Prison Chaplaincy with Chaplain Susan Bishop

Serving people in prison isn’t a side project of the Church—it’s at the heart of the gospel. Jesus makes it unmistakably clear: “I was in prison and you visited me.” To step inside those walls is to encounter Christ himself, already present among the forgotten.  

In this episode, Bishop Wright has a conversation with Chaplain Susan Bishop, who serves at Lee Arrendale State Prison. They explore what 44 years of prison ministry have taught her, including how Susan got involved in this work. Susan didn’t set out to become a prison chaplain, but what began as a step along the way became a life-altering calling. 

Susan also reflects on why this work matters—even when it’s hard, messy, and emotionally demanding. She speaks honestly about crime and harm, while also pointing to God’s capacity to restore what seems beyond repair. In their conversation, Susan names a truth many prison volunteers quickly discover: you think you’re bringing Jesus into prison—then you realize Jesus was already there. Listen in for the full conversation. 

Chaplain Susan F. Bishop is an ordained Southern Baptist clergywoman with more than four decades of experience in prison ministry. She currently serves as Director of Chaplaincy Services and Clinical Chaplain at Lee Arrendale State Prison. Over the course of her 44 years of service, she has held a variety of roles, demonstrating a longstanding commitment to spiritual care, pastoral leadership, and the support of incarcerated individuals.

Transcript

Welcome And A 44-Year Vocation

Bishop Wright 0:00

Hey everybody, this is Bishop Rob Wright, and this is For People. Today we have a special guest, someone that I have a lot of affection and respect for, Chaplain Susan Bishop. Chaplain Bishop, welcome.

Chaplain Bishop 0:14

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.

Bishop Wright 0:16

This is uh long overdue. We've been waiting to have you. Chaplain Bishop uh is the chaplain at the Arendale State Prison. And how long have you been uh chaplain there?

Chaplain Bishop 0:28

I've been at Lee Arendale for 15 years. But before that, I was at Metro State Prison for 24. And before that, I was at uh what was then called the Georgia Women's Correctional Institution in Milledgeville for two and a half. And before that, I was at uh one of the state psychiatric hospitals for two years. And I started work, my my chaplaincy work at a facility that was then called New Horizons down on Postalin. Yeah. It was for women at the time. In 1979, 80. I spent there a year there as a chaplain, and that place has since been uh designated for men because they needed more men's bed space in the work release centers. But that's where I've had my first correction.

Bishop Wright 1:12

So what's what's the total number? That's a lot of years and a lot of experiences.

Chaplain Bishop 1:16

Well, 44.

Bishop Wright 1:18

44 years. 44 years of going behind bars and caring for people. Uh because Jesus said we ought to?

Chaplain Bishop 1:28

Uh Matthew, it's in Matthew. But I never set out to do this work.

Bishop Wright 1:35

Tell me.

Chaplain Bishop 1:36

I backed into it. I backed into it. Okay. Um, I came to Atlanta in 1970 uh with a master, with a bachelor's in music education, and taught high school chorus at Clarkston High School.

Bishop Wright 1:49

Oh, wow.

Chaplain Bishop 1:50

And I did that for two years. Okay. The church and uh has always been a part of my life from you know cradle roll.

Bishop Wright 1:58

Right. Right. Don't you have ordained people in the family?

Chaplain Bishop 2:03

Uh actually, no. W hen I was uh when I did those two years at as a as a music teacher, choral director, yeah, uh after those two years, I decided I was going to seminary. I felt led to go to seminary. B ut I really didn't have a specific career goal in mind, like, oh, I'm gonna go to medical school and be a a OBGYN or no. I was going to seminary because I was on a spiritual journey. And I think I was trying to decide whether I was going to either go just plunge in back back into church and into church work, or whether it was there was anything there or not, and I might become a graduate of the church. I think that was in my mindset. Because I was spiritually needing something more, didn't know what that was, but I felt that was a place where I could answer that question. Am I gonna go keep going uh as a part of the church or am I gonna be a church graduate?

