The Partakers Seminarian Program
My participation in Partakers…has been an invaluable part of my time at Seminary…
- Partakers Seminarian Mentor
What Is The Seminarian Program?
The Partakers College Behind Bars Seminarian Program provides mentoring by seminarian students from the greater Boston area. We are proud to partner with Harvard Divinity School, Boston University School of Theology, and Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. Through our College Behind Bars Programs, each student is paired with a team of mentors who visit and correspond regularly. Expectations for the student-mentor relationship are clearly defined in a covenant that is signed by the student and each mentor on the team. These rich relationships flourish providing both students and mentors a transformative experience impacting expectations, understanding, learning, and a sense of self, all while bridging communities.
For over two decades, seminarian students have had the privilege of accompanying men behind bars in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in connection with Partakers. They have witnessed these men move from death to life as they liberate their minds and souls through the discipline of study. They have witnessed the great deepening of those students’ commitment to social justice through their personal relationships with their incarcerated mentees, men who have often become their most cherished, influential teachers during their years of graduate study at divinity schools - often even beyond their favorite professors. Through those connections, seminarian students have become to understand in their bones the consequences of living in a carceral state and ethical demands on them as ministers, rabbis, priests, scholars, and activists.
~Kerry A. Maloney Chaplain, Director Of Religious And Spiritual Life Harvard Divinity School