“Chaplains can easily start feeling alone and cut off.”

Allen Macartney
Special to Spur Ottawa

After 31 years of prison chaplaincy ministry, Carl Wake has retired, but the most fruitful part of his ministry may only be starting. He is re-envisioning and working with a network of others to help energize Ontario’s prison chaplains and inmates.

“Working with inmates is both very fulfilling and hard,” he says. “Stress abounds. It includes everything from the threat of lawsuits by discontented inmates, to staff criticism about how inmates seem to get everything they want. Chaplains can easily start feeling alone and isolated—cut off.”

Combined with the ever-present tension of working in a detention centre, prison ministry can be grueling. In his retirement, Wake is shifting toward mentoring present and future chaplains so they will have the emotional and practical tools they need—he is essentially becoming a chaplain to prison chaplains.

Wake started working in prison ministry during seminary, in 1985. The classes involved work in two federal prisons, in Saskatchewan. Five years after graduating he was back in jail, this time as a part-time chaplain for a new Francophone Treatment Unit at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre.

“I was part of a team that offered one-month and three-month substance abuse courses to francophone inmates. I worked with a network of institutional staff, social workers, and community volunteers to achieve that incredibly complex task. It’s an incredibly-varied and intense job.”

“Other chaplains would find that so encouraging.”

With significant experience among the offenders and staff in eastern-Ontario’s prisons, Wake now plans to launch a YouTube channel. He hopes his content and other efforts achieve two goals: To support prison chaplains and volunteers involved in inmate aftercare, and to encourage faith communities to become active in prison ministry and aftercare.

“I’m hoping to organize a prayer tour for churches and interested volunteers,” Wake states. “Other chaplains would find that so encouraging. Also, working with my existing prison network, I want to identify the most pressing needs and find out how churches can supply those needs.”

Part of Wake’s vision is to provide introductory and advanced practical ideas for church groups wanting to get involved. Volunteers can serve in many ways, both spiritual and secular, whether it is volunteering for the literacy program, or with an existing spiritual program like Alpha. Churches can get involved with either inmates, or in after-care programs for those who have been released.

“Too many inmates reoffend and find themselves back in prison,” says Wake. “It’s a terrible cost to the country, as well as inmates and their families. So another area needing attention involves developing more restorative practices to help ex-inmates repair the harm they have done, and restore relationships that have been destroyed.”

The opportunities, Wake says, are exciting, with the main challenge being a lack of people to fulfil the work.

“Fulfilling the Great Commission in the area of prison ministry and inmate aftercare is an immense mission field. Today, we’re barely scratching the surface,” says Wake. “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are truly few.”