For the community of the incarcerated, ex-inmates, and volunteers who want to help
The Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real (ECR) parishes have had active jail ministries in Santa Clara County for over sixty years. In 2022, we created Saint Joan's Chapel to expand and coordinate services to the community of inmates and those in reentry and recovery in our county. St. Joan's Chapel is named in honor of Saint Joan of Arc (1412-1431). Click to keep reading...
Stepping Stones Gathering (a program of St. Joan's Chapel) is working to support prisoners and those in reentry this holiday season.
Please join us for “The Same and Different: Supporting Muslim and Jewish Inmates,”an Interreligious Panel, 1:30 to 3:30 pm on Sunday, 3 September 2023, hosted by St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church (13601 Saratoga Avenue, Saratoga, California – San Francisco Bay Area). This is an in-person event that will also be live-streamed. Here is the live streaming link, https://vimeo.com/event/3655244.
Inspiring Music - Some With Lyrics - for use by Stepping Stones Gathering weekly call-in meeting and worship service.
The Prison Policy Institute has issued an annual “Mass Incarceration: the Whole Pie” report since 2014. An additional groundbreaking PPI report was recently issued called “Women’s Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2023.” Data about women prisoners are often hard to find on the 172,700 women and girls incarcerated in the USA. More information will be presented by Katy Dickinson in "Women of Faith in Jail” at the GTU Graduate Student Conference: Women and Religion, at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, on 28 April 2023.
St. Joan’s Chapel supported the Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy and Stepping Stones Gathering in bringing holy communion to 103 Elmwood jail inmates to celebrate Easter 2023.
St. Joan’s Chapel supported the Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy and Stepping Stones Gathering in bringing holy communion to 198 Elmwood jail inmates to celebrate Christmas 2022.
We now have 100 on Stepping Stones’ holiday card distribution list. On 10 December 2022, 14 volunteers gathered at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church (Saratoga, California) to write 164 holiday cards for those in reentry, recovery, and incarceration. Click to keep reading...
For chaplains meeting by Zoom with county jail inmates, here are some music selections and inspiring talks that may fit in well with your presentations. Click to keep reading...
On 12 October 2019, the Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy and its large volunteer community honored the Rev. David Robinson who recently retired as CIC Executive Director. The program for the event was titled “Jail Break – Freedom on the Inside.”
HelpingOut 