New Jail Curriculum

Collaborating with the Rev. Canon William H. Barnwell, this month I have been designing a new curriculum for studying faith and literature at Elmwood Jail (Milpitas, California). In 1980, at the University of New Orleans (UNO), Canon Barnwell started developing a program which would eventually be called The Transforming Literature of the Bible (TLB). TLB is based on his original class in the “Bible as Literature” in the UNO English Department. From the mid-eighties, Canon Barnwell continued to work on TLB for both the university and at his churches: first at Trinity Episcopal in New Orleans, then at Trinity in Boston, and finally at the Washington National Cathedral where he served as Canon Missioner. TLB has been presented dozens of times in a variety of settings.  The TLB version we are updating now is dated 2008.

I had been looking for a shorter course to offer at Elmwood Jail where I have been leading seminars in Education for Ministry (EfM) since 2015. Unfortunately, EfM takes nine months per program year and many of the inmates are not at Elmwood that long. EfM continues to be the right program for some Elmwood dorms; however, I was glad to find TLB for faster-cycle dorms.  I think we can complete both Old and New Testament studies using TLB in about four months.

With Canon Barnwell’s enthusiastic support, I have edited the first six TLB sessions. I plan to edit the next 30 sessions starting next week. The first six sessions cover “The Hebrew Scriptures, Part One: The Great Stories of Genesis”. In addition to reading all of the Bible book of Genesis, students will also read:

• • “The Welcome Table” by Alice Walker (1973)
  • “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1955)
  • “My Grandmother Washes Her Feet in the Sink of the Bathroom at Sears” by Mohja Kahf (2003)

I am grateful to have Diane Lovelace and my husband, John Plocher, as my Co-Mentors in this new venture.  I am giving the inmates Bibles, Books of Common Prayer, dictionaries, pencils and journals to support their studies.  Some books are in Spanish and some in English.  Ten inmates came last week to hear about the new program.  They are a varied group from many faith backgrounds: Catholic, Protestant, and Muslim. We are looking forward to developing the TLB pilot program together.

This program is supported by the Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy and St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church.

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Images Copyright 2018 by Katy Dickinson.

Refugees in Bunia, Congo

Last month, I posted a disturbing story and images: Help Needed for Displaced in Congo. The number of internal refugees who have settled in Bunia, Congo, continues to grow.  The camp now holds over 86,000 people, many of whom are women and children who have traveled for weeks under very dangerous circumstances.  The Congo Network of the Episcopal and Anglican churches gets regular updates from the Reverend Bisoke Balikenga who lives and works in Bunia, DRC.  The Congo Network is chaired by the Rev. Canon Dr. Isaac Kawuki Mukasa (Africa Relations, Episcopal Church).  The US media is reporting very little on this massive humanitarian crisis. I asked the Rev. Bisoke to send the Congo Network photos so that we could help tell the story.

Particularly disturbing were the photos of the girl Rachel and her little sister.  The Rev. Bisoke wrote with the photo below: “Rachel sister just come from the hospital, her left arm was cut by the rebel and Rachel was cut in the head and the mother was killed. Rachel is not in a good condition you can see her head. Please pray for them because the life which they have now it is not the good one.”  The Rev. Bisoke has taken 30 refugees into his own home, in addition to his family of 8.  He is getting some help from friends.  If you would like to help displaced people in the Congo, please donate to Episcopal Relief and Development (designate your donation to DRC). Your money will go toward food, clothing, shelter and assistance with trauma.

