A Christian volunteer chaplain at HM Prison Brixton was removed from chaplaincy work by a Muslim senior chaplain, it was reported on 4 February.
Pastor Paul Song had run the Alpha Course at HMP Brixton since 1998 under the former senior chaplain, Phillip Chadder. Many signed up regularly for the course and become Christians.
Too radical
In 2015 when the new chaplain was appointed, scrutiny by the Imam deemed Alpha ‘too radical’. Song said: ‘He paid scant regard to the fact that the courses are mainstream, and used … throughout the world’. Alpha was stopped. There had been no complaints by prisoners about the course content or Song’s attitude towards the prisoners.