Backing Into Prison Chaplaincy

Bishop Wright 3:05

Well, there's a lot of there's lots of people who who uh find their direction and purpose uh through the church. Uh so how of all the places we can find uh direction and ministry opportunities, how did you get to prisons? That's a very specific uh place.

Chaplain Bishop 3:21

Yes. And when I even when I graduated uh from from Chandler School of Theology over at Emory, and then after that I did a year of chaplaincy training, CPE clinical pastoral education. Um I still was totally very unfocused about where I was gonna do that. Right. I never felt called to the local church. Um I always felt called to more specific ministries, more in the trenches kind of places.

Bishop Wright 3:48

You knew what you didn't want to do. Right. Okay.

Chaplain Bishop 3:51

Right. And then when I graduated, um, keep in mind, and I was ordained, I was ordained in 1978 as a Southern Baptist. Okay. Now picture that time frame. Picture that that being a female in the Southern Baptist Church. And the so and picture all the job opportunities that were just stuffed my mailbox. That is a that's right, that's a joke. Yes, of course. And I stayed unemployed for six or eight months, and all my friends got tired of seeing me coming because they I was crying. Yeah. I'll never work again. Where will I ever get a job? Um, and finally somebody told me about a part-time chaplaincy job at a little place on Postalin down from the Krispy Kreme that burned a couple of times. Okay. Uh uh called New Horizons. And it was a small a small part-time position that was being funded by an ecumenical group of churches. Uh, Wayuca Road, uh Peachtree Press, a Lutheran church, St. Mark's United Methodists, and several, there's a Lutheran church involved, and several others, because the the Jewish volunteer coordinator had people, uh, women who were there, keep coming to her and wanting to know more about Jesus. And she said, I don't know very much about Jesus, but I'll find you someone who does. And so she gathered people from those different churches up and they funded a part-time position, and I heard about it, and I went down and interviewed for it. I really liked it, it was very inviting because it was a startup position that nobody had ever been there doing that before. And I like things that I can start and create and kind of create your own job description. Got a kind of fresh, clean slate. And uh out of the interviewees, they selected me, and I went back for the for the job offer, and I said, you know, this really looks fascinating and it really looks interesting, and I really think I want this job. But I said, I've been in in graduate school for about five or six years, and I really need a full-time job. And they looked at me and said, Will you take it for six months? And at the end of six months, we promise that we will make it full-time. I said, sold. Okay. So I finally was employed as an ordained Southern Baptist clergywoman.

Bishop Wright 6:09

So That's how we got started.

Chaplain Bishop 6:11

That's how I got started. I never said out, I'm going to seminary, I'm going to get clinical pastoral education, and I'm going to go to the prison to be a prison chaplain. Never happened like that.

Bishop Wright 6:20

It unfolded and through the lens of things practical. You needed a job.

Chaplain Bishop 6:24

Yes. Yes. And a Jewish volunteer coordinator had created it for me.

Bishop Wright 6:28

Sometimes I find that the people who are uh stepping out in faith, they're looking for some lightning to flash and some thunder to roll. Rolling off a horse, you know. Yeah. You know, and and here's God showing up in something very practical. So now, but here's the question. So I can understand you taking this job and getting started. Um but what has kept you in this particular ministry? I know that the names on the on the paychecks have changed different places, but but why did you stay? Because now you've got your foot in the door, your your needs are being met, and that could be a great place to look for other opportunities, right? Why did you stay with this population?

