Presbyterian Church - USA
Hi friends,
The invitation is out for your congregation: One Parish One Prisoner.
We have incarcerated friends heading back home to neighborhoods across Washington State—they’ve applied for new relationships, new friendships they’ve never had before.
We need congregations to respond, team members to write letters, read monthly learning modules, and gather together in discussion, prayer, and planning—get ready to welcome your new friend home from incarceration, back to the community.
This event will be recorded and presented here.
“I received 4 letters all at once. They all seem very sincere and genuine. I have to admit that I had a feeling of ‘What did I get myself into here?’
When I was sentenced to 20 years straight with no good time, I wrote off everyone I knew and just wanted to be forgotten. I have always been very self-sufficient and the one everyone else came to to fix their problems, and so I felt helpless and useless in here.
Now that everything has changed with my appeal and my time was cut almost in half, it seemed right to open up to connections in the community. The problem is these people don’t have problems for me to fix and I have no idea what I can offer them.
The life I chose allowed me to witness the ugliness and deceit in humans at their worst—coupled with the corruption that played out in my arrest and trial has created a great distrust of humans deep within myself.
I know it is something I have to work on... I guess I just needed to tell someone my confused feelings. Not expecting any answers or solutions, just needed to get that out of me.
I will start my reply letters today.”
Here’s a good orienting learning module—it’s one of our favorites.
Questions? Interested? Want to see this take off? Reach out to us.