We at UCE are beginning a new endeavor that typifies the amazing things that can happen when a community of people follow their instincts and discover new purpose and skills. Just like making stone soup!

An eye-opening beginning came when UCE chose Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow as a non-fiction book group selection. What a revelation it was to see that mass incarceration was happening in our country more than in any other, and that its roots were in racial bias. What a call to action it was, because it requires a movement to change it.

The New Jim Crow motivated more Community Renewal Society (CRS) training and involvement. CRS gave us the opportunity to have one of its organizers, Marlon Chamberlain, recently released after drug sentencing changes, be part of our discussion of the book. Another CRS member, from Second Unitarian, Megan Selby, agreed to do a workshop with us on the Prison Industrial Complex and what to do about it.

The stone soup was beginning to bubble. The workshop led to the Prisons and Restorative Justice group that led seminars and volunteerism. Jackie Seaman and Jeanne Kerl got involved with Chicago Books for Women in Prison, and brought many of us along. Some started driving families to youth detention centers to visit their young family members. We started getting trained in, and working for, Restorative Justice.

Then Megan Selby approached us with the idea of a UU Prison Ministry. The stone soup miracles continued, with Gail Smith lending her deep experience with the issues. We were joined by others at UCE, 2nd Unitarian, and Beverly Unitarian Church, and received a planning grant from the UUA to develop a UU prison ministry. From that came fundraising training, fundraising that you supported, and progress toward our goal of hiring a quarter time minister to lead the prison aspects of the ministry.

Now we have many UU churches involved, and are developing plans for welcoming congregations for returning citizens, advocacy for restorative alternatives to incarceration, worship services and small group ministry in two Illinois prisons. We will continue the stone soup efforts by asking for your involvement in all aspects of the UU Prison Ministry of Illinois.

All this has happened because of a thriving community of caring people trying to make the world whole. We celebrate this, and praise it, and want it to stay “open for good.”