Chaplain Bishop 7:12

People incarcerated. It gets in your blood. This was God's way of getting me in that door so I would see his more perfect will for me, I think. And I I could have never chosen that for myself because I really didn't know about it. I had to experience it and and the things that call me to it. Um I did, after a year at that at that facility, go and do chaplaincy in a psychiatric hospital here in Atlanta for two and a half years. And I didn't enjoy that as much. And I called the chief chaplain back up for the state and said, Do you have anything uh available in the prison system? Because I really do like working with that population better. It also uh was the perfect crucible for I think the gifts that God blessed me with and and that I brought to the table. Okay. The music, theology, right, uh the the programming and and putting together programs and creative programs, um uh a little bit of preaching, a little bit of teaching, a lot of counseling, uh work with staff, not just the inmates, work with staff, um, uh involving churches and getting communities of faith of various kinds. I grew up, uh it was destined also, I think, uh the Presbyterians say predestined predestination, I guess, to be to be in an ecumenical setting. Right. My grandfather was United Methodist, walked, walked about two miles to the little Methodist church there in Sandy Springs, South Carolina, every Sunday. Uh my father grew up Presbyterian. Uh he he he and my mother, when they married, they would drive past the Baptist church where which is where she was a member and grew up and her family was, and she would be looking up into the parking lot uh every Sunday when they passed the Baptist church, and he noticed that. And they were going to the Presbyterian church in in Anderson. And he said one Sunday, he said, You know, we don't have to go to the Presbyterian church if you don't want to. We can start going to the Baptist church. So that's uh where the family, you know, yeah moved from the Presbyterian to the Baptist Church. So ecumenical things are in my growing in my DNA. So um uh that is that is always uh refreshing when you can get in the in the faith mix that has all the different denominations and persuasions, and of course in the prison system, you have to be uh able to coordinate uh religions, religious services for people of different faiths, not just the Christian faith, but the Islamic all all the faiths that come to you and say, Hey, I want to practice the religion of my choice, and you have to be able to, even though it's not yours, you have to facilitate that and go out and find the resources for them to do so.

Bishop Wright 10:03

In the place that you serve now, Lee Arendale, uh about how many inmates are there that uh you with others minister to?

Chaplain Bishop 10:11

Okay. When I first went up to Arendale, we had over 1,800 women.

Bishop Wright 10:14

1,800, okay.

Chaplain Bishop 10:16

Now uh Arendale is going through a transition in uh uh in terms of chains of mission. So right now that number has grew and and for most of the time I've been up there, there's been twelve eleven or twelve hundred.

Bishop Wright 10:29

Okay.

Chaplain Bishop 10:29

So but right now we are downsizing and changing missions. So right now we have around 400, 400 to 500.

Bishop Wright 10:35

Okay. And now uh one of the things that's really interesting too is that over this long arc of ministry with this population, you you've seen and it's largely among women.

Chaplain Bishop 10:47

Yes. I did work uh I worked the the work release center was there where I stayed for a year was for women. The prison down in Millageville I went to was for women. When I came back up to Atlanta in 1987, I came back up to Metro State Prison, and at that time it was for men. So I worked with six years with incarcerated for men from 87 to 92. And in 92, 93, that prison uh became a women's prison. The men, uh, you know, most most times the pastor leaves and goes to another congregation. In 92, 93, my congregation left and another congregation came. So uh it would change from men to women. So I've worked with both, but mostly women.

Why She Stays With This Work

Bishop Wright 11:29

And and that's where I met you. Um I don't know if you remember, but I certainly remember. I was a pastor of a of a congregation in Atlanta and St. Paul's. St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and we have been trying to get people uh to really think about what Jesus said. And you know, I like to joke, I had a a congregation full of uh folks, uh women in particular, who I call the Carrot Club, you know, one or two carrot rings, uh diamond rings on their finger. You know, amazingly accomplished, thoughtful, um, very positive women. And I, as the pastor, had sort of bumped into a wall, getting them mobilized, getting them into Metro prison. But uh the matriarch of uh of that congregation, Miss Eva Byrd, who's 102 years old right now, uh, she had a habit of going into the prison, and so she started getting these women going. And so I had a chance to show up with those folks and and see them. And what was interesting about prison ministry, uh, I observed, and of course, in my own uh biography, I spent time at DC jail uh working with the chaplain's office there. Uh and so I learned an awful lot there, and that was uh all men at that time. Um, but the people who uh began their prison ministry and their um relationship with Metro State and the women there, what was interesting is that those women, uh after having some experiences there with that population, came back to church on Sunday and thanked me. I think that's the thing we don't we don't talk about nearly enough, is that um there's a blessing. We don't go uh to the prison to get a blessing, but there's a blessing to receive there for going to where Jesus said we ought to go. And it's in some ways countercognitive. You don't think about it right off the bat, but in the going and the serving and the connection, you walk out of there with uh a little bit more buoyancy. Has that been your experience?

