Sacred Stories Back in Jail

From 2013 until March of 2020 a team of women from Grace United Methodist Church in Dayton, Ohio went to the local county jail on Wednesdays on a rotating basis. We went to jail to engage a circle of women with stories from the biblical tradition in a class we called “Sacred Stories.” In 2017 we also took the stories into a state women’s prison in Dayton, called “Circle of the Word.”

Three years later, the jail opened up to programming again, so on March 15 we returned to begin an eight-week series of stories from Mark’s version of the passion of Jesus and all four Gospel accounts of Jesus’ resurrection. After a recent class the women gave written feedback on something they enjoyed in Sacred Stories that day. Responses included:

  • “Gaining more knowledge on Christ and why he died for our sins”
  • “Using markers and hearing a story”
  • “We got to play the stories out”
  • “I enjoyed being Peter”

By presidential decree, April was national Second Chance month, and April 30 was Second Chance Sunday at Grace. Our newest Sacred Story team member, Heidi Arnold (below left), told the parable of “The Father and Two Sons” from Luke 15. Willie Templeton, Montgomery County Jail Chaplain and Program Coordinator (below right), was the guest preacher. And returning citizen Zakaya Bragg (below center) received her certificate for participation in the Sacred Stories class this Spring. It was a very special worship service.

Prayer, Post-Pandemic

My last entry was right before the pandemic shut everything down. The jail is still pretty shut-down when it comes to programming. Programs have started up at the prison again, but in the interim I got busy with other prison/jail/reentry work, plus aging issues, so I’m not going inside. I really miss teaching the stories, though, and haven’t given up the hope of doing that again, either in the jail or perhaps a half-way house.

I write today because I came across a prayer card from 2017. It touched my heart. I hope it was answered as the woman wished.

Pray that I keep my walk with Jesus strong and get my kids back Sept. first.

Summer 2017

I pray that her walk stayed strong, and she is now with her children as a healthy mom.

Story by Request

We just finished a six-week Sacred Stories series at the jail. I had planned to do stories from the Gospel of Matthew, more or less following the Sunday lections, but the first week a woman asked about the Adam and Eve story (the loss-of-paradise part) which resulted in a lively conversation. So I asked,” Do you want to have that be our story for next week?” There was a most enthusiastic response.

Narrative Analysis

Color-coded identification of story characteristics

Our Circle Friday was on the first healing story in the Gospel of Mark (unless you count the preceding story of casting out an unclean spirit as a healing story, which one of our Circle members pointed out). One of our activities to learn it was to identify its story characteristics: setting, characters, things, plot, verbal threads. We call it “narrative analysis.”

Then everybody took a part and we acted it out. Each woman picked a scarf or shawl for her particular character, which they really enjoyed. One woman said, “We don’t have much color here, so this is very nice.”

Afterwards, as usual, all were invited to tell the story to the group–straight storytelling style. And, what is not usual, every woman took a turn and told it. Each in her own style, but each very close to Mark’s version with most of the details. The last one had them all. It was delightful.

I Wonder…

Storyboard for Mark 1:14-20

Last week at the prison we engaged the story of Jesus beginning his ministry, proclaiming “the good news of God” and calling his first four disciples. The story is set in the context of John’s arrest. One of the women commented, “We can all relate to that.” Of course. These stories have powerful connections for people on the inside.

Not this time, but some previous series, we did the “I Wonder” activity. I found the cards when I was prepping for last Friday. The I Wonder activity gives each person in the circle the opportunity to ask any question they have of the story, to express what they wonder about it.

When our “wonderings” are complete, someone reads them all. Then in a second round, when the talking piece comes to them each person has the opportunity to comment on any one wondering. Here are the the questions and wonderings asked of this story on that occasion:

  • Why was John arrested?
  • I wonder how Jesus was feeling about John being arrested and if that’s why he wanted them to repent
  • I wonder what the good news is
  • What did Jesus envision about the Kingdom of God?
  • I wonder why people could just drop everything and follow him?
  • What did a bunch of fishermen need to repent from?
  • What do I have to do to repent?

What do you think?

Circle of the Word

Last week was the first of seven Fridays leading Circle of the Word at the Dayton Correctional Institution for women. Our theme for this Fall is “Good News: Stories of Mark 1.” My co-circlekeeper, Hope, and I started with the story of John the Baptizer. It was an excellent Circle, a very good beginning. Fitting, as our story opened with: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

One reason it was such an excellent circle was because of degree of interest in the “About the Story” information page. Even the reading went exceptionally well, with impressive attempts at reading the Greek words for explaining about the acronym for Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior. ICTHUS.

Good questions were asked; close attention followed as Hope and I answered and as others contributed to discussion.

One person wondered about the reference to Romans, and what the issue was with them. So I told them about the conquest of Jesus’ people over the centuries by various invading armies and about the ruthlessness of the Romans. They were fascinated, and it was clearly new info for them. It laid the groundwork for understanding why “the crowd” eventually turned on Jesus, because he didn’t work to deliver them from their enemies, the Romans, but instead taught them to pray for their enemies. We talked about that, too, in the context of explaining the meaning of Christ, Messiah, “anointed one.”

Another question had to do with the reference to laws in Leviticus about leprosy which came up in the paragraph on baptism and the notion of cleansing. So they learned about leprosy, which prepares them for the story at the end of chapter 1 about Jesus healing a leper.

And they learned about what it was like to be a leper (or have some skin disorder that was believed to be leprosy) and have to stay away from people. I used the word “ostracized” and made the connection to being in prison. They named it as “shunning.” And one women asked how to spell “ostracized” because she was taking notes.

