Church can help young people leave gangs

The church can use its extensive network across the UK to help young people leave a life of crime.

Referring to the fate of Cain in Genesis 4, the Rev Devid Shosanya said God was the one who takes criminals out of the context in which they are vulnerable and puts them in a safe place.

Rev Shosanya said some people did not have the inner strength and psychological courage to leave the groups they had been socialising with for so long.

He went on to say that young people who had attacked others were "vulnerable to reprisal attacks".

"We need to protect them and socialise them back into society," he said.

"We've got this tremendous opportunity as churches to take some of the young people who are involved in gun and knife crime and drugs and through our extensive network of churches to begin to relocate them across the country, socialise them and release them back into communities."

Rev Shosanya was speaking at the inaugural Street Pastors conference on Friday. Later in the day Scottish Street Pastors were blessed as they prepare to launch the Scotland branch of The Ascension Trust, the ministry behind Street Pastors.