Prison chaplaincy is a ministry to which I feel a call. Walking in solidarity with men in incarcerated spaces fits who I am. The last year I’ve served as an Auxiliary Chaplain with the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry.

At the Phoenix Complex, a maximum-security prison, I engage a variety of residents in their in-take process. Another unit of lower security residents with work details on site and minimal years remaining before reentry. And a hospital unit, with a diversity of residents receiving various kinds of medical care, or hospice.

Concurrent with the prison, I’ve begun Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at the Carl T. Hayden Veterans’ Administration Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona.

One of the ways I process experience in the prison is through art. To be faithful in this work long-term, I see the artist and the chaplain yoked together. Both bear witness. Artists make work outside institutions, Chaplains work inside. The yoke holds together the prophetic with the pastoral. The elk and the ox. Individually each can move one ton, a friend and mentor observed. Yoked together, three tons.