 

Recent news stories include:

• “Congo crisis worsening, EU says, as government shuns aid conference” 25 March 2018 in Reuters
  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-congo-eu/congo-crisis-worsening-eu-says-as-government-shuns-aid-conference-idUSKBN1H10PK?il=0
• “UN: $1.7 Billion Needed for DRC Humanitarian Crisis” 19 March 2018 in VOA News 
  https://www.voanews.com/a/un-says-almost-2-billion-dollars-needed-for-drc-humanitarian-crisis/4305877.html
  
• “DRC Violence: This Time It’s Different” 16 March 2018 in Fair Observer
  https://www.fairobserver.com/region/africa/joseph-kabila-democratic-republic-congo-violence-conflict-africa-news-headlines-76540/
• “Ethnic Violence in DRC’s Northeast Displaces at Least 60 000” 18 March 2018 in​ News24
  https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/ethnic-violence-in-drcs-northeast-displaces-at-least-60-000-20180318
• “Uganda Cholera Outbreak Slows, But Violence in DRC Complicates Recovery” 10 March 2018 in​ ​Devex
  https://www.devex.com/news/uganda-cholera-outbreak-slows-but-violence-in-drc-complicates-recovery-92344
• “Militias are Burning Villages in Congo” ​8 March 2018 in New York Times – Visual Investigations​
  ​ https://nyti.ms/2G43nk5​
• “How We Identified Burned Villages in the Democratic Republic of Congo” 8 March 2018 in New York Times
  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/insider/burned-villages-democratic-republic-congo.html
• ​”DRC: Thousands Flee Amid Surge in ‘Horrific Violence” 21 February 2018 in Al Jazeera
  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/02/thousands-flee-atrocities-south-eastern-drc-180220143919759.html​

Photos copyright 2018 by the Rev. Bisoke Balikenga – used with permission.
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Help Needed for Displaced in Congo

Violence has recently gotten worse in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I was on a call a few days ago during which we learned of tens of thousands of displaced people, about two thousand of whom are now seeking help near a hospital in Bunia. The Reverend Bisoke Balikenga sent us the photos you see here of families in Bunia in need of food, water, firewood, bedding, and schools for the children. We are coordinating our aid efforts through Episcopal Relief and Development.

Since 2015, I have been a part of the Congo Network group of the Episcopal Church. The group is chaired by the Rev. Canon Dr. Isaac Kawuki Mukasa (Africa Relations, Episcopal Church). I was nominated to join the Congo Network group by my Bishop, the Right Rev. Mary Gray-Reeves (of the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real, California).  We meet by phone and online about quarterly to share information and coordinate support work. I have been taking the Congo Network minutes.

There is small awareness in the United States about the size and severity of the Congo’s humanitarian crisis. Little news is published, mostly by non-US media and organizations:

• • ‘I knew I had to get out’ of DR Congo (BBC, 17 Feb 2018)

• The Elders call for urgent action on political and humanitarian crises in DR Congo (Kofi Annan Foundation, 15 Feb 2018)
• Congo is sliding back to bloodshed (The Economist, 15 Feb 2018)
• DRC violence risks ‘spreading’ as 22,000 flee in a week (Al Jazeera, 14 Feb 2018)
• Congo’s mega-crisis at deadly tipping point (Norwegian Refugee Council, 14 Feb 2018)
• Congolese refugees perish as growing numbers seek safety in Uganda (United Nations Refugee Agency, 13 Feb 2018)
• Congo’s Slide Into Chaos (Foreign Affairs, January/February 2018)
• DR Congo conflict leaves 400,000 children malnourished (Al Jazeera, 23 Jan 2018)
• DR Congo displacement crisis ‘worse than Middle East’ (BBC, 6 Dec 2017)

However, if I did not know about it directly from the Congo Network, I may not have heard about this crisis at all. I have to go searching for news of the Congo – it does not appear in my regular news sources.  I have never been so aware of the limitations of the US media and how news is distributed.

Congo is about 70% Christian and many of the displaced people are seeking help from their churches. Pope Francis has raised awareness by holding a day of prayer and fasting on 23 February for those in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan.

If you would like to help displaced people in the Congo, please donate to Episcopal Relief and Development (designate your donation to DRC).

Photos copyright 2018 by the Rev. Bisoke Balikenga – used with permission.
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Prayers from Jail

In Week 16 of our Education for Ministry (EfM) 36 week seminar, the students write a Collect together. A collect is a prayer meant to gather the intentions of the people and the focus of worship into a succinct prayer. In the Week 16 exercise, EfM prompts us with the first few words of each line and the students fill in the rest. By writing their own Collect, students learn the difference between kinds of prayer: Petition, Intercession, Penitence, Thanksgiving, and Adoration.

