As this article notes, “Prisoners of minority faiths in federal penitentiaries will have to turn to Christian ministers in 2013.”

Anglican priest, Rev. David Price is unhappy with that since, horror of horrors, wiccans could be converted to Christianity. Where is the diversity and inclusion in that?

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has announced the cancellation of the contracts of all part-time non-Christian chaplains ministering in federal prisons across Canada. The cuts take effect as of the end of March 2013.

After that date, penitentiary inmates of minority faiths, from Buddhists to Wiccans, will have to rely on full-time Christian chaplains for interfaith services, religious counsel and spiritual guidance.

“I could never pretend to be Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Sikh and tend to the spiritual needs of all these different people,” says the Rev. David Price, an Anglican priest in Agassiz, B.C., who spent many years as a prison chaplain in the west. In his view, prison chaplains are essential and cost-effective “midwives” who help offenders give birth to new selves and new lives before they are released back into society.