Photo By Christopher Wilson | Soldiers, families and civilians alike packed the ballroom at Fort Sill’s Patriot...... read more read more
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FORT SILL, Oklahoma (April 6, 2022) — In her National Prayer Breakfast Message, Rev. Dr. Angela Gorrell, spoke of her discovery of joy in a truly unexpected place — a Bible study group of incarcerated women.
Gorell, an assistant professor of Practical Theology at the George W. Truett Theological Seminary, spoke before a packed room April 6 at the Patriot Club.
In 2016, Gorell was working on the “Theology of Joy Project” at Yale University when, in the space of four weeks, she lost three family members — one to suicide at age 30, a 22-year-old nephew who died of cardiac arrest and her father died of organ failure due to opioid.
“I spoke at all three of their funerals,” said Gorell. “I found myself back at Yale, trying to study joy and thinking, ‘Wow, this is really shallow work in a world that’s suffering.’ For more than a year, I really struggled to find my work relevant in a world that was suffering.”
To help cope with the loss, Gorell, at the invitation of a friend from her church, became a volunteer chaplain at a women’s prison.
“For a year, almost every Wednesday night, I met with these women. Some were on suicide watch. Most were in prison for substance use related issues,” Gorell said. “In that room in the prison, I began to see what joy was. In that room, there was no shame. These women humanized one another. There was lament, there was hope, there was rejoicing. There was a search for meaning. There was an honesty about anger, about fear. It changed my whole life.”
One night, while singing, Gorell saw freedom happen for the convicted women.
“We were singing ‘This Little Light of Mine’ really passionately. Normally, the lyrics are, ‘This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine,’” Gorell said. “That night, somebody added, ‘all up in this place, I’m going to let it shine.’ We started to make up our own lines. The more that we did this, the freer we got with the song. One night we were literally dancing. Everyone was jumping up and down and singing loudly and clapping. One of the women used the window seal as a drum, to create a rhythm line. There were tears and laughing. It was so loud that one of the corrections officers came into the room. I got nervous because sometimes the corrections officers would shut the meeting down for any number of reasons. Instead, she started joining us, clapping and singing. When we finished, she said, ‘Wow, there is some joy in this room tonight.’”
For Gorell, the moment represented how, even in the middle of really difficult circumstances, people can somehow rejoice together and “freedom can happen against the odds.”
Gorell finished her commentary with a with words encouraging everyone to find joy in all the connections made with others and in every-day moments.
“There's joy in the very presence of God ministering to us,” said Gorrell. “Joy can always, always find us. The next time that you notice a glimmer of a firefly a full moon; a child laughing uncontrollably; a table surrounded by people you love; a pet that greets you warmly a song that has meaning to you; a spontaneous, kind gesture; or a meeting at the airport — take those moments and allow God to minister to you.”
The annual inspirational commemoration was hosted by Maj. Gen. Ken Kamper, Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill commanding general, and sponsored by the Installation Chaplains Office.
Gorell, is the author of “Always On: Practicing Faith in a New Media Landscape,” which addresses the perils and possibilities of Christian faith in an era of massive technological change. She also is writing a book that addresses suicide and opioid addiction and describes joy as the counteragent to despair.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in youth ministry from Azusa Pacific University and an M.Div. and Ph.D. from Fuller Theological Seminary. She came to Baylor from the Yale Center for Faith and Culture at Yale Divinity School, where she developed relationships with more than 250 scholars from roughly 150 institutions on four continents while managing metrics and evaluation for “Theology of Joy Project.” She has more than 14 years of experience in congregational and parachurch ministry, including serving as a chaplain at a women’s maximum-security prison.
| Date Taken: | 04.06.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 04.07.2022 11:23 |
| Story ID: | 418034 |
| Location: | FORT SILL, OKLAHOMA, US |
| Web Views: | 100 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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