Chaplain Bishop 13:30

Exactly. And I think uh most people who uh who want to get involved in prison ministry, um they they start out thinking, I'm gonna go in, I'm gonna bring Jesus.

Bishop Wright 13:42

Yes, exactly.

Chaplain Bishop 13:43

What they're often shocked and surprised by is the is the is the fact that guess what? Yeah, Jesus beat you there. Jesus is already there. He's been waiting on you. Waiting on you to come, right? And they're also shocked by the level of the spirituality they find in some of the women that are there, yes, who who either were grew up in the church and got us went astray and now are coming back to their spiritual roots, or have had a life-changing conversion and transformation while incarcerated. And it's not just jailhouse religion, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a deeply spiritual change and transformation that has allowed them to have a testimony that, you know, just put some of ours to shame that grew up in the church, you know, and had that all along.

Bishop Wright 14:31

Yes.

Chaplain Bishop 14:31

Um, but uh, I like there's a there's a new book that I've that I recommend to you and to and to others that I've discovered. And I it's one of those, you know, there's some things in life you say, oh gosh, I wished I'd invented that, like post the notes, you know, you wish you'd have been in that, right? You wish you'd have been in the Xerox machine. I wished I had written this book. And it's a book by a woman who's um a researcher and uh uh uh academician in the area of women and recovery, women and trauma, women incarceration. And her name is Dr. Stephanie Covington, and she has captured in this new book that she's just out, it's called Hidden Healers. And it talks about a dynamic that I have witnessed for over 40 years, how women who are incarcerated help other women in who are also there through this incarcerated experience. I recommend it to people because it captures the how women are supportive of each other and give not and and give emotional and spiritual encouragement uh to other women to help them get get through this experience.

Bishop Wright 15:31

Well, and that's the thing, too. You know, uh, you know, uh here on the outside, you know, uh as a clergy person, I'm recommending to people to find some quiet and listen to themselves maybe for the first time and listen to God for maybe the first time, get quiet enough so they can hear God. You know, and when you're incarcerated, that's forced upon you. I mean, you can still be distracted, but but life gets to slow down, and uh as a general matter, you you are you take a break, a break is forced on you uh from the uh substances you use to numb the pain. And now you gotta grow and uh and um and hear yourself and maybe uh hear um you know words of healing for the first time, not only from the chaplain staff, but from other women. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah, no, I I I I've seen that, I experienced that, and and that always gives me a lot of um, it always gives me a lot of uh, I I guess I would say uh peace to know how God is active and that God can't really uh that there's no perfect people, and that God has this delivery system of grace through all kinds of people.

Chaplain Bishop 16:35

Yes, and it lets you let me know as the person who's designated at this time as a spiritual leader that this is not on my shoulders. You know, this is God's work that lets me turn it over every time I walk out of there. You know, okay, God, you you got this till in the morning?

Women Supporting Women Behind Bars

Bishop Wright 16:49

Sure. Right, exactly. Well, yeah, my my my favorite Bible verse these days is uh is to remember what Hebrews said, that we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, therefore we can lay aside uh the weight and the sin and run the race. Um you know, uh absolutely surrounded. Uh and so that that's sort of what we're talking about. Now, look, we we shouldn't pretty this up too much. The truth of the matter is that you're sitting with people uh who have hurt other people, uh they have committed crimes, uh, in some cases uh murdered uh other folks, um uh broken families, substance abuse, uh, tragic uh cycles of poverty and hurt. Um and here you you are there ministering to those folks with other people. How are you staying centered and buoyant in all this? Because, you know, uh you could say that, you know, going into a situation like that, pouring out of your own self and even ministering the graces of God, that can cause a weariness and maybe even a despair and uh, you know, and just a sort of a chronic disappointment. So how are you staying, you know, how are you keeping your joy is what I'm asking.

