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PAGE 7—The Georgia Bulletin, May 2,1985
Prison Weekend-
(Continued from page 1)
be beneficial to the
prison population and,
possibly, to some of the
staff members.”
“We feel we can make
the sacrifice,” he said
when asked how the
weekend would affect
prison routine. Some of
the men will have to be
released, from work
details to experience the
four-day “short course in
Christianity.”
“It will be interesting
for all of us,” Jones adds.
“I think it can be a good
program. It seems to
have a lot of potential
for beneficial results.”
Candidate selection
was Beckner’s
responsibility. “I tried to
get a mixture of the
population. I made an
effort to get people who
were neutral or those
who don’t embrace
Christianity.” Of the 36
candidates and 10
alternates chosen he says,
‘‘We do have a
cross-section.” It reflects
racial balance and
includes prisoners who
are leaders in the
recreational, college and
church programs at the
facility.
Beckner is happy
about the number, 36,
who will make the
weekend out of the
prison population of
230. He compares it to
the 42 men who made
the weekend in an
Alabama prison with
1,700 inmates.
Jim Cheetham, a
member of the Episcopal
Church of the
Atonement in Augusta, is
rector or coordinator of
the weekend. He was
introduced to Kairos
when he worked a
weekend at the Zephyr
Hills prison in Florida.
“I was astounded at
the fruits of the
weekend, in seeing the
Lord reach in and break
down the walls and
barriers in their lives. By
the end of the weekend,
a real Christian
community had been
formed by the team and
the candidates,” he said.
“One significant thing
about Kairos is that it is
not just a weekend.
There are monthly
meetings the team
members come back and
attend. The inmates meet
in small groups weekly.
My first contact with
Kairos was at a meeting
in South Carolina
(Manning Correctional
Institution, Columbia)
where you couldn’t tell
the team members from
the national board of
Kairos will take part in
the weekend. Team
members include
Catholics, Lutherans,
Methodists, Episcopa
lians and Church of God.
Team members sharing
their faith and love with
the inmates will spend
the days and evenings
inside the facility and
sleep at the Rock of Ages
the candidates. The
inmates there wear
regular street clothes.”
Three clergymen will
be present for the four
days. It’s required they
be on hand the entire
time. “It’s part of the
dynamics of building
community in the
institution,” Cheetham
explains.
Three advisers from
Church on Memorial
Drive. Lunches and
dinners will be prepared
at Corpus Christi
Catholic Church.
A member of the
team, Jim Cordell of All
Saints parish in
Dun woody, admits he
doesn’t “know what to
expect. I’m excited
because of the group; it’s
really spirit-filled.”
Cursillistas from
Catholic parish ultreyas
on the team for the
weekend are: Jim Cordell
and Jim Dirr, All Saints,
Dunwoody; Pat
McMahon, St. Jude’s,
Sandy Springs; Dave
Panter, Christ our Hope,
L i t h o n i a ; Albert
VanDruff, St. Lawrence,
Lawrenceville; and Fred
Hedges, Immaculate
Heart of Mary, Atlanta.
To be a member of the
team it is necessary to
have made a Cursillo
weekend. Team members
pledge to return to the
prison each month for a
year to meet with the
new Cursillistas.
The spirit-filled
involvement encompasses
the entire Cursillo
community. The cookie
ministry is an
illustration. Ultreyas in
parishes and congrega
tions will be busy next
week baking up a storm
in order to meet the need
for 1,300 dozen cookies.
The cookies will be
packaged one dozen to a
clear plastic bag and
given to the candidates
each evening to be taken
back for the other
inmates. Bakers and
assemblers are urged to
include friendly notes
with the cookie treats.
Peppel says sharing of
the cookies is “one way
to diffuse some of the
animosity which may be
shown by some of the
other inmates. They
make fun of the sissies.
It’s not any different
than outside.”
The men who are
making the retreat,
according to Peppel, have
proved they can be
trusted and will not be
affected by the taunts of
those not participating.
And the men working
on this Kairos “first” in
Georgia can be
encouraged by the
support they will have
from across the country.
One of the many men
who will be giving prayer
support to both team
and candidates is Bishop
Joseph Vath of the
Birmingham, Ala.,
Diocese, who was the
Catholic clergyman for a
Kairos weekend at the
West Jefferson facility in
Alabama in March.
Bishops Tell Germans To Seek Forgiveness
NC News Service
The bishops of West
Germany have called on
their people, in a letter
marking the 40th
anniversary of the end of
World War II, to ask
forgiveness for starting the
war.
“We cannot speak of
war and national socialism
without speaking of guilt
before God and guilt
before unnumbered
others, ” the bishops said
in the April 19 letter,
“And this means directing
the request for forgiveness
from God and to God and
to others.”
“The Second World War
started off from our
country,” the letter added.
“In spite of all the
interlacing of historical
circumstances, this fact
cannot be overlooked. ”
The letter, which
decried what it called the
Third Reich’s “claim to
overall power” and its
distinctions between those
deemed “life-worthy” or
“life-unworthy,”
acknowledged that not all
Germans accepted Nazism,
but said that efforts to
oppose it were inadequate.
There was “constant
resistance,” the letter said.
“But such resistance was
too weak” and allowed
many people to die.
The letter called on the
Germans to analyze how
the Holocaust could
happen and to ask
themselves, “how lively is
my will to resist
i deological deceit,
cowardly and thoughtless
conformism, (and) covert
or overt inhumanity in
thought, word and deed,
now and in the future?”
16 Day Tour
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Visiting
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Pastor, Our Lady of
Perpetual Help
Carrollton, Georgia
and
Sister Rita Marie
Raffaele
St. Pius X High School
Oct. 20 - Nov. 4,1985
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