Clampdown cutting ranks of worshipers at prison congregation

To help spread the word about the synod’s eight new mission starts, Moments for Mission in the coming months will feature articles about each of them. This issue looks at Living Stones Prison Congregation. A look at the synod’s two new federated Lutheran/Episcopal groups comes in January. Contributions through 1,000 Mission Friends help support the new starts. Contact the synod office to help. — Editor

By Rachel Pritchett, communicator
 

SHELTON — It’s been less than a year since Byron Scherf strangled officer Jamye Biendl in the chapel in the Washington State Reformatory in Monroe.

 In that short time, daily life for every prisoner in the state Department of Corrections has changed inexorably. Moving around inside is tougher than ever.

                                             

 Getting to worship at Living Stones Prison Congregation at Shelton has become extraordinarily difficult. The Rev. Eric Wangen-Hoch used to have a hundred inmates for Saturday-evening services since he began six years ago.

                                             

 It’s down to 20.

                                              

The men now must sign up far in advance if they want to go somewhere in the prison. If they end up not going, they get penalized. They might lose “good points,” or not be allowed out of their cell, or even put in “the hole,” solitary confinement.

“The guys don’t want to put themselves into position to get more infractions,” Wangen-Hoch said. “The prison is trying to mitigate every last opportunity of risk.”

Meanwhile, Wangen-Hoch’s full-time position has been cut to three-quarters time, due to shrunken synod finances.

The clampdown won’t last forever, Wangen-Hoch predicted, and Living Stones, one of a dozen Lutheran prison ministries across the country, will survive. 

Synod congregational teams continue to support men exiting from the prison system. A new effort to collect street clothes for the men soon will take place. 

Lutheran Church of Christ the King of Sumner, First Lutheran Community Church of Port Orchard and Family of God Lutheran Church of Bremerton are among many active supporters.

Wangen-Hoch and others are putting together a program where the men build connection with their children by regularly reading to them.

Wangen-Hoch recently looked back on the men’s stories. There’ve been the defeats, when men return to lives of drugs and violence after exiting. There’ve been victories, when the gospel they heard at Living Stones acted on them later on the outside.

“I’ve actually been able to sit back amazed and see that the gospel really changes people. It’s not just something you learn in seminary,” he said.

Pictured: Rev. Eric Wangen-Hoch