We began a new series of Circle of the Word at the prison on August 24. Fourteen women came, though not all at the same time. There was more coming and going than I’ve ever experienced, largely because the Chaplain was getting them there. It was disruptive, but I decided to just go with the flow and that worked fine. Another distinctive thing about that session was that four women told the story to the whole group. I don’t think I’ve EVER had someone volunteer to do that at the prison.

The theme for this Fall, all the way up to January is “Forgiveness: Stories from the Gospels and Acts.” We’ll be starting the same theme at the jail this Wednesday. We’ll do a few more stories at the jail, because we go there every week, while at the prison we can only go twice a month. Space is a major issue at the prison and twice a month was all I could get.

The idea for this theme came after a Circle of the Word at my church. We have a monthly COW for anybody (don’t have to be a returning citizen though that was one of the motivations for starting it). In that COW, which started in January this year, our stories have been inspired by The Book of Joy. I pick a story that relates to one of the eight “pillars of joy” identified in the book. The pillar for July was forgiveness.

I found a book on my bookshelf entitled Seventy Times Seven, which was very helpful in planning that outside COW. Then I found another entitled simply Forgiveness. I read it and was profoundly impacted by it. As I read it I thought, this would be good for anyone, but especially for people who are incarcerated.

So I asked the prison chaplain what she thought of the idea of “Forgiveness” for a COW theme. She thought it was a very good idea, because many women have such difficulty forgiving themselves (their wrong-doing being always “in their face”) and also because so many of them have been abused and need help forgiving their abusers so they can gain some peace.

I wanted to know more about the author, Robin Casarjian. A search led me to Lionheart Foundation, which among other things promotes her book “Houses of Healing.” This is a more recent book than Forgiveness and was written specifically for people who are incarcerated! There is a whole curriculum which I would like to try. We’ll see if that is possible. In the meantime, it’s informing my planning for COW at the prison and jail.