| |
|
Bishop's
Notebook
30 November 2001
St. Andrew, The Apostle
Day 81 of the 100 Days
This week ends a hectic period of trips in our office. Gerry
and I went to Rome for the Consecration of Pierre Whalon as the
new Bishop of the Convocation. I'm happy to say a number of chaplains
joined us. From there Gerry went on to visit our chaplains in Germany
and I, since my orders for Bosnia/Kosovo were cancelled, went first
to a prison in Ohio and then to Fort Huachuca, AZ. David attended
an endorser's meeting in Tennessee which clarified terms of support
for healthcare chaplains and Jackie, along with Dave Knowlton and
Mike Stewart, briefed the Bishop of Utah and her clergy on the preparation
for a crisis, should there be one at the Winter Olympics in February.
left to
right, Gerry Blackburn, CH Steve Pike and family, CH Bob
Lawrence and family, and CH Steve Logan and family
front Bishop Packard |
When we compile all the photos from this travel marathon we'll post
them as a separate entry in this Notebook. For now here's one from
the Italy trip. I am proud of the significant impression we have
made in the Episcopal community in Europe.
And so we arrive at Advent, a season which distinguishes Christmas.
I got into a bewildering conversation with a youngster recently
about the wisdom of waiting for Christmas. She advocated that Christmas
everyday was a far better plan. And this waiting stuff? It just
got in the way of the enjoyment.
Underneath her insistence is also a wholesale embrace of the fellowship
and goodness of Christmas. She's right, that would be a far better
plan for the streets of Jerusalem or Jalalabad these days.
But Christmas comes by way of a manger and a story. It comes to
deliver a lasting joy in a manner deeply known. My tablemates at
the Marion Correctional Institution (MCI) during Thanksgiving shared
with me how they distinguished their days. "The first year is the
hardest, but after that outside relationships either change or die
off and you get on with living on the inside."
I wondered how one could function in the midst of all this monotony.
But it's not that way if one chooses to distinguish the time. Before
turkey day started Chaplain Dick Swan and I sat down to an early
morning breakfast with Warden Christine Money. She looks like she
should be heading the local PTA, not one of the largest and heretofore
most problem ridden facilities in the State of Ohio. She said it
was different today than it was five years ago. "We filled the place
with programs and with hope." She credits hardworking Dick Swan
as part of the attitudinal shift.
Having visited other facilities this full court press of positives
from the chaplain and the warden was startling. Later it seemed
descriptive. The facility recently finished its tenth Kairos weekend
and prides itself in the founding of a novel, cooperative living
program called "Horizon" where three religious groups (Jewish, Christian,
and Muslim) live in community side-by-side. One had the curious
feeling that the world in the midst of such religious suspicion
after September 11th would do well to look inside the walls of this
prison for hope! Somehow they had taken their time together and
made it separate and something special. They didn't concoct this
harmony overnight and, they hasten to tell you, it is a continuing
project.
Advent takes hold of our calendar in that way and thereby distinguishes
time for the Nativity of Our Lord. The work of preparation this
year has so many dimensions: with the tragedies of September the
transitory security of this world has been quickly revealed. Just
as our brothers at MCI have reached beyond themselves and employed
works of hope to transform their lives, so we must do the same.
Come Lord Jesus! +gep
|
Bishop's Notebook
Thanksgiving Day
Day 73 of the 100 Days
September 11th
has sharpened our sense of our nation and those who serve to protect,
defend, heal, and rescue us all. May we who are in that charge be
honored by that commendation and the knowledge that it comes from
a Republic which values "life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness."
It follows that
the blessings at our abundant tables will ask us to place some attention
to others wherever they might be in the world, following Our Lord's
example, giving more than we receive.
This holiday
will be particularly memorable for those among us who have lost
loved ones in the tragedies which have filled these 100 Days and
for those who are adrift with worry and anxiety. Empty chairs at
the table will make losses especially acute. The first Thanksgiving
feast after that harsh winter apparently had the same character.
The Plymouth Colony arrived with 100 persons in 1620 and sat down
for that first meal in 1621 with about 50 persons present. The attrition
was that bad. And still they thanked God.
