First Prison Ministry Conference Addresses Climate of Revenge
Episcopal News Service. May 18, 1994 [94106]
Chaplains and volunteers involved in prison ministry in the United States and Canada gathered at a parish in Plainfield, Indiana, to discuss ways to "enhance and improve the ministry the Episcopal Church provides to the incarcerated," according to Bishop Charles Keyser, sponsor of the conference.
Keyser, who as suffragan bishop for the Armed Forces also oversees the church's prison chaplaincy, said that the purpose of the first National Episcopal Prison Ministry Conference was to "affirm and encourage" those who go "relatively unappreciated and unknown."
Circuit court judge Clementine Barthold of Indiana told the 50 or so participants at the April 28-30 conference that the vengeful mood in the country is to "lock them up," showing little sympathy for prisoners or those who minister to them. She said that unloved, unwanted, abused and neglected children contribute to the growing problem of crime. She decried "children killing children" and called for a renewed focus on the family.
The role of religion in correctional institutions is critical, said H. Christian DeBruyn, Indiana's commissioner of corrections. He said that chaplains and volunteers "serve as role models" and are a "reflection of our community." But he added that racism continues to be a major problem in prisons, just as it is in the wider community.
"Racism is intricately involved in prison life -- for prison officials, inmates, their families and communities, along with the community which plays host to the prison," said Dr. Kenyon Burke, an Episcopalian who is former head of the prophetic justice unit of the National Council of Churches.
Punishment and confinement are not only the only functions of prison -- the Episcopal Church "opposes capital punishment on the basis that every human being is capable of rehabilitation and change," said the Rev. Canon Robert Hansel of Indianapolis. "To just give up on God's purpose of forgiveness and reconciliation would be the abandonment of our beliefs." He said that prison ministries help in that process of change through forgiveness, support and reconciliation. With such support, offenders can start a new life on the outside.