Volume 29, No.47                                         
December 5, 2004

The Pen and the Message

     From the outside, Canada’s oldest prison looks looks cold and imposing with limestone walls, rounded windows and grey rooves.  It’s only when you see Kingston Penitentiary from above that its purpose and approach take on a whole new meaning.

   First, some background. Until the end of the 1700s, most offenders were held in local jails, which were often little more than a dank, dark cellar.  Sentences were harsh.  A first-time thief could be branded with a T then go to the gallows for a second offence.  Debtors who couldn’t pay up were shut up in will-sapping workhouses.   

   While death was still the penalty for a shockingly high number of crimes, whippings and deportation were gradually replaced by jail time as reformers like John Howard convinced society offenders needn’t be scarred, maimed or executed. A second shift took place in 1787 when Englishman Jeremy Bentham designed a precedent-setting prison with cells circling a central observation tower.  Eastern Penitentiary in Pennsylvania copied the concept but arranged the cells so prisoners couldn’t make eye contact.  By the early 1800s, inmates were allowed to eat and work together, but they couldn’t talk or even gesture to one another. At night they were housed in individual cells.

   Against that backdrop, Kingston Penitentiary opened in June 1835 with six inmates, 32 years before Canada became a country.  For a century, men and women were kept in segregation within its walls.  Children as young as eight were also confined there in the early days.

   Like all prisons, Kingston was about punishment, justice and the
protection of innocent people. But, from the beginning, it was meant to be so much more. Fly over the penitentiary and you can still see the key.  The original buildings were laid out in the shape of the Cross, signifying the prison’s true purpose:  redemption.

   "A penitentiary, as its name imparts, should be a place to lead a man to repent of his sins and amend his life," said one politician.  J.C. Loudon added that, "The expression of the purpose for which every building is erected... should be obvious from its architecture."

   At Kingston, it was.  The harmony and order reflected in its features were designed to calm those inside.  The Cross was meant to convey hope and the promise of reconciliation.  Even if things didn’t always work out that way, the ideal was real.

   And so it was when our Father designed the church.  In 1 Corinthians 3:9, all of us together are described as “God’s building.”  Our purpose, too, should be obvious from our architecture.  Not the architecture seen in the lines and features of where we meet, but in the love and faith of why we meet. Yet, many people see only the walls and not the Cross at the heart of who we are.

   When the Architect laid out the blueprint for his church, the walls were meant only to keep out evil.  Yes, the church is full of offenders but each of us enters through the Door willingly and we’re free to go at any time. Though we’re guilty of sin — all of us under the same sentence — the church is not a place of punishment, but of repentance and pardon. “God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty,” says Paul.  “He’s done this through Christ who’s freed us by taking away our sins.  For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and satisfy God’s anger against us.  We’re made right with God when we believe Jesus shed his blood... for us.” (Romans 3:24,25)

   Though we deserve the death penalty, the Judge gives us life. The Cross really is at the centre of everything.  In a world where sin still scars, maims and kills, it offers refuge and reconciliation, harmony and hope. But reform isn’t finished.  It’s time for all us of to come out of our cells and eat, work and worship together with the passion and appreciation that comes with pardon.  If we show people a God’s-eye-view of the church, the Cross will be clearly seen.

By Rick Gamble, published in Cross Current, the weekly newsletter of the Followers of Christ church family in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.  Reprint at will in not-for-profit publications.  To receive these free weekly articles via email, send a note to sgamble@bfree.on.ca