Category Archives: Church

July 30, 2023 · 1:55 pm

Panel: The Same and Different, Supporting Muslim and Jewish Inmates

Interreligious chaplaincy books, July 2023

Please join us for “The Same and Different: Supporting Muslim and Jewish Inmates,” an Interreligious Panel, 1:30 to 3:30 pm on Sunday, 3 September 2023, hosted by St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church (13601 Saratoga Avenue, Saratoga, California – San Francisco Bay Area). This is an in-person event that will also be live-streamed. Here is the live streaming link, https://vimeo.com/event/3655244. Here us the one page handout about the panel.

Thanks to the panel speakers:

Imam Yilmaz Basak, Muslim Chaplain, Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy (CIC, Santa Clara County)
Reverend Peggy Bryan, Jail Chaplain, & Interim Rector, Calvary Episcopal Church (Santa Cruz). Rev. Peggy founded the Stepping Stones Gathering for those in reentry and recovery.
Rabbi Amy Eilberg, Peace and Justice Activist, Spiritual Director, Kindness Coach and Author (Los Altos). Rabbi Amy Eilberg is the first female rabbi ordained in Conservative Judaism.
Reverend Liz Milner, Executive Director & Facility Chaplain, Correctional Center for Women, CIC (Santa Clara County)
Sheikh Rami Nsour, Founding Director, Tayba Foundation (a non-profit organization dedicated to serving individuals and families impacted by incarceration, Fremont)
Rabbi Paul Shleffar, Jewish Chaplain at San Quentin State Prison (Marin County)
Moderator: Katy Dickinson, Founder, Mentoring Standard, Chaplain, CIC (Santa Clara County), & Doctoral Student, Berkeley School of Theology (Graduate Theological Union, GTU)
Introducer, Reverend Joel Martinez, Jail Chaplain, & Curate, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

This is a two hour training event (with a panel of experts) for jail chaplains – and those interested in learning about jail chaplaincy – on best practices in supporting inmates, especially those who are Muslim or Jewish.

There are about three thousand inmates in Santa Clara County jail. Eight staff CIC Chaplains and hundreds of volunteers interact routinely with prisoners of all faiths, including discussions about non-medical special diets (Kosher, Halal, or Vegetarian), leading educational and spiritual programs, offering individual pastoral care visits, and distributing religious items (such as scriptures and religious prayer or study materials, hijab, or kippah or kufi head coverings, prayer rugs, and rosaries). For the last several years, many jail prisoners have had access to county-provided electronic tablets offering educational programs, entertainment, and religious and spiritual scriptures and other documents from a wide range of religious and spiritual contexts. Discussions with inmates who are interested in exploring or converting to Islam or Judaism seem to have increased since the tablets became available.

“The Same and Different: Supporting Muslim and Jewish Inmates” attendees can gain a greater understanding of Islam and Judaism and learn best practices for supporting inmates from those religions. There will be small group discussions after the panel. Some attendees will also be able to take home an excellent book to support their ministry with Muslim or Jewish inmates:

Dayle A. Friedman, ed., Jewish Pastoral Care: A Practical Handbook from Traditional & Contemporary Sources (Nashville, TN: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2015).
Muhammad A. Ali, Omer Bajwa, Sondos Kholaki, and Jaye Starr, eds., Mantle of Mercy: Islamic Chaplaincy in North America (West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Press, 2022).

Book quantities are very limited: first come, first served. Rabbi Amy Eilberg, Sheikh Rami Nsour, and Katy Dickinson are all speakers for the Islamic Networks Group (ING), a peace-building organization providing face-to-face education and engagement opportunities that foster understanding of Muslims and other misunderstood groups to promote harmony among all people.

This event is generously supported by a grant from the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, through the GTU Madrasa-Midrasha Program. Here is the GTU announcement.