Chaplain Bishop 18:01

Yeah, yeah, I gotcha. Well, uh, that's a good a great question, and and I've been asked that a good many times. Like, how have you worked so long in an environment which which does, by its nature, have such difficult situations? People with difficult life experiences and trauma and abuse and and uh backgrounds. Um I get asked that a lot. And I think that um, number one, what I just said, realize this is God's work, is not mine. God is the author of the of the redemption and restoration. I'm just a vessel, you know. And um that way I don't get any grandiose ideas that about me doing anything. It's that I'm just a vessel of what God's got in store for them. And just helping them to come to see uh the person that God created and that they they can become, and that God is full of forgiveness and redemption and light, and there are second chances and and more than more than second chances. I I heard somebody talk about, you said, well, God's got to be forgiving me because I I'm on my fifth second chance, right? You know, yesterday. I'm on my fifth second chance. And so, you know, you may be on your fifth second chance, but but they're still there. And so uh realizing that it's God's work, not mine, um, and just being the channel. Uh the other thing is that you do get weary, you know. I know the scripture says be not weary in well-doing, but you do get weary. But you do get weary because it is a very intense environment. Yeah. And and and it it be just by its nature. And you have to realize when you need this kind of a tight step away. So when I start uh reacting uh and responding in a short kind of way, cutting people off and uh and and speaking to them in a short manner and not with patience, etc. I I know it's uh you need some day, you need i i in just take a few days to just back up a little bit and get some rest. So you have to kind of recognize what are your triggers and what are your s what are your signals that that you kind of had it up to there, right? So that and the other thing that's kept me going is the fact that God uh blessed me with the gift and the love for God's music. And the music in there has just brought me and others great joy, and it has brought, you know, the uh it has allowed me to um provide an and this this is this is what gives me great, great joy, to provide an oasis and a sanctuary. It's for uh for everybody, right, but especially for those people that he's also gifted with musical talent. And I have had some fantastic musicians come through under my leadership, and to provide them with a space and the sanctuary where I can just provide them with the instruments they need, with the time they need, with the space they need, uh, and just let them go. And just let God work and let God continue to express his gifts through them. And that brings great joy. Now that happens, uh the that brings me joy to see the joy inside them as individuals to be able to do that, to be able to be reunited with a guitar when you haven't had one in your hand for seven years and you were a professional guitar player out there, right? Or to to be able to let somebody play or invite somebody and and be blessed with somebody to play for for Sunday services. And I'm sitting there and I'm seeing you, but I'm also seeing the congregation behind you as you're sitting there playing and singing and pouring out God's Holy Spirit, and and you're just sitting there singing and playing and doing your thing, and I'm looking at the women's faces behind you, and their tears streaming down their face, and you are touching people that I can see are just being blessed by you being able to express your gift. So it has blessed people inside, the person who has the gift, the people who enjoy the gift inside there. And then for thir over 30 years, I was able to take um anywhere from 10. 10 to 30 convicted felons out to sing at churches like the cathedral, um, like St. Luke's, uh, different churches and different events, um, and so that the people on the outside could understand the gift that God has given these people wasn't destroyed by the fact that they veered off the path and got locked up.

Bishop Wright 22:26

Yeah.

Chaplain Bishop 22:26

And now they're on a path of redemption and healing and hope and giving back to the community in ways that, you know, only God could orchestrate.

