Fundraising concert for prison chapel

By Tanya Connor  | The Catholic Free Press

Local musicians are to sing and play music next weekend – as part of an effort to help provide prisoners with a “sacred space” where they can feel more free.
Worcester Prison Ministries Inc. is presenting its first benefit concert for the interfaith chapel its board is hoping to build at Worcester County Jail and House of Correction in West Boylston.
The chapel project started two years ago and Catholics who have been ministering at the jail incorporated and opened a bank account under the name Worcester Prison Ministries Inc. earlier this year, said Elizabeth Miller, a board member. She and her husband, Gary Miller, board president and a retired deacon, began ministering at the jail in 1979. They are members of St. Richard of Chichester Parish in Sterling.
Two years ago the Millers received the first donations for the chapel, which were deposited in a diocesan  account. They said they now have between $10,000 and $12,000 and need at least $400,000.
“The concert is the big fundraiser,” Mrs. Miller said.
It is being held  from 7 to 11 p.m. Sept. 14 at Assumption College in the Jeanne Y. Curtis Performance Hall of the Tsotsis Family Academic Center.
Tickets are $25 per person and can be purchased on the website www.eventbrite.com:worcester-prison-ministries or at the door, if seats are still available.
Music groups donating their time and talent for this fundraiser are Heartstrings, Genesis and ShellTheory, said concert organizer and Heartstrings member Frank Gallagher Sr. He said Josh Dougherty of Heartstrings is also doing a solo of original acoustic music.
Heartstrings will play and sing 10 original songs, some of them new, and three contemporary Christian songs by other bands, Mr. Gallagher said.  
He said Heartstrings members have ministered at the jail and do music ministry at local parishes: he and Jeremy Durand at St. John Paul II in Southbridge, Mr. Dougherty and David and Susan Tittle at St. Joseph Parish in Charlton and Mark Lorusso at Sacred Heart-St. Catherine of Sweden in Worcester.
Genesis does music ministry to Hispanics at the jail and at St. Louis Parish in Webster, said Carlos Santiago, director. He said their 11-member group will sing and play classic Catholic hymns in Spanish at the concert.
Performing for ShellTheory are Shelly McConnell and Steve Straight, Mr. Gallagher said. ShellTheory does a variety of music, according to its website www.shelltheory.rocks.
Explaining why the concert is being held, Mrs. Miller said, “We need a sacred space … that’s clean … that lends itself to worship.”
Worcester Prison Ministries has permission to build a freestanding building on the modular unit side of the jail, where there is no chapel, she said. Prisoners there are not allowed to mingle with prisoners on the other side of the facility, where there is a chapel.
Steven Van Dessel, director of the architectural engineering program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, has designed “a beautiful chapel,” Mrs. Miller said. She said preliminary plans aim to give prisoners a view of nature instead of prison buildings, so “when they’re in the chapel, it would be a free feeling.”
The chapel would replace the room in a hot, windowless, former warehouse where religious services and programs are now held, Mrs. Miller said.
“The room … is not really our room,” she said. “We can’t leave any of our stuff in the room.” The space is primarily for educational programs; the prison ministry has access to it mainly nights and weekends, she said.
Before a building exclusively for religious programs can be built “we need to raise a hundred percent of that money,” Mrs. Miller said. Then the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance, which is responsible for construction for the Commonwealth, would oversee the building project.
Worcester Prison Ministries has non-profit status in Massachusetts, and is seeking federal non-profit status, Mrs. Miller said.
She said most of their money will probably come from grants, but it is difficult to secure them before starting the building, because grant sources often want to know how their money is being spent.
In addition to the new bank account, a “GoFundMe” has been set up for donations, Mrs. Miller said. She said checks can be made out to Worcester Prison Ministries Inc. and mailed to Deacon Gary Miller, 1 Shore Lane, Clinton, MA 01510.
Those seeking more information or to donate can go to: www.facebook.com/Worcester.Prison.Ministries or www.gofundme.com/f/worcester-prison-chapel or contact Deacon Gary and Elizabeth Miller at
dncmiller@gmail.com or 978-365-3544.
The concert is to be available for viewing on www.alpharecordingstudios.com afterwards, and possibly live.