I lead three EfM seminars a week, two at at Elmwood Jail in Milpitas and the third at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church (all in the Silicon Valley). My Co-Mentors Joel and Diane and Karen and I are all Accredited Mentors.  After each group wrote their own Collect, I read them the prayers written by the others.

Here are the three Collects:

Collect from Elmwood M4C Dorm EfM Class

God is holy, love, protection, comfort, security, and shares our burdens.

The world is corrupt, burnt, an abomination, and beautiful.

We ask for guidance, strength, compassion, and PopTarts.

We ask for healing, health, guidance, protection, and peace.

We confess our sins, faults, shortcomings, news, fears, prejudices, and hope.

We come together in awe and wonder at His majesty, the love of others, guidance.

So that we can have peace, good will, and understanding.

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.

Collect from Elmwood M2B Dorm EfM Class

God is wonderful, loving, father, strong, life.

The world is a mess, suffering, needing peace, capable.

We ask for peace, mercy, love, hope, freedom, safety, protection.

We ask for food for the hungry, a house for the homeless, peace for those in war-torn countries, and health for the unhealthy.

We confess sin, misgivings, our love, ignorance – lack of knowledge.

We give thanks for life, families, safety, health, our EfM Mentors, friendships, and Honey Bun pastry.

We come together in awe and wonder at new learning, every day, God’s presence at Elmwood Jail.

So that we can have love, understanding, faithfulness.

In the name of Jesus.
Amen.

Collect from St. Andrew’s EfM Class

God is love, healer, generous, compassionate.

The world is sick, poor, in need, progressive.

We ask for health, healing, open hearts and minds.

We ask for abundance for the poor, courage for leaders, wholeness for the sick.

We confess our prejudice, limitations, slowness.

We give thanks for those who came before us, healers, saints, new babies and parents, courageous leaders.

We come together in awe and wonder at a new year, God’s presence in our lives, grace.

So that we can be fearless, and the sick will be comforted.

In the name of our healing Father.
Amen.

This jail-based EfM program is supported by the Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy, the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church (Saratoga, California), and the University of the South – School of Theology.

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Postcast Interview

I very much enjoyed being interviewed by Akshay Birla for his “Life of the Mind” podcast last month. He just published the interview as “Episode 19 | Katy Dickinson on Technology, Mentoring, and Religion”.

Katy Dickinson has been around the tech-block. Hired by Eric Schmidt at Sun Microsystems, she literally wrote the book on the software development lifecycle that Sun used for release of almost 10,000 releases. She is a technologist, entrepreneur, mentor, and writer.

In our conversation Katy talks about her work as a technologist on creating processes:
A process has to not assume that you have world-class people working on it. A process assumes that that not everybody — while they are good-intentioned and competent — [is] perfect. You have to have a system that allows for lack of perfection but can work if you have the best that there is.

and the futility of only having excellent coders:
A good coder is a wonderful thing to have but you have to create something that the customer wants and feels comfortable with. Good coding and user experience are sometimes at odds.

But we spend the most of our conversation talking about mentoring programs that deliver high return-on-investment, and the intersection of religion and technology.

On the importance of example and networking provided by the Grace Hopper Celebration:
While they may be the only women in the room – which has certainly been my experience in 30+ years in the Silicon Valley – there are a lot of rooms.

Listening to your own recorded voice is always surprising – it sounds so different from the inside!

Happy New Year!

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Honoring STEM Mentoring

At the 37th Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real annual convention last weekend, I was honored by Bishop Mary Grey-Reeves with a second Simple Servant Award for my work since 2010 with the TechWomen mentoring program of the US Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The award certificate reads:

Simple Servant Award
Presented on November 3, 2017 to
Katy Dickinson
The Diocese of El Camino Real honors you. May God bless you for your
faithful ministry mentoring women in Africa and the Middle East in STEM
professions, and for your contribution to the creation of a “virtuous cycle” of
knowledge and wisdom sharing in the world of technology.

