10 March 2026

During the last week of his captivity, the prison Chaplain invited Jonathan Aitken, the former cabinet minister,  to preach in the chapel. He took as his text Psalm 130. The publicity given to this occasion greatly  increased chapel attendance.

As the prisoners filed into their seats, Aitken got increasingly nervous. ‘I think the idea was to give me some teasing … it was crammed like rush hour. ‘ he said. And just before the service began, the raucous rabble was silenced not by Aitken but by Big Face.

He had been a gang boss in London. As he enters the chapel, with a couple of burly minders, people make way for him as he takes up his position right at the front of the chapel. Aitken’s nerves almost get the better of him. He’s just six feet away!

Something remarkable happens during the service. Far from making trouble, Big Face is visibly moved. There’s some moisture around his eyes. When Aitken finishes, Big Face comes up to him and gives him a bone-cracking handshake.

‘Jonathan,’ he says, ‘that there psalm of yours was beautiful.’ And as Aitken says, ‘I think he thought I’d written it!’ But it was just a beginning. Jonathan was invited over to his wing of the prison to talk about the psalm and its spiritual power!

‘We had a wonderful evening talking about the psalm and what it meant about going to the depths,’ concluded Aitken. ‘It showed me that the psalms can communicate to anybody on wavelengths which preachers might never access.’

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