Kerk binnen de muren. Liturgie in justitiële inrichtingen, geïllustreerd aan acht Paasdiensten

Abstract

Church within walls: Liturgy in penitentiary institutions illustrated from eight Easter services. This article deals with the question how the church service is related to the specific context of penitentiary institutions. The title not only refers to the penitentiary institution but also indicates a programmatic and methodological change of perspective: the perspective from outside is treated as the perspective from inside in the sense that ‘church’ is searched for in a specific situation and not in the regular congregation or parish. After an introduction, the presentation of the question and a description of the method (1), we describe the field of research (2). Subsequently we provide a systematic survey of literature related to ritual acting in penitentiary institutions (3). In more detail we discuss the liturgisch werkboek voor justitiepastores (4). We found that rituality is always seen as a therapeutical element and as a coping strategy, that functions for canalizing and relief. Research into eight concrete Easter services in penitentiary institutions confirms the ‘theory’ we found. The services were researched from emperical, hermeneutical and strategical perspectives. Our research confirmed also our assumption that the sermon has no goal in itself apart from the whole liturgy, but is integrated in it. The minister has a therepeutical and symbolical role; he or she relates the symbolical environment of the prison and Scripture to the way in which inmates experience these environments and appropriate them, while at the same time persuing therepeutical aims. We did not do any research among the inmates themselves.