“You are doing it. Keep going.” is what Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry said in Salinas, California, on 7 January 2017. I was a member of the panel that asked questions after his keynote. From my notes, my opening question was:
“The Silicon Valley has a skewed population. In the high tech world where I work, there are about 25% female, 4% Latino, and 2% Black in the computing professions. In Elmwood Jail where I lead an Education for Ministry seminar each week, men and women are separate and there are 42% Latino and 29% Black. I feel like I live in two worlds. What can we do to reach out, to bring this divided community together?”
When Bishop Michael answered “You are doing it. Keep going.” I heard that the answer lay in outreach ministries like mine – and in telling people about that work. Individuals with a foot on both sides can connect a community.
It is a good but a little scary to have an experimental program succeed so well. I have been thinking a great deal about what Bishop Michael said – and about what to do next. The Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real, Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church, CIC, and EfM have strongly backed our jail-based seminar during the last year. My first step was to talk with the CIC Chaplain for Elmwood, and then with the EfM program at the University of the South – School of Theology, about starting an additional class at Elmwood. They support expanding the program. Now to find more funding!
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Images Copyright 2016 by Katy Dickinson and Elrond Lawrence
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