The Netherlands has historically been one of the most religiously diverse countries in Europe, with its tradition of “pillarization”—the organization of society along confessional lines—producing a remarkably pluralist public culture. Dutch prison chaplaincy reflects this tradition. The government has opened chaplaincy to representatives of multiple faith traditions and has imposed secular expectations on all chaplains, including requirements related to gender equality, professional certification, and adherence to institutional codes of conduct.9

For the confessional Reformed minister—and the Netherlands was, of course, the birthplace of much of the Reformed tradition—this professionalization poses particular challenges. The Dutch government expects chaplains to operate within a framework that treats all religions as equivalent, that prioritizes therapeutic outcomes over theological truth, and that imposes progressive social norms as conditions of employment. A Reformed or Historic Baptist minister who believes that women should not hold the office of pastor, or that homosexuality is sinful, or that salvation is found exclusively in Christ, may find himself unable to meet the government’s requirements for chaplaincy accreditation.

The Dutch model thus illustrates a broader European trend: the transformation of prison chaplaincy from a religious ministry into a secular profession. The chaplain is becoming a “spiritual care provider”—a credentialed professional whose function is defined by the state rather than by the church. This transformation is not accidental. It is the logical consequence of secularization, and it represents a fundamental challenge to the integrity of Christian prison ministry.

Eastern Europe: Renewal and War

Eastern Europe presents a dramatically different picture. Decades of communist suppression left the churches weakened but not destroyed, and the post-communist era has seen a remarkable renewal of Christian prison ministry across the region.

Prison Fellowship Ukraine was established in 2002 and has grown steadily since then, operating within a prison system that—like most post-Soviet systems—is characterized by overcrowding, corruption, and inadequate resources.10 The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has been particularly active in developing military chaplaincy in Ukraine; Wawrzonek and Szyszlak (2023) document how the UGCC, despite its minority status nationally, took the leading role in shaping the military chaplaincy framework, with the Ukrainian parliament regularizing the status by statute in the mid-2010s.11 Kuryliak, Ostashchuk, and Ovchar (2021) extend the picture to prison chaplaincy, documenting the development of religious organizations’ work in Ukraine’s penitentiary system from 1991 to 2021 and noting that approximately ninety percent of inmates who complete a chaplaincy-led rehabilitation program do not reoffend.12 These efforts represent a deliberate attempt to integrate Christian ministry into the institutional structure of post-Soviet Ukrainian society—an approach that provides both access and legitimacy.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 introduced an entirely new dimension to prison chaplaincy. Christianity Today reported on Ukrainian prison chaplains extending their ministry to Russian prisoners of war—an act of extraordinary grace that embodies the command of Christ to love one’s enemies.13 Ministering to the soldiers of an invading army, while one’s own country is being destroyed, is not a theoretical exercise in Christian ethics. It is the Gospel in action, under conditions that strip away every pretense and every comfort. These Ukrainian chaplains are doing what Christians have always done at their best: proclaiming the love of God to men who have done them terrible harm.

The Eastern European experience reminds us that prison ministry thrives not in conditions of comfort and institutional support but in conditions of adversity and dependence on God. The churches that survived communism emerged with a spiritual vitality that the comfortable, state-subsidized churches of Western Europe have largely lost. There is a lesson here for prison ministers everywhere: the Gospel does not need favorable conditions. It needs faithful proclaimers.

The Secularization Challenge

The overarching challenge for Christian prison ministry in Europe is secularization—the systematic exclusion of religious conviction from public life and the reduction of faith to a private preference with no claim on public truth. A 2024 article in the journal Religions described prison chaplaincy environments as potentially “microaggressive” toward non-religious inmates, arguing that the presence of chaplains and religious programming in state-funded prisons constitutes an imposition of religion on those who do not share it.14 The language of “microaggression”—borrowed from the lexicon of contemporary progressive ideology—is revealing. It treats the mere existence of Christian witness as an act of harm. It defines the Gospel not as good news but as an offense against the autonomy of the irreligious. And it provides the intellectual framework for further marginalizing Christian ministry within the European prison system.

