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The
Urantia Book
talks about the "joys of service" and that is exactly what
our Urantia Book prison ministry has been for me.
It is an answer to my prayers for a worthwhile service project
having to do with the Urantia Book. It
is an opportunity to share the magnificent teachings about the Universal
Father's all loving personality with men who are hungry to hear such
things.This
service opportunity came about because an inmate from the Oregon State
Penitentiary wrote the Urantia Foundation requesting that someone from
"the outside" come into the prison and host a Urantia study
group. Prisoners are not
permitted to meet on their own, not even for religious purposes, without
outside sponsorship. Pat
Murnin from Oregon Urantia Association and I (not an OUA member) became
interested in the possibilities and decided to do a trial visit a year
ago.
The
first meeting, eleven enthusiastic inmates showed up! Since then we have probably had 50 different prisoners attend
at least one study group, and we now have a core group of about seven
prisoners who attend regularly. Several
of them are avid reader/believers in the book, and they tell others about
our Urantia study group, so new people continue to come.
Besides OUA members, other
Oregon Urantia Book readers also have volunteered at these meetings.
Everyone leaves with the flush of service-joy on his or her face,
vowing to return again for such a grand experience in truth-sharing and
brotherhood. Since
beginning this first prison study group in April, 2002, one of the
prisoners left the Oregon State Penitentiary to move to the Santiam
Correctional Facility, a minimum security prison also located in Salem,
since he will be released in another year or so.
He requested that we start a second study group where he was. At our request, the Urantia Foundation has shipped a couple
of cases of books to that prison, and we now have a small study group
going on there as well. Here
the inmates are short term, since they are on their way out of the prison
system, so there is higher turnover of study group attendees.
But these men are trying to change their lives to become moral,
responsible citizens when they get out.
The truths and inspiration of the Urantia Book should help them do
this more easily.
These
men are very interested in what The Urantia Book has to say.
They come from Christian, Buddhist, and eclectic religious
backgrounds. They are excited
to hear the gospel message that they are God's children and that God is
never angry but is a loving Father full of mercy and understanding. These prisoners ask penetrating questions about the eternal
adventure. They want to know
more about Thought Adjusters. They
have open minds and their hearts are receptive to the divine truths that
are taught throughout the pages of the Fifth Epochal Revelation.
While
the inmates constantly thank us "outsiders" for making each
meeting possible, I know that we are getting just as much out of the
experience as they are. We
are also very grateful for the opportunity to share this revelation with
such hungry souls. I look
forward to each visit to the prison, and I always leave with my heart
rejoicing at the miracle of God's truth penetrating through the cement
walls and barbed wire of the Oregon State Penitentiary.
Truly, with God, nothing is impossible!
Details
and Logistics
For
those who might be interested in getting a Urantia prison
ministry started in their state or locale, I would like to share what we
have learned so far in our experience of holding Urantia Book study groups
in the Oregon State Penitentiary (OSP) and the Santiam Correctional
Institute (SCI), both located in Salem, Oregon.
In
our case, a prisoner who was reading the Urantia Book at OSP wrote to the
Urantia Foundation requesting a study group.
The Foundation passed the request on to the Oregon Urantia
Association, and a member of OUA contacted the chaplain at that prison,
who set up a date and time for us to hold study groups.
They also announce our meetings in the prison bulletin. There is a very enthusiastic Urantia Book reader at OSP who
has encouraged many people to come to our meetings. Also, a number of prisoners see the notice in the bulletin
and are either curious about what the Urantia Book is, or have heard of
the book sometime in their past and so attend the study group to check it
out.
One
regular study group attendee from OSP got transferred to SCI.
He asked the chaplain at his facility for a Urantia study group as
well, so we were invited to begin a second group at SCI, which we have
since done.
While
in our case in Oregon we have been invited to sponsor study groups by
inmates inside the prisons, I think it is entirely possible for an
individual or a group of Urantia Book readers to initiate a study group
themselves. "Prison
Ministry" is a large part of the volunteer services offered in these
institutions, and they recognize that such religious groups are beneficial
and welcome our support.
Every
state penitentiary has a prison chaplain. You must contact this chaplain in order to arrange your first
meeting. The prison chaplain
will see that the meeting is announced in the prison's bulletin, and will
let you know the time, place and rules for your first meeting. You should be able to get the name, phone number or email of
the prison chaplain by calling the prison.
Don't
expect the prison bureaucracy to move quickly.
It could be months from your first contact with the chaplain before
you and your volunteers will have passed all their security clearances.
They will want to know name, address, social security number,
driver's license, date of birth, etc. for each outside volunteer.
It takes at least a month or longer before this information is
cleared, and even then, we are still having problems with volunteer names
being dropped from the list at the front desk of the prison, or even for
our entire list of names to be lost.
Also, you may need to go through some preliminary volunteer
training before entering the prison, or soon thereafter.
The half day training seminar that we received was very informative
and helpful, and I recommend that you get it as soon as possible, if it is
available.
Thanks
to the IUA and Urantia Foundation, every state penitentiary throughout the
United States should have at least one Urantia Book inside its walls.
We found, at our first meeting, that there were already about ten
books at the Oregon State Penitentiary.
These books were privately owned by individual prisoners or the
property of the chapel and loaned out indefinitely to inmates who
requested it. Over the last
few months, thanks to generous donations from both the Urantia Foundation
and the Fellowship as well as from individual readers, another six cases
of Urantia Books have found their way inside OSP and SCI.
These books are donated to the chapel and are all stamped
"chapel" inside the front cover. Prisoners can take them back to their cells and borrow them for the
length of their stay at OSP, but are to be returned to the chapel when the
prisoner is released.
