An Old Directory: The Monroe Worship Group at WSR Monroe

RantWoman has decided she is absolutely clear to talk, particularly if asked, based on her experience as a member of the Monroe Worship Group or as it was more formally called in places like the NPYM directory, the Monroe Worship Group at the WA State Reformatory at Monroe.

RantWoman is unclear whether her own name ever appeared in the directory for that Worship Group. As long as RantWoman is going to use the full bureaucratic title, she also considered using people's real names. RantWoman considered this on Quaker integrity grounds. However, RantWoman means to include a couple memorable moments that to RantWoman seem best with noms de blog.

RantWoman knows she has a couple old directories. However the Monroe Worship Group dated from 1988 to about 2003 and RantWoman does not want to dig up her old directories. RantWoman is fuzzy about when the worship group was laid down; RantWoman participated only for a few months in the early 1990's. In general, the number of Friends who even remember the group is limited and speaking of it has interesting historical value.

RantWoman is clear to speak but means to speak as clearly as possible. To that end, she decided she needed to contact....Conflict is a Gift of God Friend for some oral history including the dates above. The Monroe Worship Group was started by some inmates at the Monroe Reformatory who became interested in Quakerism as a result of meeting Friends involved in Alternatives to Violence workshops at the prison.

In its early years the Monroe Worship Group met under sponsorship of a chaplain who would let inmates and outside sponsors into their designated room in the chapel on First Days before he went next door for his Protestant service. In practice apparently the group met about twice a month for a number of years. Conflict Is a Gift of God Friend also remembered one long argument with the Protestant Chaplain about the theology of "we are all ministers of God" and the fact that some Quaker bodies do have recorded ministers. RantWoman admits that the capacity not only to have such arguments but also to stay centered while they are in progress is one reason RantWoman has historically deeply admired Conflict is a Gift of God Friend.

Some of the inmates had wives. Other inmate members married women they met through Alternatives to Violence. Because of this there was interest in holding family worship in a room off the main visiting room, in a different building than the chapel. After two years of laboring with Department of Corrections staff about the issue, the group was allowed to hold family worship once a month, not in the chapel but in a room off the visiting room. One of the objections raised when Friends first began applying to hold family worship was that other denominations would also want to do that. Conflict Is a Gift of God Friend said "and what would be wrong with that?" In practice, although 3 other denominations besides Friends were all assigned Sundays each month, only the Quaker group ever actually held family worship.

The Monroe Worship group involved Friends from University, Salmon Bay, and Eastside Friends Meetings. Therefore Friends felt it rightly ordered that the worship group be directly under the care of Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting. The worship group was laid down when all but one of the current members either got transferred to other institutions or released.

Conflict is a Gift of God Friend reported that many years there have been one AVP workshop / month. Currently, though, after the murder of the prison guard at Monroe several months ago, AVP workshops at Monroe and its sister facility Twin Rivers have been suspended and, according to what Conflict...Friend hears are unlikely to be permitted to resume anytime soon.

In the course of conversation about the Monroe Worship Group, RantWoman also asked a few questions about Alternatives to Violence and what process of training and observation inmate participants in Alternatives to Violence workshops go through before they become inmate facilitators. RantWoman was thinking of the Friend with the remarkable story who recently introduced himself in worship and came to a picnic. Conflict...Friend spoke highly of the Friend with the Remarkable Story as an inmate facilitator but RantWoman may or may not write more detail in another post.

RantWoman has also been thinking of another connection to the Monroe Worship Group. RantWoman spent a fair amount of time riding back and forth to the prison with other members of the worship group. One worked for the Department of Corrections. Conflict is a Gift of God Friend also talked of his work as an AVP facilitator. Both Friends spoke frankly of their assessments of different inmates' journeys and prospects upon release. It was these car rides as much as anything else that led RantWoman to clarity, when the future Safest Sex Offender on the planet introduced himself to RantWoman at coffee hour, that Conflict is a Gift of God Friend would be an excellent person to assist the new attender!