They thanked
God for each other, for new, strange Indian friends, for the sacrifices
of the special persons of character who made life possible in those
uncertain months, and most of all for their hope in future days.
I join you in updating that prayer at this year's feast. +gep
The Bishop's Notebook
16 November 2001
Day 67 of the 100 Days
Bishop
Packard is travelling to Rome, Italy for the ordination and consecration
of the newly elected bishop of the Convocation of American Churches
in Europe, The Rev. Pierre Welte Whalon, at St. Paul's Within the
Walls on Sunday, 18 November. Look for a report on his trip in an
upcoming notebook.
The Bishop's Notebook
9 November 2001
Day 60 of the 100 Days
| Bishop
Packard is scheduled to celebrate Thanksgiving with the prison
population at the Marion (Ohio) Correctional Facility. The following
article has been released through the Episcopal News Service. |
Prisoners
grieve for victims of September 11 terrorist attacks
by Val Hymes
(ENS) While the world focused on the September 11 destruction of
the World Trade Center towers and the thousands of victims lost,
the effect of those horrors on the nation’s nearly two million prison
inmates was largely forgotten.
The Rt. Rev. George E. Packard, bishop suffragan to chaplains serving
the military, healthcare and prisons, said he was concerned after
one deacon dismissed inmates’ reactions by saying, “They have televisions
and safety behind bars.”
Calling that reaction “a naive and patronizing view of what a human
being’s requirements are in such emergencies,” Packard said being
able to watch the tube occasionally “does not satisfy the essential
needs of sharing, connecting and reflecting.”
“Are the incarcerated not part of this society?” he asked. “Do they
not worry about their families but unlike us cannot easily check
on them? A national emergency is no time to look past persons in
confinement as if they are invisible.”
Following along from ‘inside’
A short survey showed that many prisoners were deeply affected by
the tragedies and demonstrated their patriotism.
One resident of the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola lost
his son and his son’s wife, leaving six children without parents,
wrote Michael G. Hackett of the Church of the Transfiguration inside
Angola. “Television brought all of the events right into the whole
population, so they were following it along with the rest of the
world.
“A number of other residents have close family that have been lost
through this event,” he wrote. Yet in those first few days “a collection
was made and $15,000 was sent to New York for disaster relief-a
staggering amount since the normal wage per hour is between 2 and
4 cents.”
Mary Ann Armstrong of Transfiguration said the volunteers and inmates
held prayer intercessions for families and victims at the first
Tuesday October service.
Another Transfiguration volunteer, Texye Charleville, wrote that
a 25-year-old inmate named Jimmy Williams sent her $10 for the Red
Cross. “
Jimmy is horrified, shocked saddened, just as we are, by the September
11 attacks,” she said. He was 17 when he committed the crime that
sent him to death row. “He shed tears as I did for our country and
the victims,” she wrote.
“The death row inmates,” she added, “really believe their only hope
is our justice system, so when our country was attacked, many could
not participate in the religious services around the country or
donate to charities. They felt a sense of helplessness for the victims
and hopelessness for themselves. The incarcerated are indeed very
human and felt the same horror that we felt on September 11,” Charleville
said.
Inmates ‘think about us’
Inmates at a Maryland medium security prison, however, say the warden
did not permit them to collect and send money or to donate blood.
A pre-release counselor at a “boot camp” in southern Mississippi
wrote that the young, male first offenders “are not allowed TV,
radios, newspapers or reading materials other than the Bible.” She
said the chaplain and some of the drill instructors and teachers
informed the inmates, but that she is not allowed to discuss those
matters formally and could be fired for bringing in a newspaper.
She said if asked, she provided verbal or information from the Internet.
“Although many people prefer not to think about the million-plus
people in our prisons,” wrote Connie White of the Victim Offender
Reconciliation Program, St. Francis Academy, Inc. in Salinas, California,
“the inmates certainly think about us.”
Patriotic citizens
An inmate population of fewer than 2,000 women at the California
Institution for Women in Corona “recently collected and sent $6,000
to the victims of the WTC disaster,” she wrote. “Along with the
money, they sent hand-painted murals saying, ‘United We Stand’ signed
by hundreds of inmates...dolls, teddy bears and blankets, all handmade
by the women.”
