Meet Chris Hoke Sunday, June 13th at 10:00 a.m.
Sunday, June 13th at 10:00 a.m., One Parish One Prisoner Executive Director Chris Hoke will be with us for a joint service of the Stillaguamish Cluster.
The service will be live-streamed via Facebook and will be available for viewing later via each congregation’s website.
From the OPOP Learning Module The Art of Building Trust: Years ago I met with a man who helped guys inside a prison put their re-entry plans together. He wasn’t staff. He was still incarcerated, looking at life. Bertram has seen guys do well after release, and he’s seen guys come right back.
I asked him, based on his ten years in that tiny office off the chapel, meeting with guys about to release, “What’s the most important part of preparing for re-entry?”
He didn’t talk about housing or resources. He told me it’s when the guys start telling him stories. Their childhoods. Their trauma. What they won’t tell the staff counselors.
He said,
“Guys WANNA talk. If they can get someone to listen. Not fix them. Where they feel safe. We got a lotta people wanna be healed and made whole. But they can’t until they can trust somebody. They don’t need no sermon. They want relationship. They want to trust somebody.”
— Bertram
What do incarcerated citizens have to do with our church?
Overview of the ELCA Social Statement on The Church and Criminal Justice: Hearing the Cries:
Overview: The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) affirms the fundamental principles of the U.S. criminal justice system such as due process of law and the presumption of legal innocence. Yet, this church hears people’s cries that reflect the current system’s serious deficiencies. Drawing from the biblical witness to God’s wondrously rich forms of love and justice, we are compelled by a “holy yearning” to address the need for a change in public mindset and for dramatic reforms in policies and practices. This statement calls upon Christians to strengthen or take up ministries of compassion and justice. Drawing on evidence and data, it affirms some current efforts at improving the system while identifying numerous other reforms that urgently need implementation.
For the full text of this Social Statement, click on the link below:
Criminal Justice - Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (elca.org)
A Social Statement on The Church and Criminal Justice: Hearing the Cries *A glossary can be found at the end of the statement, which may be helpful. This social teaching document was amended and adopted by a more than two-thirds vote (882-25) at the thirteenth biennial Churchwide Assembly on August 17, 2013, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.