Every
inmate who has ever attended a study group has asked to take a Urantia
Book back to his cell, and some of the men who regularly attend have asked
for a second book to give to a cellmate or friend who is asking to borrow
their own book too often. OSP
is like a black hole full of men who are gobbling up Urantia Books. It's amazing! While
they don't all attend the study groups, we rejoice that these men who have
so much time on their hands also have the Urantia Book available to read.
Our
relationship with the OSP Chaplain now allows us to hand carry books in,
but they really prefer that books be shipped from the publisher (or from
distributors such as Amazon.com). We
also have been able to bring in many How I Found The Urantia Book
books, compiled and edited by Saskia Raevouri, as well as Clyde Bedell's Concordex,
posters, study group aids, etc. We
requested permission of the chaplain to do this over the months that we've
been there.
Once
such a Urantia prison ministry is established, it is important to the
stability of the study group that someone from the "outside"
attend every scheduled meeting. Sharing
the commitment among a group of Urantia Book readers ensures that someone
will always be there to hold the meeting. Often the prisoners are giving up other privileges, such as movies
or baseball games, to attend our study group, so we don't want to
disappoint them by not showing up. The
chaplain suggested to us that we try to set up two volunteers to attend
each time, so that in case one person must cancel at the last minute, the
other will still ensure that the meeting occurs.
There is also a certain comfort level, especially at the beginning
of establishing the group, about volunteering in twos.
Jesus sent his apostles out two-by-two, and we have experienced the
wisdom of this.
After
a year, we still have not completely decided on a study group format.
We began our reading with Paper 1, allowing lots of time for
questions and discussion because we have so many new readers.
But reading through the Urantia Book in order does not seem best
because we constantly have new readers showing up, and some of those
papers in the middle of Part I and be confusing to someone being
introduced to the Urantia Book for the first time.
It's difficult to find something that is suitable for everyone, and
this is complicated because prisoners and even outside volunteers change
with each meeting. We do want
the meetings to be spiritually rich and inspiring for these men, so at
this point we choose papers which are easier to understand and provide
spiritual comfort. I think
each study group is different and should experiment with formats until
they find one that is most comfortable.
We
volunteers from "the outside" see our main service as providing
the opportunity for the inmates to meet together and discuss these
concepts, thus strengthening their personal reading.
We do not wish to set ourselves up as "experts" in the
Urantia Book, and it is a constant effort to remember this, because the
prisoners naturally look at us that way.
But as in typical Urantia meetings, everyone likes to talk and give
their own opinions and interpretations about what the book is saying. These meetings are very lively, but everyone is polite and
tolerant of each other's ideas. We
have a lot of fun. We laugh,
get off on tangents, debate, and conduct ourselves in much the same way as
any typical Urantia study group. The
biggest difference between the prison group and a regular group is that
here we have more new readers and new or changing attendees with each
meeting. We are still in
process of finding out what works best among our fluctuating group
members.
Officially,
our study group meets for two hours.
However the first half hour is usually informal chit-chat as we
wait for everyone from all of the cellblocks to arrive.
Also, an additional half hour before and after the meeting is
required for volunteers to go through the security checks when entering or
exiting the prison. We are
escorted in and out by the prison chaplain.
Our group meets in a small room in the back of the chapel.
The prison provides chairs, table, water and fans, and extra
Urantia Books are stored in a nearby closet for new attendees.
Buddhist and Mormon groups also meet in other parts of the chapel
simultaneously with our Urantia study group.
Since
this has turned into a long-term service project, several of the regular
"outside" volunteer UB readers who attend the group regularly
have taken a 5-hour long training for all prison volunteers provided by
the Oregon Department of Corrections.
There are many rules and regulations to be aware of, and this
training also permits us to volunteer without requiring that our names be
kept on a list at the front desk. Names
have been inadvertently dropped from the list or sometimes the entire list
has been lost with the changing of prison guards, so this will be more
convenient for all concerned.
Attendance
has fluctuated from as few as one to as many as 25 prisoners at our study
groups, with the average number at OSP about seven, not including outside
volunteers. There
are a handful of prisoners who have been reading the Urantia Book on their
own for some time and who are definite "believers" in it.
A few more are beginner readers, but are very enthusiastic.
Some have attended only once or a few times, borrowed a book to
take back to their cells, and we never see them again.
All of us know that everyone has their own speed at reading the
book and recognizing the truths therein contained, and so we are not at
all concerned with how many come to the study group.
We are just happy that these men are interested enough to take this
big book back to their cells and read it as they may.
As
a woman volunteer, I can say that I have never ever felt intimidated or
treated with disrespect by any of the many prisoners who have attended the
group. I feel completely
comfortable with these men, especially those who attend every time.
I would not hesitate to go alone to a meeting if the situation
should ever arise. In fact, I
feel somewhat "protected" by a couple of the men who always
attend our group and who watch out for me if I happen to be near other
prisoners from the other religious groups.
The
chaplain suggested to us when we began that we keep personal details of
our lives and of their lives out of our discussion, and so we try to do
that. We never ask any of the
prisoners about their sentences or crimes, and we don't give our last
names or other such personal details about ourselves.
Over time, however, some details emerge in discussion, such as our
occupation. Also, we realize
that when some of these prisoners get released, they may be interested in
continuing to attend Urantia meetings held in our homes, and our phone
numbers or even addresses of study group hosts are easily found.
We have discussed it among ourselves and none of us feels
trepidation about that occurring. Perhaps
we have a very special group of men who attend our OSP study group, but so
far we would not hesitate to welcome, upon their release, those who have
attended the OSP group regularly into our home study groups without fear.
It
is truly a privilege and a joy to be a part of this thrilling service!
I am convinced that I get just as much if not more out of the
experience than the prisoners. I am a happier person because of this prison study group!
—Joy Brandt, 2003.
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