The table that marks the Meeting's three-year anniversary. Photo: Courtesy of Judith Roles.
Building community behind bars
Judith Roles writes about her experience as a Quaker prison chaplain
How do we make the Meeting a community in which each person is accepted and nurtured, and strangers are welcomed? Seek to know one another in the things which are eternal, bear the burden of each other’s failings and pray for one another. As we enter with tender sympathy into the joys and sorrows of each other’s lives, ready to give help and receive it, our Meeting can be a channel for God’s love and forgiveness.
– Advices & queries 18
I am writing this on a recent ‘snow day’, at the time we usually hold our prison Meeting for Worship. I am ‘holding in the Light’ each of the men who are part of our community at HMP Long Lartin, a men’s prison in the High Security Estate. This is a rare occasion, since Sarah Lane and I began the multi-faith ‘Silence Inside’, that the weekly Meeting has not been held.
Our original handful of curious attenders now numbers a committed community of around fifteen, gathering after lunch each Friday for half an hour of quiet time followed by fellowship and refreshments.
This is a moment to reflect on the community we nurture, the men we have welcomed and accepted and who now, likewise, accept one another. Quaker visitors from three Area Meetings (AMs) support us and when they are not with us in person, they and others in our AMs hold us in the Light.
To mark our recent three-year anniversary, an oak table was commissioned from a Buddhist member of our group, which he has thoughtfully designed and beautifully crafted in the prison’s woodwork shop. When I called in to see how work was progressing, the table was standing on an eye-level bench while varnish dried, and the flowing Q design carved in the centre was simply breathtaking. It is an example of British artisan craftsmanship at its finest, with as much care given to the underneath as the on-view top. It is a simple, elegant centrepiece for our candle and flowers, and continues to give us joy each week.
Silent support
Our Meeting has been multi-faith from the outset, following a pattern of Quaker-led groups in prisons. As well as Buddhists, our attenders have included Jewish, Muslim, Rastafarian, all denominations of Christian and those of no faith. Our ‘wing’ poster is an invitation to stillness and acceptance.
Those who come speak of feeling like a normal human being, away from the noise and culture of the wings. Heartfelt concerns and good wishes are conveyed through a handshake. Greeting and leaving have become so important that when two men, attending from the prison’s segregation unit under separate escort, arrived long after we had settled into quiet worship, this moment of social reconnection with each person seated in the circle was very powerful.
In the gathered Meeting we can all draw together in seeking the things that are eternal, allowing ourselves to experience God’s love in the balm of the silence. Usually our worship is unprogrammed and sometimes we use music to carry us into the quiet. Occasionally we have a theme, such as for Peace Day, or Quaker Week, or Remembrance.
This variety refreshes us and keeps us moving in a place full of inertia. We bring our own experiences of life lived inside and outside the prison, and these are moulded into ministry which inspires and enlightens, challenges and consoles. It is demonstrably a channel for God’s love and forgiveness and we have experienced its life-giving compassion at times of despair, illness and loss.
That of God
It is a safe harbour that allows the men to be spiritually brave, where elsewhere privacy and respect are lacking, and personal emotional expression can leave you exposed and vulnerable. So, it can be hard for them to let go and allow themselves to fly. But it is all the more miraculous when they do. The silent support within the circle is tangible.
This is a very real way to witness to the Quaker testimony to equality and live out our understanding that there is ‘that of God’ in everyone, whatever their faith or lack of it, and whatever their crime. Originally we established two separate Meetings – one for men living on ‘mains’ and a separate one for those on ‘support’ wings. In a prison setting one stark dimension to inequality is the hierarchy of crime. But in the past year we have brought the Meetings together.
The ‘Vulnerable Prisoners (VPs)’ were very unsure whether they would be safe and for a few weeks didn’t attend, despite our assurances. One of our ‘mains’ men wrote a letter to reassure them that they would be welcomed in the spirit of the Quaker testimony to equality and no one would be judging them. Still they didn’t attend. After four weeks, one VP took the initiative and came along with a new recruit in tow.
During worship time, he stood to minister and shared his unease but also how much he had missed the Meeting. It wasn’t important to him what anyone thought of him, he needed to come. There was a deep respect in the room for his openness and he had reclaimed his sense of value.
Deep, sacred moments
Today, many months later, there are no fault lines as the different groups talk during coffee. In fact, it is the only place where they can meet. In the rest of the prison regime they are apart. This is a wonderful example of social inclusion in action through worship in our multi-faith chaplaincy at Long Lartin.
Other deep, sacred moments have been shared through poems, some spoken entirely from memory and others created for the Meeting. We have witnessed to the joy of each other, including a wonderful celebration of coming into membership. And we have shared in the pain of bereavement and witnessed to the struggle for survival when the light of hope has been lost.
And so, in the void left by our cancelled Meeting today, I am reminded how important this community has become to all of us. It offers a meaningful sense of belonging in a place of fragmentation, it enriches lives in a place of deprivation, and it builds trust and hope in the possibility of a future which begins in the silent witness of our shared worship.
Judith is a Quaker prison chaplain at HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire and clerk of the Quaker Prison Chaplains’ Committee.
