Our Woman of the Week is Jaime Rene, nominated for her work in prison ministry. We asked her to tell us how she got from where she started to this ministry today.
“We moved back to British Columbia about ten years ago. We were at a funeral and my husband, who is a priest, ran into somebody who asked him, ‘Have you ever considered being a prison chaplain?’ And he said ‘No, but tell me more.’ He went with him to visit the maximum security prison in the area and knew right away this was something he wanted to do. A job was opening up as a Site Chaplain so, he went through the process and got hired by Corrections at a maximum security prison. And through that work, we discovered that there was no Orthodox presence in any prisons across Canada in terms of volunteers, services or materials. We saw that this was a need that he was in a good position to fill.
“At his work at the maximum security prison, he met one Orthodox inmate. From there, other inmates converted. Later, he became a volunteer and began visiting the three medium institutions in our area, as well as the minimum and maximum. (As you can tell, we're in an area with lots of federal prisons.)
”As he started volunteering, he realized it's really hard to serve liturgy or do anything on your own when you're a priest. So he convinced me that I should come into prison with him. I started when he was working at the maximum security prison - we brought in a home-cooked Christmas meal and sang carols. It was a really moving experience: a maximum security person is pretty grim - you go through a lot of bars and heavy metal doors. But once you get in, the men are so overjoyed to see a normal person.
“From there, I started going with him on a regular basis to serve liturgy or vespers or whatever it might be. We can only go into a prison to serve or to do a study or whatever if there's a need. So where we go shifts as inmates move from one institution to another. As our kids have grown up, I don't have as many commitments out in the community, so I can go with him even more. Right now, we go into prison every week and serve a liturgy at the medium institution nearby. We also go to the maximum institution about once a month to serve Vespers and visit with one of the guys there.
“Other chaplains know that my husband is an Orthodox priest and reach out when they have somebody who is Orthodox. At one point, we went to a prison to serve the liturgy, and one of the guys said to me, ‘I've never heard this in English. I didn't know.’ Prison can be a time when men rediscover faith: it's often a turning point for people.
”The other ministry we do is provide materials for prisons across Canada. We've reached out to all the chaplains and all the institutions across Canada. We send them a letter saying, ‘Hey, if you have any Orthodox inmates, we can send you materials.’ So we send Orthodox Bibles, prayer books, pamphlets, icons of Saint Silas, who's our patron, things that can be added to the prison library. We started doing that four years ago, and we get regular requests now. The materials are also reaching chaplains, which is quite interesting - chaplains who may have never heard of Orthodox Christianity,
“We've also been able to initiate some letter-writing between volunteers and inmates. I help coordinate all the letters that come to us, and then we disperse them out to either the volunteers or the inmates so that the letters don't go directly to the recipient but have come through us first. These are men who are often serving life sentences or are there for serious crimes. So we have to have that level of security.”
Axia!
Jaime Rene is our Woman of the Week, nominated for her work in prison ministry. We asked her what she would Iike people to know about prison ministry.
“It sounds funny, but I really love going into prison. I love serving liturgy there. It's very peaceful, very quiet. There's a sense that the men who are there at the services have had this opportunity to see themselves very clearly and to repent, and that's not something we see every day. It's really humbling for me to see a life that's completely turned around.
“The men are just craving community. They're craving normal conversations with people. So much of their conversations in prison are with parole officers or prison guards; they're not just in everyday conversation and they really miss that. Especially when you're serving for life and you become more and more disconnected from the rest of the world.
“I always get to go to prison with my husband, and that's helpful. It can be very intimidating to go on your own. But we have lots of people who, as I mentioned already, write letters - and that's a great way to get involved in prison ministry as well. One of the things that has been illuminating for us is that you go in and meet these men. They're just ordinary men, but they've done some pretty terrible things. You realize that God's love has no limit. There is his capacity for loving everyone; it's not limited to those of us who live fairly easy “good” lives. I can't imagine what it must have been like when I hear some of the stories. You think, ‘I wonder what my life would have been like if I had gone through the same things.’ The trauma these men have both experienced and caused is soul-crushing, but meeting someone who says to them, “you are loved” can be life-changing. This is something that my husband is particularly good at; he just sees people and says, ‘God loves you.’ We hear that phrase so much, but we don’t internalize it and realize that he also loves all our flaws. He calls us to repentance, and these men are in a position to really repent in a way that's very visible and concrete.”
As always, we asked our Woman of the Week, Jaime Rene, to tell us about her morning routine.
“I usually wake up between 6 and 7. I take my time in the morning and get my cup of coffee and find a spot to read for quite a while with my coffee and make it stretch out. I have a couple of little dogs and they like to curl up with me in the morning while I read. I work from home and our youngest graduated last year. So I don't have to rush to start the day or get anyone ready anymore - I can make my morning what I want, I can take my time.
“I try to be at my computer by 8 or 8:30. Sometimes, as many people do, I’m guilty of checking my phone right away in bed for email. And then I think to myself, ‘Wait, what am I doing? Stop!’ On the days we have prison ministry, we have to be there around 8:30. I still tend to sit and read for a little bit before I need that time to prepare.”
Thank you, Jaime!
