CSIS Annual Meeting 2025
The CS Institutional Services in the state of New Jersey
held their
Annual Meeting
Sunday, April 27, 2025 on Zoom at 4PM.
Chaplains shared their experiences inside prison with the theme:
"Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?" (Isaiah 58:6)
Here below is the Report given by Christian Science Chaplain, Heather Blacker, and a member of our church:
Theme: “....to undo the heavy burdens, and let the oppressed go free…” Isaiah 58:6
By Coordinating Chaplain Heather Blacker Annual Meeting on April 27, 2025
We are grateful to share the Comforter and the Truth that relieves the heavy burdens of those inside prison and it lifts the oppressed so they are free.
We currently have 29 inmates we send the Full Text Quarterly to each month. I send these FT to inmates across America, who are sentenced to either a NJ state prisons or to Federal prisons all over America or many in the prison I visit weekly. Since these inmates have never been to a Christian Science church service and are not familiar with how to read and study the Bible lesson, I write a weekly letter. The letter goes through the entire lesson with questions that are meant to pull out the spiritual meaning of what we read and then apply these ideas to our lives.
We are grateful for the many individuals and churches in New Jersey who gather and share their Sentinels, Monitors and El Heraldos for CSIS. Please note for those who contribute their periodicals: only Monitors that are LESS than six months old are shared with inmates. Please do not share your Monitors that are older than six months. Also, please do not remove the address label on the periodicals. I do not share those that have been cut. The reason is because we ink out every address label on any periodical, and then put our own labelon top with our mailing address so inmates can correspond with us.
Sharing Bibles, Science and Healths, Sentinels, and Monitors, is a weekly opportunity. One Bible Group isprimarily Hispanic, and the week we started the group, they had requested 12 Spanish Bibles, and 13 Ciencia Y Salads (SH in Spanish) I also carry in a bag filled with Bibles, SH, Monitors and Sentinels to solitary. When I leave each night, the bags are empty. I talk with Muslims, who requests Bibles, I speak with mentally impaired inmates who are moved to listen and find peace. One inmate in solitary asked if I would find citations in the Bible on forgiveness. We were talking about how forgiveness enables us to feel God’s love more. He told me he had killed his family. He said he found difficulty in forgiving them for their abusive ways, and to forgive himself for what he had done. I told him that as he looked to God rather than people he would find kindness through others. I gave him SH and told him that whatever he needed, he would find in SH. Its people like this that yearn to know peace, the peace that comes from Love. The Comforter brings this. This inmate moved to a different facility. Often the demand on me as a chaplain is to let go and trust that God’s
love is following them. After all, isn’t this what Jesus showed us how to do, to let people go in order to follow him? I’m learning to know that healing follows each of us, despite our experience in the past. This faith shows us how to love in the moment and in eternity. Each week I share at least 7 Science and Healths, and 8 Bibles with inmates in the three Bible Groups and in solitary.
We are grateful for every New Jersey church and individual for their financial donations each year. This shows that our state is committed to this work in our prisons.
I’m going to share some of what happens in Bible Group discussions. Then I’ll end with some healings in prison.
I go into the prison two times a week. And what a pleasure it is to do. Each Sunday night I conduct two Bible Groups, which involves about 40 men. I also go in every Monday night and conduct another Bible Group and go to solitary, in yet another area of the prison. I’m grateful that this prison supports our work. The officers often times ask questions about some of the ideas I’ve shared with the inmates in solitary.
Thanks to a group of inmates in one of the Bible Groups we now have all three Bible Groups praying together on their own in their cells, at 1030 every night when its “lights out”. We decided to pray together, much like the way we pray during our Sunday Service for the congregation. As we pray all together on our own, we also build strength in prayer to reach each Bible Group attendee. This involves about 50 inmates. Quite something when you think of the power of prayer going on in this prison.
Each week in these Bible Groups I build our discussions around the healings in the current Bible lessons. This past week we talked about in detail the event of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. I type up a page of questions so that we can get into the details of what it is that brings healing, and in this case resurrection and ascension. They take these sheets back with them to their cell for further consideration. We may also take a Bible verse from the lesson and discuss the meaning and how it relates to us.
Every time you go into prison it is different officers, different inmates, different needs. I can make well thought through plans, and sometimes never use them. Yet, I’ve learned the answers are in the prayerful preparing, rather than in the specific lesson plan. The front desk Sergeant’s usually allow me to go to the Bible Group pod locations even when there are lock downs. Religious services in this prison are respected. It happens that when I arrive to the pod, Officers tell me there is a lock down; a code black. Just a week ago, this happened. I got there and the officer said he could not call the inmates out, as everyone was on lockdown. I gently asked if he would mind asking his lieutenant if we could possibly have Bible group. He agreed. After his brief call, he told me the lieutenant had given an ok to conduct Bible group. My point here is that without the officers allowing me to go down to the pods, there would not have been Bible Group. The officers respect what we do inside. So grateful to witness this over and over again.
