Editor’s note: The following article comes from a talk that Rev. Joanne Beacon gave at St. Mary’s, Prince Albert.
PRINCE ALBERT — It has been a few years since I worked as Anglican chaplain in the Main at CSC. However, I have moved around quite a bit and some of the things I was planning to do have been delayed due to lame excuses as I forgot, can’t find the information and I was busy occupied with the present.
I am well overdue however, as this summer it became apparent to me that there is some good housekeeping that I needed to accomplish since time was slipping away.
I really enjoyed working at Saskatchewan Penitentiary as the Anglican chaplain and I particularly enjoyed working in an environment with First Nation people, as I had always been interested in the culture, community and faith of First Nation people of Canada.
In 2009, I finally had the opportunity to work in an environment in which an Indigenous population was present.
Two things influenced my decision to accept a position at the Main. The first was my schoolgirl exposure to my librarian great-aunt, who put in much time and effort to helping to record the stories about the history of the Six Nation Reserve in Ontario, and the second was the exposure I had as a child to Farley Mowat and Grey Owl stories. I admit that I wanted to be an Indian.
Since that was not possible, I liked to play pretend that I was and, to that end, I dressed wearing a discarded suede sheet that my preteen mind thought was appropriate and spent hours after school alone in our playroom pretending to be a First Nations girl.
Some of my friends were askance when hearing about the challenges facing our First Nation friends and neighbours. At the same time, important changes were being openly discussed by the press, the publication industry, the government, and the people of Canada. Most had begun to engage in quite a bit of soul searching as a result. I was very amazed to hear first-hand stories of the joys and difficulties, agonies and challenges faced by our Indigenous people. I also was listening to this new exchange of ideas.
I needed a good and faithful helper to engage in the creativity and spiritual challenges of the ministry at the Sask. Penn. Kathleen Stewart was just the best friend ever. She and I had amazing experiences. Spiritual enlightenment continued to flourish as we began to include smudge into our morning prayer. This I realized was found in the person of my good friend Kathleen Stewart. We made a good team.
One day we attended a sort of in-house pow-wow and to my surprise there was a presentation of a beautiful hand-crafted smudge box filled with all the necessary bits and pieces for the morning worship Kathleen and I were working towards. I have long been thinking that this smudge box needs to be here at the Main so it can be useful and not sitting gathering dust in my apartment.
That is why I have brought it here today. I wanted to express my gratitude for the time and effort made by both inmates and staff as well as volunteers, and I pray that this will give rise to new opportunities for cross-cultural worship among all who engage in worship together at CSC.
Thank you one and all for the wonderful spirit of creativity and faith that is growing here and with God’s help, will continue to flourish for many generations to come.
The Rev. Joanne Beacon is a retired priest/chaplain of the Diocese of Saskatchewan. She was appointed as the chaplain of the Saskatchewan Penitentiary in September 2009 and held that position until 2012. In 2016 she was appointed as the ACW chaplain until 2018. She is now retired and living in Humboldt.
