ONE HUNDRED AND COUNTING

Friends,

It started with one church and one person coming home from prison.

That was the whole idea—simple enough to fit in a name: One Parish. One Prisoner.

In June, that simple idea reached an extraordinary milestone: Washington state launched its 100th OPOP team. OPOP now has 119 teams overall, with communities rooted in Illinois, Texas, Kentucky, and as far as Edmonton, Alberta.

In July, OPOP will welcome its first teams in Colorado and D.C..

The first team launched with Sam and Bayview Methodist Church. Soon came Joe-Ray with Mount Vernon Presbyterian, then Diego with St. Joe's in Seattle. Three people walking out of prison into something they hadn't expected: a community that already knew their name.

That was the prototype. The proof that this could work.

But the prototype wasn't just proving that people coming home from prison could find belonging. It was proving something else, too: that churches could be transformed through relationships they never expected to have. Here are some photos from the early days of OPOP.

Clesont Mitchell, a member of our 100th team in Washington, said it plainly just days after his team's kickoff:

"My transformation has started."

He wasn't talking about the person his team was paired with. He was talking about himself. As he reflected on the experience, Clesont realized that incarcerated people had been missing from his own advocacy work—and that this relationship was already changing the way he understood his faith, his community, and his calling.

“As I was reviewing my material for an Anti-Racism event, I realized that when I listed impacted marginalized communities, I had not included incarcerated people. It is a blind side by omission that we so often overlook. I stand corrected now."

Washington’s 100th OPOP team: St. Marks Lutheran Church by the Narrows in Tacoma

Across those 119 teams, nearly 1,000 people have built real relationships with people returning from prison. Thousands more in those same congregations have prayed, fundraised, written letters, prepared meals, and welcomed people home.

We've watched teams travel to visit a friend who was deported to Mexico. Entire congregations have filled courtrooms—not because anyone asked them to, but because that's what belonging looks like. We've seen driver's licenses renewed, legal financial obligations paid off, housing found, and jobs started.

The most remarkable stories aren't only about the people coming home. They're about the churches that discovered they, too, were being changed.

OPOP team visits their friend in Mexico.

There is a line in the Nicene Creed—one of the oldest statements of the Christian faith—that says, "I look for the resurrection of the dead." At Underground Ministries, we think that's something you can practice.

Every OPOP team begins with someone saying yes to a relationship. Along the way, people returning from prison discover they are not alone. Church members discover neighbors they never knew they had. And together, they begin practicing resurrection. One relationship at a time, one church, one person, one moment of choosing connection over distance.

We're not done.

In Washington alone, there are roughly 14,000 people incarcerated. Across the United States, that number approaches 2 million. The need is vast, and the movement is growing.

This summer, new teams will be launching in Colorado, Washington D.C., and here in Washington.

If your church hasn’t said yes yet, we'd love to talk.

Thank you to each of you who have supported this work along the way. Every one of those 119 teams exists because people like you believed this kind of transformation was possible.

It still begins the same way it always has.

One parish.

One person.

One yes at a time.

Dexter Kearny

Program Manager
One Parish One Prisoner