Interreligious Panel name buttons, 25 Aug 2023

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Filed under Chaplain, Church, Mentoring Standard, News & Reviews

Tagged as Chaplain, Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy - CIC, Jail, Mentoring, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, teaching

May 24, 2023 · 9:04 am

Reparations for African Americans, Next Steps

I submitted my final Spring 2023 term paper yesterday – hooray! It is titled “Reparations for African Americans, Next Steps” for “HSCE 5101: Examining the Case for Reparations for African Americans.” This class was led by Professors Dr. Aidsand F. Wright-Riggins, III and Dr. Ronald D. Burris of Berkeley School of Theology, at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. The 19 page paper begins:

“This is a shifting time of change in the potential for reparations to African Americans, especially where I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. In the last few months, the governments of the State of California and the City and County of San Francisco have both been considering major financial reparations proposals on which legislation may be developed, with details being discussed almost daily in both the progressive and conservative news media. One group wrote on the California task force, ‘In addition to remedying the lingering effects of slavery, the report seeks to compensate black Californians for five categories of harms: housing discrimination, mass incarceration, unjust property seizures, and the devaluation of black businesses and health care.’ Other cities and states have made the national news discussing or acting on reparations, and a national bill supporting reparations has just been submitted in the U.S. Congress. In introducing this new legislation calling for $14 trillion in reparations, Representative Cori Bush said, ‘The United States has a moral and legal obligation to provide reparations for the enslavement of Africans and its lasting harm on the lives of millions of Black people.’

Despite the inherent lack of perspective in responding to very current events, in this paper I present four well known reparations cases and then propose next steps to achieve practical and sustainable reparations for African Americans. The course of action I propose will be based on some of the work that is already being done, as well as addressing gaps where more efforts are needed.”

Read the entire paper here.

The World War I poster above (“Colored Man is No Slacker“) is from my mother’s art collection, in the Eleanor Creekmore Dickinson Charitable Art trust – and is mentioned in my paper.

If you want to receive Katysblog posts by email, please sign up using the Sign Me Up! button (upper right on Katysblog home). Image Copyright (c) 2023 by the Eleanor Creekmore Dickinson Charitable Art Trust.

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Tagged as Berkeley, Berkeley School of Theology, Graduate Theological Union

May 18, 2023 · 11:45 pm

Sin and Satan in the Qurʾān and Bible

Satan with Angels and Adam, Bal'ami, Annals of al-Tabari manuscript, 1413-1416, Topkapı Saray Museum, Istanbul, Turkey, — Satan with Angels and Adam, Bal’ami, Annals of al-Tabari manuscript, 1413-1416, Topkapı Saray Museum, Istanbul, Turkey, This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1928.

My term paper is titled “Sin and Satan in the Qurʾān and Bible” for “SARS-1000: The Qur’an: Origin, Application, Interpretations.” This Spring 2022 class was lead by Professor Mahjabeen Dhala, at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. The paper begins:

In this paper, I consider sin and Satan, with a focus on the stories of Joseph and Job, both in the Qurʾān and in the Bible. I chose this topic because, as a jail Chaplain, I find prisoners are very aware of sin and Satan, and I wanted to learn more. The anthropomorphic personification of Satan is a huge topic, so I have concentrated on a limited set of scriptural verses to keep to term paper length, rather than allowing this to grow into a dissertation. There is much more to be said based on the thousands of scholarly and religious works (many with conflicting opinions) written on these topics over many centuries. I assert that ideas of embodied sin and the personification of Satan evolved over at least a thousand years (between 500 BCE and 610 CE), through Biblical and Qurʾānic stories and exegetical understandings that are sometimes not substantiated by sacred texts. Historical evolution presupposes a starting point, and this paper considers alternatives for the first Biblical mention of sin.

Read the entire paper here. I also prepared a presentation to go with the paper, with illustrations inspired by both Biblical and Qurʾānic sources. See that presentation here.

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Tagged as Berkeley, Graduate Theological Union, Jail

May 9, 2023 · 10:44 am

Women of Faith in Jail

Katy Dickinson, Zeinab Vessel, Dr. Mahjabeen Dhala, Lisa Calvez at the GTU Women and Religion Conference, 28 April 2023

I was honored to present on “Women of Faith in Jail” at the GTU Graduate Student Conference: Women and Religion conference held on 28 April 2023 at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. Here are the slides I presented. More about my submission is on my 3 April 2023 blog post. About seventy people attended this inspiring all-day event hosted by Women’s Studies in Religion.

