church of God team ran the two morning services at the prison. Allan Austin did the song leading for both services. Sharon Austin accompanying on the keyboard and Deborah Glenister playing her Saxophone, spiced up the music. Eric Wood gave the message in the 9am service to about twenty prisoners classed as being vulnerable. These people tend to be very Bible literate and so a stronger message was able to be given. Gary Glenister gave the message in the 10am service, attended by forty four general prisoners. Only a maximum of eight people from the church are allowed to be involved in conducting this service and the Worldwide Church of God has been asked to provide a service three times during 2008.