St. John's Episcopal Church

When a woman is released from prison, she has has the clothes on her back and a small stipend for transportation. This ministry provides a backpack filled with the basics for personal care, food and a hand-written note from a member of the community. This ministry of compassion began with grant support. Under the leadership of Mary Link and in partnership with Grace, Amherst, St. John’s continues to welcome and spiritually support women released from the Western Massachusetts Regional Women’s Correctional Center in Chicopee and the Franklin county House of Correction in Greenfield.

In January of 2013 the vestry voted to offer funding and space to a MotherWoman group at St. John’s Corner House.  This group meets each Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., following the public school calendar.  MotherWoman provides a support group for mothers of newborns and very young children, with two trained facilitators leading each session.  Free childcare for children up to age 4 and snacks are provided.  For more information, call Anna Westley at 413-625-6948, or visit: MotherWoman

Over the years St. John’s has been the venue for many poetry readings, as well as other presentations.  Richard Wilbur, Galway Kinnell, Sharon Olds, Ruth Stone, Martín Espada, and Aracelis Girmay have all read in our sanctuary.  In 2010, following the death of a beloved parishioner, Ann Hutt Browning, Mark Zenick of Shropshire, England, an old friend of St. John’s, proposed that we begin a Poetry Series in her honor.  This was accomplished in the spring of 2010, with Richard Wilbur reading, and included a poetry contest for young people, which, each year, has gained more and more entries. 

Sacred Ground is a brilliant eleven-week program of readings and videos, designed to open our hearts, minds, and souls to the legacy of racism that we all own.