St. John's Episcopal Church

When a woman is released from prison, she has has the clothes on her back and a small stipend for transportation. This ministry provides a backpack filled with the basics for personal care, food and a hand-written note from a member of the community. This ministry of compassion began with grant support. Under the leadership of Mary Link and in partnership with Grace, Amherst, St. John’s continues to welcome and spiritually support women released from the Western Massachusetts Regional Women’s Correctional Center in Chicopee and the Franklin county House of Correction in Greenfield.

We're curious about how God is present to parents in the everyday, what they’ve learned of God through their children, how divine love informs the experience of parenting. We invite your participation in facilitated conversations for parents of children 12 and under in Ashfield and surrounding areas. Kids are encourage to come and enjoy our play area while the grown-up talk about the divine Love we know in parenting.

https://www.stjohnsashfield.org/the-spiritual-parent/ 

Over the years St. John’s has been the venue for many poetry readings, as well as other presentations.  Richard Wilbur, Galway Kinnell, Sharon Olds, Ruth Stone, Martín Espada, and Aracelis Girmay have all read in our sanctuary.  In 2010, following the death of a beloved parishioner, Ann Hutt Browning, Mark Zenick of Shropshire, England, an old friend of St. John’s, proposed that we begin a Poetry Series in her honor.  This was accomplished in the spring of 2010, with Richard Wilbur reading, and included a poetry contest for young people, which, each year, has gained more and more entries. 

Sacred Ground is a brilliant eleven-week program of readings and videos, designed to open our hearts, minds, and souls to the legacy of racism that we all own.