Kairos is a nondenominational prison ministry
operating throughout the world.
Get your application here.
Kairos International Website
Kairos Louisiana
Website
It has been active at Angola since 1993. A weekend retreat is held each
year at Main Prison, Camp C, and Camp D. The goal is to assist residents
in forming prayer and share groups which meet weekly in the camps.
Check
out the Guidebook.
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Kairos is a Christian, lay-led, ecumenical, volunteer international
prison ministry, in which men and women volunteers bring Christ's love
and forgiveness to incarcerated individuals and to their families.
Kairos consists of three programs: the Men's and Women's Ministry,
begun in 1976, Kairos Outside, begun in 1991, and Kairos
Torch, begun in 1997.
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The Men's and Women's Ministry addresses the spiritual
needs of prisoners. Kairos volunteers go into prisons in teams of 30
to 40 to pray, share the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ, share
meals, and fellowship with the incarcerated on a one-to-one basis. The
first visit is a three-day event, during which time the team teaches a
short introductory course on Christianity. Subsequent visits are
monthly half-day reunions with the prisoners over a twelve-month
period.
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Kairos Outside provides spiritual healing to families of
the incarcerated, who often feel that they too are "doing time".
Spouses, parents and other relatives of prisoners meet with teams of
Kairos volunteers to share their faith and gain strength from
Christian community.
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Kairos Torch provides a ministry to youthful offenders,
the most rapidly growing segment of the prison system. Because young
people between the ages of 13 and 19 are generally housed in smaller
institutions than adult offenders, smaller-sized teams participate in
this ministry.
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Kairos Ministries is now active
in 33 states and in the countries of Australia, Canada, England, Costa
Rica and South Africa. The ministry is active in over 300 ministry
sites and 35 Kairos Outside ministries for women whose sons and
husbands are in prison. Kairos has requests for its program in
Honduras, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Nigeria, and several other countries.in 270 prisons in 33
states, England, Australia, South Africa, Costa Rica, and Canada. More
than 170,000 incarcerated men and women have been introduced to
Kairos, since its inception. The current number of volunteers exceeds
20,000 per year.
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Kairos Outside is active in 19 states, Canada, England,
Australia, and South Africa, and includes 35 programs. Kairos
Torch is operational in 10 locations.
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Kairos Prison Ministry affects the lives of prisoner in countless
positive ways. Lives have been changed, and former inmates re-enter
society as better spouses, parents, and employees. Many released
prisoners become volunteers, and give back to society. Some start
their own ministries, pastor churches, while others run re-entry
programs and become mentors.
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In 2003, Kairos volunteers donated over 3.5 million volunteer hours
to the various departments of corrections here and abroad. If you
multiply 2.5 million times the minimum wage in the USA of $5.15 per
hour, our ministry donated $18 million in volunteer time. Volunteers
paid $2 million for supplies, bringing the total donation to $20
million.
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Last year, we held 618 weekend programs in 309 ministry sites: 502
Kairos weekends, 80 Kairos Outside weekends and 36
Torch weekends. The remaining volunteer time was spent in
pre-weekend and post-weekend trainings and activities.
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In addition to having a positive impact on prisoners, the program
also has a very favorable effect upon volunteers. Many volunteers
acknowledge that the team training, with its emphasis on inrospection,
honesty, sharing, and community, enhances their spirituality.
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The savings to the taxpayer are substantial. As one former prisoner
put it: "It costs the government about $1,000,000 to try me and to
imprison me for several years, but a $100 program keeps me out".
A Brief History
In 1975, Tom Johnson, a lawyer and Catholic Cursillista from Miami,
Florida, attended an ecumenical Cursillo gathering in Atlanta, Georgia.
Though delegates came from several denominations doing Cursillo weekends,
this Atlanta gathering was heavily Lutheran.
Tom Johnson had been imagining a Cursillo program in prison for some
months. When he heard some of the delegates actually planning a prison
weekend in Iowa, Tom approached the Iowa delegate, Pastor Gene Hermeier and
sought permission to attend. One week later, Tom was observing a Cursillo
weekend in an Iowa prison and knew that he found a calling. He returned to
Miami determined to begin weekends in Florida prisons.
The first weekend was held at Union Correctional Institution at Raiford,
Florida in the fall of 1976. It was called Cursillo.
By 1978, six or seven states were doing Cursillo in prison. The national
Cursillo office in Dallas, Texas surveyed these prison Cursillos and
determined that they should be ecumenical, they should be under a central
authority and that the format should be significantly altered to better meet
the needs of those in prison. Cursillo asked the Florida group to design a
program for that particular application.
After the first Kairos was presented in 1979, Cursillo requested those
who were doing Cursillo in prison to quit the practice. Most of those
districts became associated with Kairos.
Kairos dates its history back to that first weekend at UCI at Raiford,
Florida. Kairos is now active in 25 states, England and Australia. The
ministry is active in 165 prisons and has 11 Kairos Outside ministries for
wives and mothers. More than 95,000 incarcerated men and women have been
introduced to the Christian community that is Kairos and the current rate of
introduction exceeds 10,000 per year.
Kairos is widely recognized as the most effective program available to
positively change basic attitudes of the incarcerated.
