Prison stories:"It was my corner". Yeah! The pastor's sons were also drug dealers, but they went back to church and changed, one of them became a pastor. C usually didn't say much during the small group gatherings, in fact it sometimes seemed as if he wasn't really engaged in the discussion at all. But it turned out that I had misinterpreted his quietness for disinterest.
During the session "How and why should I tell others?" he opened up and it was obvious that God was at work in his life. He told us about the church he went to...
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Paul Cowley:  Executive Director of Alpha for Prisons, Caring for Ex-Offenders and Alpha for the Military.
Paul Cowley was born in Manchester in 1955.
At the age of 15 he was expelled from school,
lived on the streets for a short while and then
moved into a life of crime. This led to a prison
sentence and, upon release, Paul joined the Army,
throwing himself into his army career for the next
15 years. During this time he was involved in six
tours in Northern Ireland, two in the Falklands
and was attached to Special Forces.
He left the army in 1991, at the rank of Sergeant,
after serving in the Army Physical Training Corps.
Paul became a Christian after doing an Alpha course at Holy Trinity Brompton in 1994. He became involved in prison ministry as a volunteer in December 1996 and then in July 1997, due to an increased demand for the Alpha course, he joined the staff at Holy Trinity Brompton as Staff Pastor for Prisons. The same year an office was set up to develop a strategy and move the work forward. This later included developing the charity Caring for Ex-Offenders which aims to reintegrate ex-offenders back into society upon their release.
In 2002 Paul discovered that Alpha was being run in the Armed Forces and in May 2003 Alpha for Forces was launched to help support and encourage the use of the Alpha course in the Armed Forces.
Paul is Executive Director of Alpha for Prisons, Caring for Ex-Offenders and Alpha for the Military. He and his team support and co-ordinate the growth and organization of these ministries across the country and increasingly around the world. In addition Paul also heads up the various areas of Social Transformation that Holy Trinity Brompton is involved in.
Paul is married to Amanda and has two children, Clinton and Phoebe. In June 2002 Paul was ordained by the Church of England after completing a three year degree course at Oakhill Theological College.
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