Breaking the chains of injustice

Challenge your church’s perceptions on prostitution with Breaking the chains, NCAP’s brand new and simple to use church resource. The pack provides an overview of some of the main issues surrounding prostitution as well as practical steps for offering support to those who are caught up in this evil trade.

There are many links in the chains binding those involved in the sex industry – such as violence, abuse, vulnerability and drug dependency. NCAP empowers people bound by these chains to free themselves and to discover that freedom and hope are possible.

Breaking the chains is a new resource containing facts, background information, case studies and materials which can be used in home groups and other small group settings. It also contains practical suggestions for church involvement on numerous levels.

The Rev Andrew Dotchin, vicar of the central Ipswich parish of Whitton said, “Learning from the response of the people of Ipswich this information and discussion pack reminds us that there are real people - somebody's daughter - in the middle of Britain's sex industry and sets out to listen to these stories in a sympathetic way which suspends any action until all the facts are known”.

Buying sex involves exploitation and the estimated age of girls involved in prostitution in the UK is only 13 years old. They experience violence and abuse on a daily basis. And the number of men buying sex in the UK has doubled in the past few years.

NCAP, the National Christian Alliance on Prostitution, unites and equips church groups and other organisations working with people involved in or exploited by the sex industry.

For more information or to talk to a spokesperson, please contact Mark Wakeling on 07956 300344.

Breaking the Chains of Injustice - A Review by Revd Andrew Dotchin, Whitton Parish, Ipswich

During the dark days of December 2006 Ipswich responded to the death of five young women in ways which where unexpected by the probing lens of the world's media. Instead of the usual condemnation which is often heard when those who are involved in the sex industry are brutalised and murdered the town responded with loving compassion and care.

A great part of the reason for this is that Ipswich is a small community, the number of people (both women and men) regularly working on the streets is often in single figures, and many in the town knew the stories of five gentle women who have come to be known in Ipswich as 'Somebody's Daughter'.

'Breaking the Chains of Injustice' helps to bring a similar compassion to other areas of the country and hopes to change the way sex workers are viewed. Learning from the response of the people of Ipswich this information and discussion pack reminds us that there are real people - somebody's daughter - in the middle of Britain's sex industry and sets out to listen to these stories in a sympathetic way which suspends any action until all the facts are known.

Building on the successful 'Signposts' information series the pack adds to them group study and worship material, a good set of links to further resources and an invaluable CD Rom which may be used in many settings.

The material raises the issues of decriminalisation and legalisation (which are not identical). It does not probe the challenges faced by compulsory rehabilitation and zero tolerance policing methods but any group examining these issues in depth will rapidly become aware of the need for a 'whole person' solution to the problem.

I would heartily recommend this pack to be studied by Christians in many settings. It is set out for group study or as a speaker driven presentation. It should find a natural home amongst Mothers' Union meetings as, with their concern for home and family life, it speaks to the heart of their mission.

The challenge the church faces in this setting is that we run the danger that people working in the sex trade, who are already victims, may end up not only being condemned but also made into criminals. To know how each of us should respond in a caring compassionate manner should be a part of our own response to the Gospel of care for those on the outside of society. If not then when the next sex worker is murdered - and in Britain ten are murdered every year - we will simply, like the priest and the Levite on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, be guilty of passing by on the other side.