They learned about the role of the priests. I pointed out that they were like judges, deciding when people were properly cleansed and could return to their community. Another connection to the last story in Mark 1 as well as to their experience.

These discussions led to more about Leviticus with its catalog of laws. When I explained that these were interesting because it showed the kinds of issues the community back then were dealing with since you don’t normally make a rule unless there’s a problem. They completely got that dynamic, being so common in prison.

As good as all this discussion was, the activity involving “sequence cards” turned out to be one of the best things I’ve experienced in COW, despite the fact, maybe because of the fact, that initially I thought it was a disaster. More on that another day.

Houses of Healing

Today was the second session of an 8-week course we are offering for women at the jail which I discovered during a Circle of the Word series on the theme of forgiveness. This is the second time I have done this course at the jail (the first time being a year ago). We also offered it at the women’s prison last Spring. Each time I teach it I think more highly of it. I will be rotating this course with a series of Circle of the Word classes.

Houses of Healing is not a “religious” program, but it does encourage spiritual as well as emotional growth. This time I had one-on-one conversations with each of the 18 women who the chaplain had identified as eligible, to tell them about the course and see if they wanted to attend. They all did. I also asked about their faith tradition, if any. One woman self identified as Wiccan; the others all as Christian, though many said they were not active Christians.

As an introduction to the program’s basic concept that all of us, no exceptions, have a “Core Self” that is good, peaceful, loving, and wise, last week I told excerpts from the ancient Creation story found in Genesis 1. This week, to reinforce the metaphor of this Core Self as a light, and as an introduction to relaxation and meditation, I taught a simple song: “Be Still and Know”). This was followed by a telling of the first few verses of John 1, ending with the assurance that “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

It was a very good session. The women are doing their “Self-Work” and participate well in class. Of the 18 women who signed up, we had 2 no-show’s, 3 went home after the first session, and 1 got in a fight and isn’t allowed to come. Wo we now have a perfect size group–12.

For descriptions of this course visit https://lionheart.org/prison/houses_of_healing/

Check-In, Check-Out

Our Sacred Stories class at the jail is structured like a “peacemaking circle” which is a Restorative Justice practice. In keeping with circle practice, we always start with a “check-in” where everyone says their name, how familiar they are with whatever biblical story they have just heard told, and how they are feeling. We record the feelings on a little chart to affirm them. The feelings are always a mixture, as one would expect from a group. 

One Wednesday in mid-February, Sacred Stories was led by Jennifer Davis and Roberta Longfellow. (It was the week I spent in Guatemala, teaching biblical stories in Spanish, more or less.) They taught the story of Jesus’ baptism from Mark, starting by telling it to the group. The tallies at check-in showed that for seven of the nine women present it was a “brand new” story. The feelings named were: loved, thankful, content, sleepy, hopeful, relaxed, uppity, mad, and happy. I’ve been doing Sacred Stories for five and a half years now, and I still hear new feelings named—“uppity” for example.

A peacemaking circle is also supposed to have a closing “check-out.” So I always plan to do a round where we all tell how we are feeling now (at the end of the session) along with comments about the class. On the back of the check-in chart is a check-out chart. But most weeks that chart is left blank. I almost always run out of time.

Roberta, however, skilled time manager that she is, ended class on time with a check-out round. Here are the feelings that she recorded: blessed, loved, relieved, unjudged, welcomed, can-do-whatever-she-wants, hopeful, optimistic, more appreciate that life isn’t worse, less mad, empathetic, don‘t really have it that bad. Makes you think, doesn’t it. 

I am especially pleased that “unjudged” and “welcomed” were named. That’s the hoped-for spirit of our Sacred Stories circle. The next week one of the women reported that they had “gone deep” in the session led by Roberta and Jennifer. I know they are only willing to do that because they trust the group with their deep feelings and difficult experiences. As for comments on the class, what Roberta recorded was: “one of my favorites,” “helps me open up, mostly with myself,” and, from a woman who was getting out soon, “will miss Amelia.” Now you know one reason I enjoy going to jail.

Shackles

Interesting, last time I posted was the first session of the Forgiveness series–at the prison with 14 women participating–and this time I’m posting it’s the last session of the Forgiveness series–at the jail with 14 women. (We finished at the prison last Friday.) Our last story was the story from Acts 16 of Paul and Silas getting thrown into the innermost cell of a prison, praying and singing at midnight with everyone listening, an earthquake opening up the doors and loosening everyone’s chains, the panicked jailer, and the Word of God being spoken to him and to everyone in his household.

Not too many of the women knew this great story, but they are definitely familiar with it now. The “About the Story” doc I created and we read-around included a paragraph on shackling. And in that paragraph I wrote about the First Step Act that might be voted on in Congress–how it would end the practice of shackling pregnant women when they go to give birth, and also end the practice of indiscriminant shackling of youth, at least in federal prisons. And yesterday they voted and passed the act into law! It’s not everything it should be, but it is at least a “first step.” A small miracle that anything got done remotely useful in the current political mess.

There was intense listening to the story as I told it, starting with Paul and Silas meeting the slave woman, followed by a lively repeat-after-me (words AND actions) group telling of the story. We quieted down while listening to my co-Circlekeeper’s meditative reading of the story, followed by thoughtful Word-I-Heard responses. We enjoyed listening to “Shackles” by Mary Mary, which was inspired by this story, and we listened to a Celtic sung version of the Lord’s prayer as we contemplated what shackles we each needed removed.

We closed with singing and signing “Go Now in Peace” in unison and then as a round. It was a good ending to a powerful series of stories on the theme of Forgiveness.