The conferences were the first Canadian exposure for Caring for Ex-Offenders, a program launched by Alpha in the United Kingdom several years ago to help people who had accepted Christ in prison to connect with a church upon their release.

“There’s a terrible fear out there of engaging with ex-offenders,” says Joe Rigby, a retired prison chaplain and organizer of the Victoria conference.

“But you can’t run a program in prison and bring people to know the Lord and then ask them to just keep it in the privacy of their heart. They’ve got to express it in a faith community.”

Rigby had hoped the day-long conference would attract 150 people, but only half that number showed up.

By contrast, the Ontario conference at a prison in Brampton drew a capacity crowd of 250, although it had the advantage of being co-sponsored by a number of prison ministries.

Janis Ryder, executive director of the Toronto-based Prison Fellowship International Canada, says while many Christian volunteers are willing to go into prisons to work with inmates, they are often less willing to support them once they are free.

“In many cases, churches are at the forefront of leading demonstrations that say, ‘Not in our backyard’—which is very discouraging. We’re seeing quite a bit of that here in Ontario, especially for sex offenders who are being released,” she says.

Ryder knows of one inmate who is now “totally turned off church” because he had written to 14 Ottawa-area churches asking about their ministries because he planned to live there upon his release—and received not one reply.

“That was a light bulb for me,” says Ryder. “I just said, ‘Wow! This is a huge area for us to be adding value, because we could have sent a cover letter for that guy and say we know him; he’s part of our Bible study; let us introduce you to him.’”

The main goal of Caring for Ex-Offenders is to break down those barriers by offering guidance and resources to local congregations. One key way of doing that is a contract that spells out clearly how the church and the former inmate relate to each other.

“When we welcome them in,” says Dave Johnson, executive director of the John Howard Society of British Columbia, “we just need to make sure that we’re giving them the support that they need, but also making sure that they understand the boundaries, that we’re not putting any of these individuals in situations where they might fail.”

Rigby adds, “You don’t broadcast for everybody what this ex-offender has done over his criminal past, but enough people know the significant details to be able to see any dangers.”

If there is one area where the program appears to be lacking, says Ryder, it is in the need for churches to have some long-term support.

“And that’s where we [Prison Fellowship] would like to partner with Alpha—to say we have the volunteers often in a community and we can link a church to a group of volunteers who understand prison ministry and can continue to be there to shepherd them through,” she says.

Rigby says he believes God will bless churches that embrace ex-offenders. “It will help bring them back to credibility and also back to life,” he says. “I just can’t see how Christian churches can say no to it.”

Even so, Johnson admits to having “real mixed emotions” about some churches being motivated to reach out to ex-offenders just because it happens to be Christmas.

“I’d rather see churches do it because they want to do it for the whole year,” he says. “Because, really, the guys need support for 12 months, not just one month.”