Column: Prison ministries providing care for the 'least of these'

“… like men sentenced to death; we have become a spectacle to the world. … We are fools (for Christ’s sake) ..."  — I Cor, 4: 9,10

Writing for April Fool’s Day, the eve of Ramadan, with Passover/Easter ahead, is a daunting task!  But I’m bold to suggest that Bill Breeden, raised from boyhood to be a Nazarene preacher, and now a Unitarian one, would be honored by that comparison to the Apostle Paul. Like others I’ll name that count ministry to prisons and prisoners a high calling, he is a humble person committed to caring for those among the “least of these” that Jesus commended for special care by his followers.

For a number of years, social activist Breeden has been going to the United States Penitentiary at Terre Haute, specifically to minister to death row prisoners. “Being in the death chamber is the worst place I've ever been,” he said, yet his prison ministry is “both the most rewarding and the hardest work I do.” But he has a special calling to that work — as does his Unitarian Universalist Church congregation, where he has recently returned to serve with long-time colleague Mary Ann Macklin. When I worked as a chaplain for a state prison, their choir came to sing and to cheer the inmates.   

Needing a Muslim chaplain on one occasion, Breeden recruited Yusuf Nur, a leader in the local Islamic community and professor at IU-Kokomo. Nur has found a niche in ministering to those needing a Muslim friend in the most desperate of circumstances.  

Another humble servant would be celebrating his 95th birthday the end of this month, had he not died in 2018. Wain Martin was a lifelong Methodist, mainly at St. Mark’s in Bloomington, developing a unique ministry called Jail Bingo. Through his ingenuity and generosity, small gifts would be provided to winners of the games inside the Monroe County Jail — though everyone got a “prize.” This required permission of the jail authorities, something Wain was always careful to obtain and nourish. 

Lately due to COVID-19 and other constraints, Jail Bingo has been on hiatus, with new volunteers needed to pick up the program when it is appropriate. But even if it experiences no resurrection, it still was a hidden example of mission to the most needy and most forgotten. Some offenders at the federal prison have no visitors for years! 

Wain also was the prime promoter and organizer of the nonprofit New Leaf-New Life, now in its 15th year. It works to help those coming out of prison move toward rehabilitation and healing. 

Another St. Mark’s congregant carries a special burden for those in prison, due to a family member being incarcerated. Her care for those in such circumstances extends to statewide organizations like CURE (Indianacure@gmail.com), which advocates for those in the criminal justice system. At a federal execution, the lively Sisters of Providence from Our Lady of the Woods are always there to protest. People of faith care about those in prison, and Dismas houses throughout the country remember the repentant “thief on the cross” in their witness, mostly unknown and unheralded.

These men and women and others like them are not fools to do the work they do! They are highly blessed.

Jesus said, “I was in prison, and you visited me,” for “Inasmuch as you did it to the least of these, you did it unto me.” Breeden was summoned once to visit a man about to die by execution who was afraid of going to hell. He might well have recalled Jesus’ words to the thief Dismas, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”