Bishop Wright 22:38

You know, I don't think I, if I am in my right mind, if I am, it is in large part uh because of the word of God, but also because of music. The psalmists, right? Uh, and one of the things that's really humbling for a preacher uh to be reminded of is that nobody ever left church humming a sermon. So it is the singers, it is the musicians who who sing it into your soul, and uh, and uh and somehow it touches a chord that just regular words sometimes can't touch. And I'm so grateful for that. And uh in fact, you and I have a friend uh um that's going to be released from prison uh this week. We'll have her on the podcast at some point to tell her own story. Uh, but her gift to that community has been music. And uh and her gift beyond the walls uh has been music. We've we've had her here at the cathedral here in Atlanta, uh, and she's been in other places, and so it's just it my heart is smiling this week to know that uh uh by the weekend, I mean we're recording today on Tuesday, but by the weekend she'll be in her mama's arms.

Chaplain Bishop 23:54

Right, exactly.

Bishop Wright 23:55

Yeah, yeah. Um, and that uh we know that uh it's been an up and down journey, but music has sustained her. Exactly.

Chaplain Bishop 24:04

Yeah, exactly. And um uh for the first seven years of her incarceration, she didn't have access to that. Yeah, and so for the last 15 or 16, uh God has put all around her uh what it she what she needed to express that gift in such a strong way.

Bishop Wright 24:25

I asked you a question about weariness and you gave a a wonderful answer. But my guess also is what sustains you is seeing these God moments over the last four decades. Uh these, you know, where um resurrection isn't just an idea or a story in a book, uh, you see people's lights come on, you see healing happen. Uh you got a lot of God stories, I bet.

Chaplain Bishop 24:49

Uh I worked with one uh woman and I met her when she was 17. Um and she's been out now for five, I think going on six years. Yeah. And um when she was getting ready to give out, um, she said, Chap, will you will you be there when I go h when when they let me out on my my release date? Because she that that her release date had dropped and she knew when it was. I said, uh Well what what time do you think she said, Well, I think they're gonna let me out at 6 30. I said, 6 30 in the morning? She said, Yeah, but please, please, yeah. She said and she she was then 41. I met her when she was 17. And she said, please, I want you to give me back to my mama. I want you to give me back to my mama. Well, what can I say? I'll be I'll be there.

Bishop Wright 25:41

I'll be there. Sure. Yeah. I mean, how about the poetry of that? You know, things coming back full circle, she comes home brand new and yet uh start all over again.

Chaplain Bishop 25:52

And she's doing amazing things.

Bishop Wright 25:53

Yeah, and you get to participate in all of that. Yeah, it's it's um, I mean, to be included in God's graceful movements uh is a high privilege. Uh, you know, ministry uh does make you weary. Sometimes faith, uh a life of faith does feel lonely sometimes. All those things that we feel overwhelmed and we wonder if we're making any difference sometime. And then you have these um these moments. These moments, and somehow the moments uh make it all better. And it it at least they fuel you up for the next one like that, yeah.

Music As Sanctuary And Ministry Fuel

Chaplain Bishop 26:32

It'll take you another six or eight months of hard work rounds and lockdown, everything. You know, it's bringing on, bringing on. Yeah. You know, I I like to tell people that ministry is more agrarian than it is administrative. Uh it's more about, I mean, of course the Bible says that. It's more about planting seeds and tilling dirt and uh and waiting and watching to see if something green springs up. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the work is pruning, sometimes it isn't. I mean, you know, sometimes it's repotting things. It's it has a lot to do with uh uh an agricultural approach to life and realizing that God does some really good work over time, which I have no control over.

Bishop Wright 27:12

That's right. Right. Well, uh as we're wrapping up now, I I wonder is there uh a Bible verse or a biblical story that is particularly precious to you?