The European Union’s human rights framework reinforces this trajectory. Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights protects freedom of religion, but it does so within a framework that also protects freedom from religion—and European courts have increasingly interpreted this framework in ways that constrain confessional Christian expression. A chaplain who tells an inmate that Christ is the only way of salvation may find himself accused of violating the inmate’s right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. The irony is breathtaking, but it is entirely real. Like with the British policies built on a historical evangelical framework, which have become a two-edged sword, continental policies stemming from distant memories of centuries of evangelical faith and practice have become great proponents of formalist or superficial religion, devoid of its true power.

The Reformed and Historic Baptist minister faces unique obstacles in this environment. Our theology is unapologetically exclusive. We believe in the total depravity of man, the sovereignty of God in salvation, the sufficiency of Scripture, the need for repentance and holiness, the requirement of doing good to others as evidence of saving faith, and the necessity of personal faith in Christ for eternal life. These convictions are not negotiable, and they cannot be softened to fit the pluralist expectations of European institutional chaplaincy without ceasing to be what they are. The European prison minister must therefore be prepared to operate at the margins—to find creative ways to proclaim the Gospel within systems designed to suppress it—and to accept the consequences when those systems push back. If we cannot directly bring the Gospel to the lost in prison because of wayward public policy, we affirm the satanic nature of the state (and often its actors) as an obstacle to our mission to both Christian prisoners and the lost needing the Gospel. The state actors blocking us, guilty of more than a sin of omission, may be sure to receive just recompense along with the other “goats” on Judgment Day (Matthew 25:31-46).

Implications for Practice

Despite the formidable challenges outlined above, European prison ministry offers valuable lessons for practitioners worldwide. First, the European emphasis on institutional integration—embedding chaplaincy within the formal structure of the prison system—provides a model of sustainability that American ministries, which often depend on volunteer labor and private funding, would benefit from studying. State-funded chaplaincy has obvious dangers, but it also provides consistent access and long-term institutional relationships that volunteer-based models struggle to maintain. I say this with considerable reserve since, as a historic Baptist, I am wary of any integration of the church or its mission and the demon-driven state. I just know that God in His sovereignty can make the knees knock of those who oppose Him most and land his prophets in the most unusual or unlikely places with an opportunity to preach the truth.

Second, the multi-faith context of European prisons, while theologically problematic, has forced Christian chaplains to articulate their faith with greater precision and intentionality. When you cannot assume a Christian cultural background, you must explain the Gospel from first principles. This is, in many ways, a healthier starting point than the cultural Christianity that pervades much American prison ministry, and it is certainly a rung above Chilean prison Pentecostalism.

Third, the Eastern European experience demonstrates that the Gospel thrives under persecution. The churches that emerged from communism are planting the seeds of prison ministry with a spiritual seriousness that should humble their Western counterparts. The Ukrainian chaplains ministering to Russian POWs are not operating within a comfortable institutional framework. They are operating under fire, and their ministry is all the more powerful for it.

The European context is difficult, and it is growing more difficult. But difficulty is not defeat. The God who sustained Paul in a Roman prison, Bunyan in Bedford jail, and Wurmbrand in a Romanian dungeon is the same God who sustains His servants in the secularized prisons of modern Europe. The fields are indeed “white already to harvest” (John 4:35)—even in Europe, even now.

References

Alper, M., Durose, M. R., & Markman, J. (2018). 2018 update on prisoner recidivism: A 9-year follow-up period (2005–2014). U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Becci, I. (2015). Institutional resistance to religious diversity in prisons: Comparative reflections based on studies in Eastern Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, 28(1), 5-19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-014-9179-6

Beckford, J. A., & Gilliat-Ray, S. (1998). Religion in prison: Equal rites in a multi-faith society. Cambridge University Press.

Bergmann, B., Lutz, P., Bartsch, T., & Stelly, W. (2024). Religious coping or coping with religion? Religious belief and practice during incarceration in German youth prisons. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 63(2), 92-111. https://doi.org/10.1080/10509674.2023.2295864

Casper, J. (2022, November 14). Ukraine’s Prison Fellowship Extended to Russian POWs. Christianity Today.