wfn.org | Presbyterian church mines prison for prospects

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Note #6492 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

20-April-2001
01133

Presbyterian church mines prison for prospects 

Unique ministry helps inmates adjust to life outside the walls

 by Evan Silverstein

BROOKLYN, NY - When José Reyes was released from New York's notorious Sing
Sing Correctional Facility about 17 months ago, he needed a place to turn to
for help.

The ex-convict, who had done time in various New York state prisons over
most of the previous decade, was looking for a community where he could shed
the stigma of being an ex-offender and move forward with his life,
personally and spiritually.

He found such a community at the Church of Gethsemane in Brooklyn, a
Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation that says it is exploring "A New
Model of Ministry." Onetime prison inmates account for much of the church's
membership.

"They had their doors open," Reyes, 44, said about Gethsemane church. "When
you're coming out (of prison) and you're running all kinds of ways, the
speed of society in New York is tremendous. When you come out you are in
shock. Gethsemane church welcomes you and talks to you and embraces you and
says 'You are our brother.'"

The Church of Gethsemane was started in 1986 by and for prisoners,
ex-prisoners and their families. The congregation also includes a number of
people who feel called to a ministry to the poor. Gethsemane was a
new-church development  officially chartered in 1989. The church started as
a spin-off of a group called Citizen Advocates for Justice, a service agency
for women prisoners and ex-offenders established by Gethsemane's founding
pastor, the Rev. Constance Baugh.

"They help you deal with the judgment that one faces coming out of prison,"
said Reyes. "It has that supportive environment that I come for."

Gethsemane's members have been recruited from jails, prisons, halfway
houses, community centers and the streets. The church is the only home some
members know. During its first 10 years, 47 prisoners became members of the
church through correspondence courses and visits. Active congregants now
number more than 100.

Many of these worshippers recently got a chance to describe their uncommon
congregation to the Rev. Syngman Rhee, moderator of the PC(USA)'s General
Assembly. Rhee visited the Church of Gethsemane earlier this month while
accompanying a delegation of PC(USA) staff members through a whirlwind,
three-state, four-day tour of Presbyterian-related mission sites in the
Northeast.

"I appreciated hearing about the unique ministry of this church," Rhee said,
"particularly about the ministry they have (of corresponding with people) in
prison and helping the persons coming out of prison. It is a very unique
ministry."

The "Mission USA" tour started on April 2 and included stops in New York,
New Jersey and Rhode Island. It was sponsored by the denomination's National
Ministries Division (NMD), which hopes it will become an annual event on the
moderator's schedule. The tour program, now in its second year, takes in
PC(USA)-related mission sites in different parts of the country.

Rhee and the rest of the delegation got a first-hand look at Sing Sing
prison in nearby Ossining, NY (see note 6493). Among those traveling with
Rhee were vice moderator Rebecca McElroy; the Rev. Curtis A. Kearns Jr.,
director of NMD; Kearns's executive assistant, Pam Green; and the Rev. Kathy
Lancaster, associate for criminal justice in NMD's social-justice program
area.

"I rejoice that the Presbyterian Church (USA) has been related to the Church
of Gethsemane for so many years," Lancaster said. "It was a delight to be on
the premises there and see the real people who live there and whose lives
are changed … through their existence as a worshipping and advocacy
community."

The delegation heard lots of stories about how the Church of Gethsemane
helps ex-convicts break down the judgmental walls society often builds
around them. All are welcome to join Gethsemane church, Rhee's group was
told during a dinner in Gethsemane's basement.

"The essence of it is people who are in prison, who are leaving prison, it's
really to value the life experience they have had," said Mary-Elizabeth
Fitzgerald, Gethsemane's director of community life. "Usually they have to
hide their experience - if there are circles, whether they be communities of
faith or whatever, that would hold it against them. … We value people for
their life experience and give them voice based on that experience, and the
fact that they are welcomed wholeheartedly into the (Gethsemane) community."

Church members participate in a wide range of denominational and interfaith
activities in New York, presenting workshops on their experiences as
prisoners and as members of Gethsemane, visiting and hosting other
congregations, and volunteering in shelters, hospitals and in programs of
the JusticeWorks Community, the church's social-outreach arm. A cornerstone
of the JusticeWorks program is the Interfaith Partnership for Criminal
Justice in New York City, which brings together religious and secular groups
in efforts to prompt positive change in the nation's criminal-justice
systems and policies.

"What we're really trying to do is bring more humanity and rationality into
current criminal justice policy," said Fitzgerald, who also is executive
director of JusticeWorks. "Current policy simply militates against the poor
and the racial-ethic (person). Our whole public education and advocacy is to
mobilize citizens who will then bring pressure to bear on their legislators
to change criminal-justice policy and make it more just and more humane."

Gethsemane is exploring alternatives to incarceration for mothers convicted
of non-violent crimes. JusticeWorks officials say 70 percent of women in
prison are serving sentences for nonviolent offenses. One of the
organization's aims is to educate the public on the practical and ethical
consequences of resorting to mass incarceration while ignoring social
problems. Women are the fastest-growing population in prisons, mainly
because of mandatory sentencing for drug violations. In 1980, about 10,000
women were serving time. Last year their number had grown to more than
150,000.

In 1992, JusticeWorks organized a national grassroots organizing campaign
called "Mothers in Prison, Children in Crisis." The program works to
identify alternatives to prison for non-violent female offenders with
dependent children.

"I agree that sometimes you do need to lock people up," said Ray Rios, 37, a
former resident of Sing Sing. "However, you really need to look at the
byproduct. If you lock somebody up for 25 years, but they come out with no
skills for the real world, then really you are just setting yourself up for
failure."

The Church of Gethsemane helps offenders prepare for release from prison by
giving them information through a newsletter and maintaining a
letter-writing project. Since the early 1990s, more than 50,000 prisoners
have received Liberation Voices, Gethsemane's Bible-based newsletter.
Through "Project Connect" the congregation maintains regular correspondence
with about 40 members in prison. Inmates often apply to the church for
letters to the parole board, post-release referrals and legal assistance.
Prisoners become church members after completing a seven-part correspondence
course.

The letter-writing campaign injects a ray of hope into an environment of
despair, according to Gethsemane member Darryl Carathers, a Queens resident
who has served more than 15 years in various New York prisons.

"Whenever I was feeling down and I wrote the church, they always wrote me
back letting me know that I wasn't alone with my struggle," said Carathers,
38. "The letters were really uplifting. Even if I didn't receive any mail
from my family, the church was there for me. They wrote letters for the
parole board for me. I was denied parole once. When I went back, they wrote
letters to the parole board for me again."

The congregation, which makes its home in Brooklyn's Park Slope section, has
shared its space for four years with a Jewish congregation, Kolot Chayeinu,
which means Voices of Our Lives, "a developing, progressive Jewish
congregation," according to Rabbi Ellen Lippmann.

"I wanted my congregation to be affiliated with a place that says 'justice'
on its sign," Lippmann said, referring to a JusticeWorks sign in front of
the church. "This is where I wanted us to be."

The Church of Gethsemane is the place to be, according to Rios.

"It was really nice to meet the people you were writing ... because you felt
an extended community," said Rios, who exchanged letters with Chibueze
Okorie, Gethsemane's minister of evangelism. "Especially when you were
coming home, you needed that feeling. After 10 years of not really having a
community ... coming here was really (rewarding). Everybody knows you. It's
a place where people know your name."

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