“I was in prison and you visited me”
Visiting those in prison is a key commandment for those who follow Jesus. To that end, the UUCF Office is working with the UUA’s Church of the Larger Fellowship’s new prison ministry to help meet the spiritual needs of the more progressive UU Christian prisoners. We will be providing many of our publication resources directly to those in prison and also are hoping to connect these UU Christians in prison, many of whom are new to UU, with other UU Christians who would be in a written communication relationship with them, helping them to share and deepen what it means to be a Christian in the UU tradition.
If you would like to know more about helping with this prison ministry, and possibly being a correspondent of hope to those in prison, please contact RevRonRobinson@aol.com
They are in need of more specific liberal Christian resources and connections than the CLF can provide, and this is where we in the UUCF have a unique role and experience to help provide both spiritual hope and nurture and to support them with a sense of the deep roots and history of our Unitarian and Universalist faith. I hope you will read below for the news of this program from CLF Chaplain Patty Franz and pray about ways you could help this mutual venture (even if it is financial since we will be providing postage for sending out our material to our brothers and sisters in Christ in prison, the UUCF could use any special donations you could provide for this special out-of-budget program expense).
From Rev. Franz: Over 250 prisoners from across the U.S. have joined the UU Church of the Larger Fellowship and are receiving spiritual support by mail through CLF’s Prison Ministry. Many of these prisoners identify as Christian and/or come from Christian backgrounds, but are seeking “something different” from the Christianity that’s preached by their prison chaplains and traditional Christian prison ministries.
Most prisoners who join CLF are ‘brand-new’ UUs, and many want to know more about what it means to be a “UU Christian.” But with no access to the web or UU Sunday services, they can only learn about us through written publications (like UUWorld and CLF’s Quest)… and through letters they exchange with ‘free-world’ UUs who incarnate for them who we are and what we’re all about.
CLF’s “Letter-Writing Ministry” matches prisoner-members of CLF with non-incarcerated UU’s to exchange friendly letters on topics of mutual interest, including religious/spiritual matters. Prisoners are told just the first name of their ‘match’ and they send their letters to CLF, to be forwarded (unopened) to their ‘free-world’ UU penpal. As prisoners don’t have access to email, all correspondence is by old-style letters (on paper, mailed in envelopes with stamps). If you think you might enjoy corresponding with a prisoner-member of the CLF and/or if you feel that such a correspondence might deepen your own spiritual journey, please visit the CLF website (www.clfuu.org) and click on the “Prison Ministry” tab to read about CLF’s prison ministry, ‘preview’ the Guidelines and expectations of the Letter-Writing Ministry, and request an info/application packet. If you have additional questions, please contact Rev. Patty Franz (“Chaplain Pat”) at PrisMin@clfuu.org.