31.10.2019 Views

CRUX 2019

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

Loving those on the margins<br />

Worthy by nature<br />

INTERVIEWS WITH THE REV. ANN PERROTT & DEACON ELLEN ADAMS<br />

Pam Dawkins<br />

Men and women aren’t their crime, aren’t<br />

their prison time. “It’s not the whole book.<br />

That is a chapter in the book.”<br />

The Rev. Ann Perrott<br />

Faith informs and transforms lives — those of the faithful and<br />

those whose situations can make personal faith a challenge.<br />

But how do the faithful harness their personal beliefs into strengths<br />

they can share with others, particularly when those others have run<br />

afoul of the law?<br />

“As Episcopalians, we are lucky to have the Baptismal Covenant,”<br />

which specifically calls for respect for the dignity of every human<br />

being, said Deacon Ellen Adams.<br />

Deacon Adams, 71, is president of the board of the nondenominational<br />

New Life Ministry of Southeastern Connecticut,<br />

which helps women who are newly released from York Correctional<br />

Institute in Niantic.<br />

“They come out with absolutely nothing. They have to start all over<br />

again,” said the Rev. Ann Perrott, 68, of the women.<br />

Ann is executive director of New Life Ministry, which provides these<br />

women with one-on-one mentors who help them find employment<br />

and social services like Alcoholics Anonymous. The ministry —<br />

founded 20 years ago by Father St. Onge, a pastor of the Roman<br />

Catholic Church of Christ the King in Old Lyme — also runs two<br />

apartments able to house four women at a time, who pay a nominal<br />

rent after they find a job.<br />

Ann, who serves at Christ Church in Middle Haddam, also works<br />

with male prisoners through the Houses of Healing program.<br />

“We peel back the onion of a person’s life,” to discover how they got<br />

to their current situation, she said of the 12-week Houses of Healing<br />

program. “There’s no copping out of their crime,” she said, but she<br />

realizes they usually didn’t get to this place in a vacuum.<br />

“It’s the closest thing to God that I have felt in my calling,” Ann,<br />

who spent most of her life working in social services, said. These<br />

men and women have experienced much trauma but if she can help<br />

one person, it may mean generations to come might not end up in<br />

prison. “It’s all [about] God … I need you to help me.”<br />

The Rev. Ann Perrott at her church office in Middle Haddam.<br />

Ellen, who also works at St. Francis House, an intentional Christian<br />

community in New London, and serves at St. James' Episcopal<br />

Church in New London, taught school in Norwich for 35 years. She<br />

believes she was called to be a deacon because of her involvement<br />

with the Learn and Serve Movement, teaching curriculum through<br />

community service. Teachers at her school asked her to consider<br />

becoming a minister but being a deacon was the only job that<br />

allowed her to continue teaching.<br />

A friend brought Ellen to a Faith Behind Bars and Beyond (a ministry<br />

of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut) meeting, which led her to<br />

the New Life Ministry.<br />

“We only take people that we think are ready to have a new life,”<br />

she said. Some women turn out not to be ready; they work with<br />

parole officers to get those women into half-way houses. Overall,<br />

New Life Ministry has had an 88 percent success rate in 20 years.<br />

As a mentor, Ellen said she teaches the women how to make<br />

choices — what to eat and wear, where to work, whether to reconnect<br />

with family. She aligns this with the Episcopal Church’s<br />

14

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!