From the Kairos Journal
In Honor of Wings of Eagles Ministries on their 30th Anniversary…
“Thomas Wright, the philanthropist of Manchester, distinguished himself as the true friend of forlorn prisoners. He was a man of no position in society. He possessed no wealth, excepting only a rich and loving heart.”[1]This tribute from a famous contemporary expressed the admiration of Victorian England for Thomas Wright’s pioneering work in rehabilitating criminals and reintegrating them within normal society - an achievement all the more impressive for being the work of a busy factory foreman without any resources or connections apart from his modest weekly wage (£3.50p) and a reputation for industriousness and honesty.
A man of humble origins and little formal education, Wright grew up in Manchester and after some troubled years of youthful delinquency, found faith in Christ under the influence of his mother and a young Christian friend. Spiritually renewed, Wright’s life-long ministry to prisoners began when an ex-convict asked for a job at the Manchester iron foundry where he was the foreman. When it emerged that the man had a criminal record, Wright persuaded his employers not to sack him, placing £20 of his own money into their hands as a guarantee of the ex-convicts’ good conduct.[2]
Moved by the plight of this ex-convict and encouraged by his success in helping him to keep his job, Wright eventually obtained access to his local prison in Salford (Manchester) in the hope that he would be given further opportunities to help convicts find employment and a new lease on life after they had served their sentences. At first he was only allowed to attend the prison’s Sunday afternoon services, but one day the prison chaplain asked for his help in finding a job for a prisoner who was about to be released. Wright promptly did so and from that moment on was given a free run of the prison by the governor. As a result, he was able to visit prisoners, develop a personal relationship with them and their families, and provide the help, advice, and encouragement they needed to start a new life.
Wright met prisoners on their discharge, took them to their homes, and then supported them financially from his own slender resources until he was able to find them work. So successful was he in winning the trust and confidence of the prisoners and their future employers, that within only a few years he managed to find jobs for nearly 300 ex-convicts. He also succeeded in reclaiming many female convicts from alcoholism and in persuading their husbands to take them back into their homes. On those occasions when he could not find employment for released prisoners, he either lent them money or raised a subscription from among his friends to enable them to emigrate and start new lives abroad. He helped 941 ex-convicts in this way.[3]
Wright’s voluntary labors on behalf of prisoners, to which he devoted all his spare time and his meager savings, eventually won official recognition in the British government’s annual reports on the state of the country’s prisons. As one of these acknowledged:
“…it is but necessary to state that out of ninety-six criminals befriended by him, and re-established in life, only four have returned to a prison.”With the help of the people of Manchester, who provided him a pension in 1852 so that he could devote all of his time to his charitable activities, Wright continued his work until failing health forced him to stop in his 85th year.[4]
“I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me,” says Jesus to his “sheep” in Matthew 25:36.If ever a man was one of those “sheep” it was Thomas Wright. Likewise, in our day, if ever there was a ministry that demonstrated the spirit of men like Thomas Wright in seeking to show Christ to those who are in prison and need to see Him, it has been Wings of Eagles Ministries…
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[1] Samuel Smiles, Duty (New York: Wm. L. Allison Co., 1880), 279.
[2] Ibid., 280-281.
[3] Ibid., 281-284.
[4] Ibid., 283-286.
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