From the outside, there isn’t much a prison facility shares in common with an Orthodox Church. But for Subdeacon Herman (Almasy), these two places have always been closely connected.
From his conversion to the Orthodox Church in 2010, Sdn. Herman has been volunteering in prisons. His parish priest was looking for volunteers, and he jumped right in. Soon, he says, “Prison ministry became an integral part of my becoming Orthodox, how I formed my mind to the Church.” Their parish hosted a regular Vespers service in the facility for several years. “Believe it or not,” he says, “that service—in the prison—was my favorite Orthodox service at the time. More than any service I attended inside a church.”
Years later, Herman’s heart for ministry was rekindled from watching an interview with OCPM’s Very Rev. Fr. John Kowalczyk. “I started praying and praying. God, what is my next step? What do you want me to do?” The very next morning Herman received an email introducing the new Certificate Program in Prison Ministry, in partnership with OCPM and St. Tikhon’s Seminary. Sdn. Herman applied immediately.
“The Certificate Program was a wonderful experience,” says Sdn. Herman. “I was thinking deeply about Orthodoxy again, about Orthodox evangelism. I had no idea there were 113 million adults in the United States with a direct family member incarcerated. I thought, ‘If I want to do Orthodox evangelism, there’s no better place to do it.’ Prison ministry is the best possible way to spread the Word of Christ.” Studying with Fr. John at the Certificate Program residency on the campus of St. Tikhon’s was a special mark of his discernment. “That really solidified everything,” Herman says. “I knew I was in the right place.”
After his formative year in the Certificate Program, Herman was once again ready to discern, and this time he felt a sense of culmination: something big was coming. Sdn. Herman cleared his schedule for months. “I was holding my certificate in my hands, asking God, again, ‘What’s next? What do you want me to do?’” After a round of what Herman calls “minor miracles”, starting a new parish prison ministry at the facility in Rockview, Pennsylvania, Sdn. Herman got his answer: God was calling him to seminary. He is now a part-time student in the MDiv program at St. Tikhon’s Seminary, and he is, God-willing, on the path to the priesthood.
All this from one initial, yes, to our brothers and sisters behind bars. “Prison ministry is life-changing,” says Sdn. Herman. “Honestly. These people have been written off completely, but they are so happy to see you. It makes you want to get back to the facility as fast as possible.” Sdn. Herman says there is no more immediately impactful place to minister to souls than behind bars, but it’s not just them being served. When he goes into prison, he goes to meet Christ. “We work toward salvation together,” he says. “I need them. They need me. We need each other.”
Visit theocpm.org/certificate to learn more about the Certificate Program in Prison Ministry.