It has been an honor and pleasure to work with TechWomen and my mentees from Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. Watching this program thrive and touch so many lives is a great delight. Since I worked in 2010-2011 as the TechWomen Process Architect, I have been a volunteer with this life-changing program as a mentor, working with groups of STEM leaders who travel to the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley to be hosted by 122 science and technology companies and organizations for a month (and then continue a mentoring relationship once they have returned to their home country).

Beginning with the first cohort of 37 from 6 countries in 2011, there have been 518 TechWomen Fellows from 22 countries and 698 mentors. I have formally been assigned to mentor 14 women in Lebanon, Algeria, Gaza-Palestine, Jordan, and Tunisia – and have worked with many more who have asked me to be their mentor. I have also participated in nine formal TechWomen Delegations with the State Department, to: Jordan (twice), Kyrgyzstan, Morocco (twice), Rwanda, South Africa, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe, as well as making informal trips with TechWomen mentors to visit our mentees in Lebanon, Gaza-Palestine, and Sierra Leone.  Learning from my sister mentors as well as from my mentees is part of the joy and value of this excellent program for Citizen Diplomats.

Want to make a different in STEM? Please consider joining TechWomen as a mentor yourself!

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Photo Copyright 2017 by the Diocese of El Camino Real, Elrond Lawrence.

Honored Woman 2017

Four years ago, I wrote about Honored Women’s Day, at which the Episcopal Church Women of the Diocese of El Camino Real join each year with the parish churches to honor a woman for her notable service. I am touched to be the 2017 Honored Woman for St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church (Saratoga, California).  The text on the certificate prepared by ECW Chair Diane Lovelace based on the submission of our Rector, the Rev. Channing Smith reads:

Katy is creative, knowledgeable, faithful, persistent, and swift to action. These are all qualities that are necessary for leadership, and Katy exudes them all. Katy is involved in many areas of the church. She has served in our vestry, chaired our Strategic Plan Personnel Committee, been an alternate to General Convention, and faithfully represented our community as a Diocesan convention delegate. However, her most recent ministry in EFM, Jail Ministry, and as the Diocesan EFM Coordinator is the reason for her nomination.

Katy takes part in 3 EFM classes a week: one at Saint Andrew’s, and two at Elmwood Jail. She has been instumental to many parishioners continued faith formation as an EFM Mentor. She has leveraged her creativity to inspire and engage others, which has had a real world impact. Katy also leveraged her talents to set up an EFM jail program (1st one in the country) and took it a step further and got a second one approved. She needed to work with many agencies to make that happen, along with funding for the classes, co-mentors for each class, and negotiating with Sewanee to get a lower tuition rate so it would all be possible. This is a large ongoing time commitment (there are no class breaks in jail ministry). She is an inspiration and a rock for the guys there, and has even led some to join the Saint Andrew’s community. Katy also volunteered to take on the role of Diocesan EFM Coordinator. She arranged training locally, which was no small feat – normally the closest Mentors could go would be Auburn. This has expanded her outreach beyond El Camino Real, to all parts in California. Katy deserves to be recognized for the hard work and dedication that she has made to the Saint Andrew’s and broader community. She is a great example of faithful service to others and sharing the Good News of God’s love which she does so joyfully.

I am honored to be included in the ranks of the women leaders of our diocese. Special thanks to the Rev. Channing Smith for nominating me, and to the Rev. Peggy Bryan for asking my inmate students to write notes to present to me with the certificate.  You can read more about the University of the South – School of Theology Education for Ministry (EfM) program and our jail-based EfM seminars on the El Camino Real diocesan webpage.  If you are interested in supporting the incarcerated in Santa Clara County, please contact the Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy.  Please contact me if you live on California’s Central Coast (Palo Alto to San Luis Obispo) and are interested in becoming an Accredited Mentor for EfM.

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Images Copyright 2017 by John Plocher