In Memoriam: School of Restorative Arts

North Park Theological Seminary (NPTS) enrolls over 80 students through the School of Restorative Arts (SRA) at Stateville Correctional Center. We welcome all applicants that come to us through our partnership with the Illinois Department of Corrections. The degree is for servant leaders interested in seminary-level theological training who desire to do restorative justice ministry in contexts that are susceptible to conflict or violence.

NPTS is committed to giving witness to the radical nature of Christ’s reconciling love in the lives of all our students. Some stories force  us to confront the brokenness of our criminal justice system. Others empower us to embrace the justice work in our mission as a Christian institution of higher learning. Still others challenge us to the limits of our faith and the redemptive power of the gospel.

All of our incarcerated students have suffered trauma, and many have contributed to violence. North Park does not condone violence in any form and maintains a commitment to the power of the gospel to transform  lives and systems.

We devote this space on NPTS’s Nyvall News & Notes to commemorate the life and the work of our incarcerated students who have died.

Joseph Tremaine Wilson

October 24, 1975 – April 13, 2020

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.

Philippians 2:1-5

Joseph Tremaine Wilson, whose Sankofa name was Big Fella, joined the communion of saints on Easter Monday. He is survived by his wife Deborah, daughter, family, and many friends inside Stateville. Joseph was beloved member of the School of Restorative Arts and a first year Master’s student. He was also an accomplished artist and poet. He loved the writings and work of Angela Davis! His road map for life was “Putting others above Thyself.” He did this in all things and truly lived a life of significance and service.

Big Fella wrote, “What makes me is my family, the smiles of life, and to being able to trust my new North Park family. I love life, and I dedicate mine to fighting for others!” He did not, in his own words, know how to sit down – he wanted to be there for others. He wanted to be in the program so he could be a light that beckoned others to be a caring community and one of his greatest passions was listening to others. Fellow students inside the prison said he was always present to others, joyful, and a good friend to many.

Reverend Lance Davis says that he remembers Big Fella for his art and his EMOJI pictures, and Prof. Mary Veeneman celebrates the many ways that he embodied the ministry of reconciliation. Yet another professor, Andrew McKenna, writes, “I always call him Big Joe….He was a light in my life as I am sure he was—and remains—in the lives of others.” All knew him as a source of joy despite the difficult conditions in prison. His death is the second among the North Park incarcerated student body. It makes visible the vulnerable health situation of our incarcerated populations and the need for creative solutions to decarceration.

Upon news of Joseph’s death, letters of grief and condolences came in from students, faculty, and staff representing Northwestern’s Prison Education Program, Prison+Neighborhood Arts, University without Walls, and the Evangelical Covenant Church. Joseph was an engaged, community-minded person, and his life clearly had positive impact on so many. He will be deeply missed!

Ronald Rice

January 18, 1954 – April 5, 2020

 From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,  not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

II Corinthians 5:16-21

Ronald “Rusty” Rice,  a beloved child of God and a cherished member of the School of Restorative Arts communion, died early on the morning of Palm Sunday, April 5, 2020. Rusty was a second-year student, an up and coming Writing Advisor, and a member of the performance arts cohort. He completed his Foundations Certificate and Certificate in Restorative Arts. He was well-regarded by faculty, staff, and students alike.

Classmates and professors describe him as a joy to be around. “His wit, class contributions, and cheerful spirit among much more will be missed, ” says SRA student Lydia Vander Stelt. Church history professor Ken Sawyer says, “He was a gift and a joy to know. I celebrate his life.” Seminary student Tiana Coleman and other faculty emphasized Rusty’s enthusiastic desire to help others with their writing and classwork.

One of the outcomes of the School of Restorative Arts is that our students own their stories and work toward personal healing. Ultimately, our graduates contribute to the restorative work that the gospel requires. This work is easy for no one,  especially those who must engage the depths of their own brokenness.

As a member of [re]story, an SRA extracurricular cohort that focuses on redemptive storytelling, Rusty was an active and willing participant in God’s transformative work, both in his life and in the lives of others. Rusty knew he would never get out of prison, yet he wanted to make a positive impact on the lives of others. Through engaging his own story, Rusty helped his community embrace God’s radical and scandalous love and grace for us all.

Seminary student Carri Stevens was a part of this cohort. “Rusty and I first met in the Arts Cohort, where we became friends through sharing some of the most difficult moments of our lives. In some ways our stories were inversions of each other, and we both found a great deal of healing from being together as friends, classmates, and imperfect, beautiful creations of God. I can only imagine that he is now greeting Jesus with the same joy and exuberance I saw in our time together.”

Because NPTS is committed to giving witness to the transformative power of the gospel, we conclude this tribute with the challenge of Rusty’s own words, which he granted permission to share prior to his passing:

“Yes/And…”

I began to realize that God didn’t want me to destroy myself. He loved me, yes, AND he wanted me to repent so that I could be forgiven and I had to accept that. God didn’t hate me, no matter how much I hated myself. I read the stories of the Bible of people like Moses, David, Saul. God was willing to forgive their sins of rape and murder because they repented. Am I any different? Could I be forgiven? Yes, AND God allowed the consequences of my sins so that I could learn from them. I’ve seen this as an act of love from a great and wonderful God.

In seeing God’s love for me AND God’s desire for me to repent, stop sinning, and change I began to see my victims through a completely different set of eyes. Instead of looking at them through my selfish point of view, through my self-loathing and my toxic shame, the more I was able to see the harm I had done. I came to really understand my therapy group’s motto: “It’s not about us anymore.”

I went back and re-wrote the story of my crime from my victim’s perspective, then from their parent’s perspective, and then again from their sibling’s perspective, and even again from the perspective of their unborn siblings who never got to meet them. Each time I rewrote the story, I resisted feeling sorry for myself. It hurt terribly to revisit what I had done, but I felt that I owed it to them.

I could not have done any of this without God. Only God could open my heart to see things in a new way. Yes, I still have moments when I fall back into the trap of self-loathing and self-focus, asking “Oh God, what have I done?!” AND I continue to hold onto God’s love which helps me to think of how others think and feel. A mother who came to our therapy group [to give witness to victims]  remains one of the most courageous persons I have ever met. She faced her worst nightmare [with us and shared about] the atrocity done to her little girl. Any one of us could have been the one to have committed that atrocity, yes, AND she came still – not to condemn but to help us see how important it is to change, that we could change and say, “no more victims.” She helped us to see God’s possibility of “Yes, and…”

The SRA community at Stateville is sacred, challenging, inclusive and beloved. Rusty’s story is difficult on many levels  Yet, our incarcerated North Park students are known for making conscious choices to embody the ministry of reconciliation and to love each other as brothers. In a space where trust and vulnerability are liabilities, they have learned to be in communion with one another and to cultivate a faithful space where everyone is worthy of redemption, no matter who they are or what they have done.

Those of us on the outside of the walls have much to learn from this scandalous, beloved community.

From Students, Faculty, and Staff of the SRA

Photos by Karl Clifton-Soderstrom