Author: Jerry Higgins, Communications Officer
GREENVILLE – Thanks to a partnership between the N.C. Department of Adult Correction, The Duke Endowment, and the North Carolina and Western North Carolina conferences of the United Methodist Church, four community-funded chaplains will be placed in state prisons across the state.
The Duke Endowment will fund chaplains at Caswell Correctional Center (Chuck Frost), Carteret Correctional Center (Amanda Morrow), Greene Correctional Institution (Austin Meadows) and Gaston Correctional Center (Noah Glover). The Duke Endowment Rural Church Division helps provide funds to support pastoral leaders and assist in building congregations.
The new chaplains have been placed in a rural church in those areas by their respective UMC conference. The part-time prison chaplaincy is part of their duties, that will begin on July 1.
“I’m excited about the opportunity,” said Morrow, who has never been part of a prison ministry in the past and will work as needed on evenings and weekends at Carteret CC. “It will be interesting because today our culture is so busy, and these offenders have nothing but time on their hands. I wasn’t called to prison ministry and didn’t know it was an option. When I was a Duke Divinity School, I met with interfaith groups and people spoke about it.”
Frost, Morrow and Meadows were recognized during the annual meeting of the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church on June 13. NCDAC Secretary Leslie Cooley Dismukes, Interim Director of Chaplaincy Services Rev. Dr. Sarah Jobe and Robert R. Webb, III, the Director of the Rural Church Division for The Duke Endowment, all spoke prior to a group prayer.
“We are excited to announce the new partnership with the Department of Adult Correction in North Carolina,” Webb said. “Prison ministry, which has been a defining movement of the United Methodist Church since our beginning is built on loving boldly. Community chaplains will serve in correctional facilities and their communities. It provides the prospect of serving joyfully in community with all our neighbors.”
Secretary Dismukes said, “I want to thank Bishop (Connie Mitchell) Shelton and Rev. Webb and The Duke Endowment for your partnership in creating this historic position within our department. I want to thank Chaplain Jobe for this. It is her goal and my goal to have chaplains in every institution. Our chaplains are the backbone of the safe journey for the people who are in our custody. And when people are able to return to faith while they are serving time in our custody, they’re able to improve their rehabilitative journey.”
Rev. Jobe said NCDAC leadership has shown great support in working toward reinstating chaplains in all facilities. In 2011, about half of the chaplains were removed due to state budget cuts, and community-funded chaplains have been a huge asset.
“Their ministry will be a brave ministry, and it’s a bold ministry,” said Rev. Jobe, a Duke Divinity School graduate, before leading everyone in prayer. “But after 15 years in prison chaplaincy, I also want to say it’s a ministry that’s in the very heart of our faith. We worship a Savior who was arrested, who went before a judge, was convicted and given a death sentence, who was executed. And it was only after that experience that God saw fit to release him not just from death but from state custody. And what we think of as a resurrection is also His release and return home from incarceration.”
Frost, who has prior experience in jail ministry, said he’s had great meetings with Caswell CC Warden David Cassady and is ready to begin a new chapter of his life, and those of the community he will serve.
“Serving the local church may seem like a different ministry,” Frost said. “Sometimes you forget the ‘lostness” of the incarcerated. They need faith as well.”