Dr. Valerie Miles-Tribble, GTU Women and Religion Conference, 28 April 2023 — GTU Women and Religion Conference, 28 April 2023

Katy Dickinson, Dr. Valerie Miles-Tribble, GTU Women and Religion Conference, 28 April 2023 — Katy Dickinson, GTU Women and Religion Conference, 28 April 2023

Dr. Mahjabeen Dhala, GTU Women and Religion Conference, 28 April 2023 — Katy Dickinson, GTU Women and Religion Conference, 28 April 2023

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Tagged as Berkeley, Berkeley School of Theology, Chaplain, Graduate Theological Union, Jail, teaching

April 3, 2023 · 8:19 pm

GTU Conference: Women and Religion

I am honored that my submission on “Women of Faith in Jail” was accepted by the GTU Graduate Student Conference: Women and Religion! The conference will be held at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, on 28 April 2023. To attend the one day conference, Register Here. This is the abstract for my talk:

Katy Dickinson
Women of Faith in Jail
This presents a jail chaplain’s view on how women prisoners’s experience, especially their faith experience, is different from that of men in the American justice system. In many ways, the lives of American women and men prisoners are similarly marginalized; however, the systemic social and economic disadvantages of women in our society are reflected in the lives of female inmates. For example, women are usually the primary caretakers for children from whom incarceration separates them, women often enter the carceral system having had more traumatic experiences, and all-too-often women undergo more trauma in jail and prison. As a result, working with women inmates as a chaplain or officer can be more complex and emotionally intense compared to working with male prisoners. While some avoid working with women, others find special satisfaction in supporting female prisoners. A groundbreaking report has just been published about women prisoners and their unique challenges and patterns.

Here is a link to the whole submission, if you want more text (and references). The event will be recorded but not available online in real time.

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Tagged as Berkeley, Graduate Theological Union, Jail, teaching

December 31, 2022 · 3:00 pm

Busy End of Year

Katy Dickinson, Lee Satterfield, TechWomen 10 Year Honor, 20 October 2022

As 2022 is ending, I have been reflecting on how busy these last few months have been. In October, I mentored the remarkable and inspiring TechWomen Team Tunisia, and was one of the 21 mentors honored by the U.S. State Department – Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs for ten years’ service to the TechWomen program. (I was the TechWomen Process Architect 2010-2011, and have been a mentor each year since.) Also that month, my husband John Plocher said a fond goodbye to Apple, and started a new job at Ford Greenfield Labs.

Katy Dickinson, TechWomen 10 Year Honor, 20 October 2022

Katy Dickinson, TechWomen Honor, 20 October 2022 — Katy Dickinson, TechWomen 10 Year Honor, 20 October 2022

Katy Dickinson, Tunisia TechWomen, 16 October 2022

In November, John and I became grandparents with the birth of baby Alex to our daughter, Jessica Dickinson Goodman, and son-in-law, Matthew Holmes.

Jessica, Matthew, Baby Alex, 19 November 2022

I helped our son Paul D. Goodman manage two successful craft sales in December 2022. Yesterday, I turned in the final paper for the Fall term of my Berkeley School of Technology – Doctor of Ministry program. Also yesterday, as part of the Saint Joan’s Chapel and Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy team, I gave holy communion to 92 Elmwood jail inmates. Our team gave communion to 198 prisoners in three visits, starting on Christmas Day. The guys inside were happy to sing and dance with us to the tune of “Feliz Navidad.”

Looking forward to my next adventure!

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Tagged as Alex, Berkeley School of Theology, Jessica, John, Matthew, Mentoring, Middle East, Paul, technical women, TechWomen, Tunisia

September 12, 2022 · 10:36 am

I Choose to be Incarcerated

CIC stickers and bracelets, Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy, 10 Sep 2022 training

Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy‘s training was held last weekend: Going In, Staying In jail ministry training is for new and returning volunteers and focuses on orientation to chaplaincy and facility updates as well as context specific skill building such as trauma informed ministry and cultural humility. The training is free and open to all over the age of 21. The opening meditation titled “Choosing to Incarcerate Yourself” was presented by CIC Associate Director & Facility Chaplain, Angel Hernandez. Green bracelets saying “I Choose to be Incarcerated – CIC Ministries Jail Chaplains” were distributed.

I was inspired by Chaplain Angel’s talk, especially when he said: “We have these ministry trainings so that as Chaplains, you need to choose incarceration as well. Not like those that are incarcerated, and not like those who have families inside. You choose the surroundings of incarceration in order to be with those inside. We have these ministry trainings so that you can understand what it is like to be inside… We are a ministry that seeks out people that choose incarceration. That know that their rights are left, like their phones, like their smart watches, their rights are left in the car. We look for people that allow the direction of the law inside to have the authority, regardless of the title you have worked so hard to attain on the outside. We look for people who are willing to humble themselves…. As you consider being a chaplain, or if you have been a chaplain for some time, we ask that you understand that you choose incarceration to then be inspiration to those inside. Hebrews 13:3: “Remember those in prison as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies.”