Chaplain Bishop 27:24

Well, um several. Um one regarding the music is the powerful one where you know when Saul was troubled, David can play the harp came to play. Yeah, you know, and that's that's that really is a summation of the music ministry there. Um and um uh just one time I I preached a sermon, it was over at Candler, uh the School of Theology, and it was I was able to take the I was at the choir was there singing and they had asked me to preach, which preaching is not uh I don't it's not at the top of my gifts, okay? So I have to really work hard at it. Music is more natural. So but I said, okay, I will. So I did. And then as a part of the sermon, I talked about um I talked about um uh uh started off a paragraph with uh people who commit crimes like murder, you know, and conspiracy and um uh persecuting other people. And and I sort of brought around, I said, Did did you all think I was talking about the women behind me? No, no, no, no, no. I was talking about Moses, I was talking about Paul, I was talking about Rahab. I was talking about those people that uh society uh uh would have the same constraints around as the women who are standing behind us. And so uh there there's some great leaders in the b biblical leaders that are pillars of our faith that made humongous mistakes. Indeed. Humongous mistakes, murder, conspiracy, prostitution, whatever. And so God uses use them, and God can use anybody. God can use anybody, and um and I have a favorite scripture uh that's uh 1 John 3, 2, I believe, um and it says, It is not yet revealed what we shall become. What we shall become. So for you to meet somebody who's mean or cantankerous or angry or whatever, you just have to say, It is not yet revealed what they shall become. And you just have to work with it over time, over time, over time. Sometimes it's a long time, but you just have to work with that because it is not yet revealed what they shall become.

Bishop Wright 29:59

Last question. Somebody might be listening uh over our audience and uh maybe inspired by hearing something about your journey. Um, and they may have even uh have on their heart this population, uh men or women who are uh presently incarcerated. What would you tell them uh listening in today uh about how to get started, where to get started?

Chaplain Bishop 30:24

Call me. Because one of the uh before we end, I want I want to thank you for uh a couple of different things. Number one, um the seeds of the ministry that that you are aware of, particularly through the Episcopal Church and congregations, yes, um, was started probably 15 or 18 years ago by Reverend Cathy Zappa. Talking about agrarian planting seeds.

Bishop Wright 30:57

Yes, yes.

Chaplain Bishop 30:58

That's those seeds that she planted have just grown and grown and grown. And it was because she came in and she saw what was there and she started tilling and tilling and just her commitment to that and engaging other people throughout the Episcopal Fellowship. And we have such a strong Episcopal presence uh at Arendale. And they're doing so many different things, and so many different congregations are doing lots of different things. So thank you for your leadership and support of that. And thank you, Cathy Zappa. Yeah, and the other thing is I want to thank you personally because you have come up for the last several years, probably six, eight, ten. You would have come up during COVID, but we couldn't. But for the Christmas Eve communion service.

Bishop Wright 31:43

It's a delight for me.

Scripture Anchors And How To Start

Chaplain Bishop 31:44

So thank you for your presence every Christmas Eve for the bishop to come on Christmas Eve. And I know, which the women might not know, but I tell them every year. His last service starts tonight at 11 o'clock in Atlanta at the cathedral. And you're with us up and early at 9 o'clock, yeah, an a half hour above Gainesville. So your day is long that day. So it does not go unnoticed by me that you come to be with us every Christmas Eve. And so thank you. Thank you.

Bishop Wright 32:15

Well, as I have said, you know, you go to serve and you go trying to be faithful to Matthew the 25th chapter, uh, because as you go and visit that population, you find Christ Himself. So I I go because it's right to do, and then I'm always blessed when I walk away. Uh so uh, you know, God is like that. God never cooks a meal for one person. You know, it's always a banquet. Um and uh and let me say to as I close, thank you. And uh, you know, you said something about you know preaching, and preaching perhaps is not your first love or first gift, but let me tell you, you are preaching an incredible sermon with your life. These 44 years, I mean, that's just a little bit we're talking about today. What an incredible sermon. So, uh everybody, we've had the privilege of being with Chaplain Susan Bishop uh at the Lee Arendale Prison. Thank you.

Chaplain Bishop 33:09

You're so welcome. Thank you for having me.