2005 Report of the Prison Ministry Director
The CLF’s ministry to incarcerated people continues
to grow, both in numbers and in depth.
The CLF has 152 incarcerated members at present. On average,
we receive approximately 8-10 inquiries and process around
5 new members each month.
There are 78 free world CLFers who have volunteered to be
pen pals, and currently 36 prisoner-members are waiting for
a pen pal. We are brainstorming ideas for offering some kind
of quasi-member status to non-members who are interested only
in the pen pal program. Our experience so far has been that
our requirement (that free world pen pals be members of CLF)
is not an inducement either to become members or to become
pen pals.
Our chaplain, Rev. Patty Franz, is corresponding with 8-10
prisoners. By and large, these are people who need ministerial
pastoral care.
Patty Franz, Lynn Ungar, and I have been working on establishing
an online support group for free world pen pals. The group
is very close to up and running, awaiting only some technical
start up solutions. Patty and I will be the group’s
managers, offering guidance and advice. In my opinion, this
online group will fill a real but heretofore unstated need
for our volunteers. In the last few months I’ve become
aware of a couple of volunteers who have encountered frightening
or simply questionable behavior in their pen pal’s letters
and, instead of calling or writing to ask what to do, they
have dropped the correspondence, something that I didn’t
stumble on for weeks. I hope that the online support group
will make it easier and safer for our volunteers to say when
something isn’t going right.
The curriculum committee of Starr King School for the Ministry
has approved a for-credit course for the Fall 2005 semester
that will offer seminarians the chance to experience a pastoral
relationship with imprisoned people by being a CLF pen pal.
They will be joining the dozen UU ministers who are already
pen pals.
Finally, we’re all pretty excited that there will be
an article in the (probably May-June) UUWorld, spotlighting
the CLF’s prison ministry. It was a pleasure to talk
with Warren Ross, the article’s author, and it is wonderful
that more UU’s will know about the CLF’s ministry
to our most isolated members.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathy Reis
Last updated June 12, 2005
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