Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published March 30, 2007

Detroit — Michael Timmis says he is hoping to get more Catholics interested in the work of Prison Fellowship, the ministry to prison inmates, former prisoners and the families of prisoners founded by Charles Colson.

Timmis, 67, a member of St. Paul on the Lake Parish in Grosse Pointe Farms and chairman of the board of Prison Fellowship since October, has been using his Catholic connections to enlist the support of American Catholic bishops for the work of the ministry, just as he solicited the support of bishops in other countries in his previous role as head of Prison Fellowship International.

He says what he brings to the leadership of Prison Fellowship "is God-given talent that has been shaped by my faith — as a daily communicant, I get the grace and strength to do what I do."

An active Catholic layman who has also promoted cooperation between Catholics and evangelical Protestants, Timmis came to know Colson, the convicted Watergate figure whose own incarceration led to the founding of Prison Fellowship after his release in the 1970s.

"In 1990 Chuck Colson asked me, 'Mike, what's God's call on your life?' and I told him it was working with the poor. He replied, 'I submit, the poorest of the poor are the incarcerated.'"

That got Timmis involved in Prison Fellowship. Colson then tapped Timmis to head the ministry's international arm in 1997. "We were in 75 countries, but now we're in 112," he says of his years with PFI.

Colson picked Timmis to succeed him as head of the parent organization upon his retirement last year at 75 on the ministry's 30th anniversary.

Timmis credits the opportunity to use his talents in the service of Prison Fellowship to Colson's efforts to bring Catholics and evangelical Protestants together.

"Because of Chuck Colson and his desire for unity in the Body (of Christ), I'm the first Catholic to take over the chairmanship of an organization that started out evangelical Protestant. That's kind of a miracle in itself," Timmis says.

Prison Fellowship:

• Has as its primary mission "To mobilize and assist the Christian community in its ministry to prisoners, ex-prisoners, victims, and their families; and in the advancement of restorative justice."
• Is primarily a volunteer organization, and its members include Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox believers. "We work with about 17,000 congregations, and this last year we helped a half-million children of incarcerated persons through our Angel Tree program," Timmis says of the ministry's program that provides Christmas gifts to prisoners' children.
• Offers various volunteer opportunities for people, from working directly with prisoners or ex-convicts, to being pen pals with prisoners, to helping the children of prisoners. "In prison and afterwards, we share the love of Christ with prisoners and ex-prisoners," he says.
• Works with ex-prisoners, to help them transition back into society. "We want to help them succeed," Timmis says.
• Works to bring about reconciliation between convicts and their victims, through what it calls restorative justice.

Timmis prays with prisoner at an African prison.

Timmis acknowledges that Catholic dioceses typically already have some form of prison ministry. "We're not there to supplant (diocesan prison ministry), but to complement it; we're not out to replace the chaplain," he says, adding, "We have 120,000 volunteers working with prisoners worldwide under the banner of Jesus Christ — in my opinion, it's a miracle."

Prison Fellowship has its own approach to ministry with prisoners. "We believe that crime is primarily rooted in man's brokenness. We believe the solution to crime lies in changing people's hearts," Timmis says.

Its efforts to reduce recidivism — released convicts winding up back in prison — have led Prison Fellowship to actually operate prisons, in cooperation with state authorities, for prisoners serving the final two years of their sentence.

"We run prisons in Texas, Iowa, Kansas and Minnesota, and we're opening up in Missouri and Arkansas. We run them as Christian prisons, sort of in a monastic way. We run everything about them, except for the outside security and food," Timmis explains.

"Every year, 700,000 prisoners are released, but two-thirds of them are back within three years. We want to break that chain of crime," he says.

And the program has met with some success, Timmis continues: "In Texas, we have reduced recidivism to 8 percent. The only reason it works is the Lord. Without Jesus, we have nothing to offer."

As vice chairman of Talon LLC, which has investments in manufacturing operations and real estate, Timmis is a successful local businessman. He also has a history of involvement in Church activities, helping to found the International Fellowship of Catholic Men and launch the annual conferences for men, such as the one that took place locally March 24.

He is a Knight of Malta, a Knight of the Holy Sepulchre, a member of the Cardinal Club and Legatus (the organization for Catholic business leaders), and is president of the Archdiocese of Detroit Endowment Fund.

He and his wife, Nancy, got involved in reaching out to, and working with, the poor after their 15-year-old daughter was killed in an auto accident in the mid-1980s. Their efforts have taken them to Peru, led to the building of four schools in Uganda and one in Rwanda, and helping fund the Cornerstone Schools, a system of nondenominational Christian schools in Detroit that were an early initiative of Cardinal Adam Maida.

"My wife travels with me often, and goes into the women's prisons," Timmis says.

He says his work with prisoners has made a difference in his life: "It's made me less judgmental, more compassionate, and more passionate about the love of Jesus for all of us."

And Timmis says he now has a better understanding of who prisoners are. "There are very few evil people in prison, and most women in prison are there because of a man," he says.