The Worthy Now Prison Ministry Network is a liberal religious coalition powered by the Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF). It includes individuals, groups, and communities of faith called to prison ministry/justice.
Our dream is for all people who are imprisoned to know they are inherently Worthy Now of love and justice. And for them to have access to religious freedom.
This means all are worthy of love, respect and support right now—not at some future time when we are better people, but as we are. The Worthy Now Network is committed to strengthening our Unitarian Universalist (UU) First Principle with this declaration.
The Worthy Now Network developed from two differing needs. Over half (and growing) of the approximately 3,000 CLF members currently live in prisons across the United States. Some were already UUs, but the majority learned about Unitarian Universalism’s saving message by being connected to the CLF by others who are incarcerated. Worthy Now helps extend the CLF’s reach to meet the demand for our faith among this population.
We are also called to be a community resource for UUs and others in liberal faith traditions, so that we can extend our reach far beyond those we already serve. Some of you are building your own prison ministries and some have been hard at work for years. Worthy Now seeks to create common space for all of us to connect online, share ideas and resources, and provide/receive training. This prison ministry network will help those in the free-world better serve our incarcerated siblings in faith.
By uniting into one strong community of religious liberals, we can grow stronger in our work to end mass incarceration.