The jobs they hold in prison typically pay 25 cents to 45 cents
an hour.
“This is not a one-time thing for these women,” White added. “On
a continual basis they raise money for causes such as cancer and
AIDS...they volunteer in programs to sew hats for children who have
lost their hair from chemotherapy and make blankets and layettes
for indigent babies.
“These women feel they are patriotic citizens. I hope we return
the sentiment,” White said.
‘Only God can accomplish this!’
A devotion for Prisoner to Prisoner written by inmate Bill Hamann
at the Marion (Ohio) Correctional Institution said he wished that
people who believe prisoners are “anti-social anarchists” could
have been in prison with him September 11.
“In a prison environment that is incessantly chaotic, we watched
our (television) sets in stunned silence. In our harsh world of
stone and iron, where ‘convicts don’t cry,’ I saw tears stream down
men’s cheeks. In a perverted society where prisoners and staff are
often at war, I watched a warden console an inmate, and a deputy
offer a hand of compassion.
“In a place where many think God is dead, I saw his nurturing presence
in a single hand-clasped prayer circle of Jews, Muslims, and Christians
wearing their communal prison shirts,” Hamann added.
“In the midst of the chaos, confusion and heartache we saw on television,
I realized that we are very much a part of our society and of God’s
earthly creation. Even as prisoners we are God’s children and when
his people are in trouble we suffer and cry and pray with them.
“Only God can accomplish this!”
Praising the Ground Zero and crisis intervention support he and
his teams of chaplains have received, Packard said, “But I don’t
want the prison population out of the loop.”
As for prisoners having a “secure place to ride out the crisis,”
the bishop, who served in Viet Nam and at the Pentagon, said, “That
turns incarceration on its ear. There’s nothing cozy about any of
the confinement facilities I’ve visited.”
Val Hymes is coordinator of the Prison Ministry Task Force, Diocese
of Maryland. She lives and writes in Edgewater, Maryland, and is
a member of St. James’ Parish in Lothian.
|
The Bishop's Notebook
2 November 2001, Commemoration of All Faithful Departed
Day 53 of the 100 Days
Fr.
Jim Heron of Trinity, Fishkill, NY brings resourceful energy to
his priesthood. Yet even he, also a chaplain for the state police,
found that he had new bearings after September 11th. Speaking of
his parish and their relief work, he said, “We have found new energy
of ministry together in doing the things of Our Lord.” His animation
is contagious. It’s those new bearings that intrigue me.
 |
|
Fr.
Jim Heron
|
We are still measuring the effects of that awful day. Forty nations
lost citizens in the attacks and perhaps America joined the world
in its vulnerability and in its community. With that our frame of
reference changed and certainly the context of our work was enlarged.
Recently we posted “Prayers of the People
for All Saints Day”, written by one of our chaplains at ground
zero, the Rev. Charles T. A. Flood. In those prayers he includes
references to Buddhism and Islam. And, you guessed it, we got complaints
about how could we possibly allow such words in a prayer for this
hallowed day of Christ. I’ll accept the sin.
Celebrating All Saints Day is not the equivalent to discounting
others and their losses, or the manner by which they know them.
Certainly it is by Jesus Christ we are saved, yet I firmly believe
He stands by our fumbling for the right things to say at such times.
The tragedy of September 11th does not transform our ”Christness”
but it does open us to the enormity of God’s plan. I have seen God
ferocious to embrace us in spite of our differences in these hours;
there will be plenty of time to verge on parochialism again.
What remains of bodies we could drag out of the pile of debris were
never marked with a denomination, despite that, the generosity of
Jewish, Buddhist and Muslim clergy present always impressed me as
one of our chaplains said,
“Into your eternal hands, O God, we commend this your child, into
the care of a faithful Creator and most loving Savior. We pray that
in your infinite goodness, wisdom, and power you will work in this
soul the merciful purpose of your perfect will; for the sake of
your Name. Amen.”
Other prayers from “foreign” places were said too by brothers and
sisters who, now, seemed less so.
New bearings? I’ll say.
+gep
|
|
.gif)