An inmate asked about how to pray effectively, and if it was necessary to genuflect, or be in a church to pray. He asked how does God hear my prayer? I told him that genuflecting was simply a symbol of faith and devotion. Prayer is always heard when our desire is to know God, hear God, and follow God. We talked about how prayer is heard no matter where we are. God hears us because we are His. He hears our thought, He waits for our willingness to be humble and follow His commands. We talked about how desire is prayer; that effective prayer is not asking God for love, it is learning to love. We talked about the Lord’s Prayer in the Sermon on the Mount and how it is meant to fulfill every need. We have talked about God’s law and how it is very clear. I turn them regularly to Matt 22: 36-40 where Jesus is asked what God’s law is and his response is to do two things. To love God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself. We talk regularly about the fact that if we truly love God with all our heart, we will also fulfill the law to love our neighbor, but also to learn how to love ourself. If we love God then we love ourself. If we love ourself then we can’t help but love others. Obeying God’s law enables us to live in God’s harmony. The group was still as the words poured out to them.
Over the last few months one of the Bible Groups asked if I would write out a prayer for them each week. This is a group of mainly Hispanic inmates, who do not know English well, yet they consistently attend each week. Language here is not a barrier. It is the case that God speaks to them in ways they understand. Some in the group translate for me, so that there is a sort of dance between us, as they listen and translate while I speak. At first I found this distracting, and as I saw my way past my frustration, I understood it to be more of the beauty of the language of Love. Letting go, lets us be apart of how the Christ meets the need. I am learning a little bit more of how to do this.
Here are a few healings of progress over the last few months. One inmate shared his own healing from dependence on drugs. He said he was drug dependent, hiding from the US government in Mexico. And one day, he said God turned him around, and his desire for drugs absolutely disappeared. When he lost a desire for drugs, that is when he was arrested. He said he is a very happy man! He said his dependence on the wrong thing, kept him a prisoner to sin. His arrest brought him to New Jersey to face serious charges. Yet, he said since finding his connection to God, through the support of Bible Group, he is in a sense free. He said the Bible Group is his angel place, that gives him focus. He also told me that he remembers me telling him early on to read regularly the Sermon on the Mount which he does he said almost every day. He is so grateful, and willing to pay his consequences through the law. He has a young family that he looks forward to caring for in new healthy ways. He said he has found freedom and never wants to return to dependence on anything other than God.
Last month while conducting a Bible Group there was a fight in the pod next door. We could hear it happening. Then a code black; a lockdown, an alarm goes off. I asked the inmates what we should do and they all said, stay right here. This has happened before through the years, and we’ve always stayed put. All doors are locked in the prison. We stopped to pray for the fight going on, and that all were safe and this proved to be true. After quite some time had passed even after the count had begun, an officer came to our room to get the inmates. He told me as I left, Heather, we frankly forgot about you all in there and only remembered you when we started the count of all inmates. I was grateful for the officers honesty, and God’s control over the entire situation. .Recently, while waiting for Bible Group to come into the room, one inmate came in by himself. He told me he wanted me to pray with him. He was in prison for murder. So what began in those moments was an inspired atmosphere of healing. I spoke the Truth to him, I declared the spiritual facts about him. I let God tell me what to say. It was a holy time. We both felt healing with us there. Letting God move the words to bring healing was something very special in those quiet minutes together. This was a sweet opportunity and proof that God brings us together for healing, sometimes in ways that are quite unusual.
One inmate who started one of the Bible Groups loves SH. He studies it along with the CS Bible lesson. He recommends it regularly to every Bible Group attendee. One night recently, the nurse, who passes out meds every evening to the inmates came to our Bible Group. When she realized that no one in the Bible Group needed meds she left. When we ended Bible Group that night, she was still in the hallway. This inmate had taken a smaller copy of SH to keep in his jumpsuit pocket, as it was easier to carry around. He stopped as we passed the nurse, and he told her that she should read SH. She asked what it was, and he told her that it was the key to the scriptures. He said she needed to read it as it had everything to do with healing since she was a nurse. He said if she wanted to learn more about healing and God she should read the book. I watched this all happen. It was the sweetest exchange. He gave her the smaller copy of SH I had just given him. I’ve never witnessed an inmate sell SH to someone else right there in prison and someone in the medical field.
Lastly, I wanted to share a sort of victory with an inmate who has joined the Mother Church and sends poems for the Sentinel regularly. He had a poem published in the Sentinel on line February 7, called “What God Does”. You will hear it read by Ellie today, at the close of our meeting. He is a steady student of CS, and recently told me that he is starting a class called “Thinkers”, and he looks forward to sharing his discovery of CS with those in the class. This inmate is daily sharing CS with other inmates. He told me he feels that he came to prison because he had to find CS. He also said he’s never felt more free- because CS has shown him the way. Another significant victory with this Mother Church member is that he has tried since last July to get me as a chaplain on his visiting list. After literally waiting for 10 months I found that there were mistakes made on a prisoners record regarding me, and it prevented me from being able to visit other prisoners in other prisons. The light of Christ, came on after speaking with more than a dozen officers we have both talk with, and erased this road block. It was just this week, that significant progress was made for me to be able to visit this inmate. The patience and the perseverance in working with this inmate has been one of the more inspiring. Prayer, watching and working has definitely been what has opened yet another door to reach an inmate. Just this week he wrote this poem, and I thought I’d read it to you in closing. Its called “I surrender”