PHILIPPI PRISON Acts 16,16-40 (A local teenager tells us:) Now I can tell my mum I’ve met a Roman citizen! At last, she’ll think I’m taking a step up in life. I’ll wait a while before I tell her we were in prison together. I think I’ll remember the singing all my life. There’s nothing to do in prison; So any new prisoners; Any bit of news! We knew all about them in seconds: That they were religious trouble-makers, That they’d already been flogged, And the gaoler was really giving them a hard time, Clamped in the stocks, in the inner prison: But they sang, Beautiful, wonderful, tranquil singing, Through the middle of the night. It could have lasted for ever! Peace settles right through you, And all sorts of things start to put themselves right, deep inside. Then the walls fell down! None of us wanted to leave. Paul hardly had to tell us: We just stayed there. After that it was a night and a half! The gaoler couldn’t do enough for us. And when everyone found out That little Jew was a Roman citizen! You meet all types, in prison. F.Mary Callan York ’98