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Friends United Meeting |
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September 2000
Valiant for Truth
Working Together Among Friends
By Trish Edwards-Konic
Prison Ministry. I have always shuddered when the idea has been discussed. Oh, I've been thankful there are people who are called to such ministry and are willing to go. But, no, it's not for me! It's too scary!
But a funny thing happened as I edited my first issue of Quaker Life. I was drawn into the stories of those who go to prisons in Christian love and those who spend endless days behind bars. It isn't scary; it is, indeed, just another place where God's people are seeking to find and know Him. And since they can't come to us, we must go to them!
Chuck Colson writes: "When God makes us new creations, we are meant to help create a new world around usÉAgain and again, I have witnessed this kind of transformation within a rotting prison culture, and the results are measurable in terms of reduced disciplinary problems and reduced recidivism."
"Yes, cultures can be renewed--even those typically considered the most corrupt and intractable. But if we are to restore our world, we first have to shake off the comfortable notion that Christianity is merely a personal experience, applying only to one's private life. No man is an island, wrote the Christian poet John Donne. Yet one of the great myths of our day is that we are islandsÑthat our decisions are personal and that no one has a right to tell us what to do in our private lives. We easily forget that every private decision contributes to the moral and cultural climate in which we live, rippling out in ever widening circlesÑfirst in our personal and family lives, and then in the broader society." (From How Now Shall We Live?, page 282)
Friends have a long history of ministry in prison, and I am encouraged by all those I have discovered who are involved today. Don't be like I was--afraid to go into prison or share the good news of Jesus Christ with inmates. Read our stories this month. Check out the ministry possibilities found on page 13 or contact someone you know who is involved in this special ministry. Even if you can't go, please pray and write letters to our authors to encourage them in what they are doing. (I will forward all letters to inmates sent c/o Quaker Life.)
As I begin my term as Editor of Quaker Life, I will need your suggestions, your letters to the editor, your news stories, your photographs, but most of all I will need your prayers. Volunteer opportunities are also available. Please feel free to contact me by phone, email or regular mail (information found on page 34).
Each of you is important to me. As I travel among Friends, I hope to renew acquaintances from my prior FUM service and also to meet many of you for the first time. The future of Quaker Life is in all of our hands as we trust God to lead us in the way we are to go.
George Fox wrote, "In the mighty power of God, go onÉBe valiant for the truth." May it be so.
In Christ's work together,
Trish Edwards-Konic
Copyright (c) 2000 Friends United Meeting
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