New Hope House: Joy in Service to Georgia’s Death Row Prisoners and Their Families
I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.
–Rabindranath Tagore
In the 1980s death row was quickly expanding in Georgia, so members of the Open Door Community, Koinonia Farm and Jubilee Partners got together to decide how to address the needs of those impacted by capital punishment in Georgia. In 1988 a guesthouse for death row families was founded on a dirt road, deep in the woods, just 4 miles from Georgia’s death row. Ed and MaryRuth Weir were the first people to come to live at New Hope House; Bill and Lora Shain joined them in 1989.
In 1990 the Weirs and Shains started going to death penalty trials after a defendant’s mother told them how important it was to her to be able to sit with someone who didn’t want her son to be executed. There were so many capital trials happening in Georgia at that time, the couples would often have to split up to attend multiple trials at once.
Bill Shain died in 1999 and MaryRuth Weir died in 2006. In 2009 Lora Shain and Ed Weir got married and they lived at New Hope House with Joseph and Suzanne Shippen, who had arrived in 2008. The Shippens departed in 2012 and in 2016, Mary Catherine Johnson arrived. Mary Catherine now directs the ministry, following the death of Ed Weir in 2017 and Lora Weir’s retirement that same year.
–Rabindranath Tagore
In the 1980s death row was quickly expanding in Georgia, so members of the Open Door Community, Koinonia Farm and Jubilee Partners got together to decide how to address the needs of those impacted by capital punishment in Georgia. In 1988 a guesthouse for death row families was founded on a dirt road, deep in the woods, just 4 miles from Georgia’s death row. Ed and MaryRuth Weir were the first people to come to live at New Hope House; Bill and Lora Shain joined them in 1989.
In 1990 the Weirs and Shains started going to death penalty trials after a defendant’s mother told them how important it was to her to be able to sit with someone who didn’t want her son to be executed. There were so many capital trials happening in Georgia at that time, the couples would often have to split up to attend multiple trials at once.
Bill Shain died in 1999 and MaryRuth Weir died in 2006. In 2009 Lora Shain and Ed Weir got married and they lived at New Hope House with Joseph and Suzanne Shippen, who had arrived in 2008. The Shippens departed in 2012 and in 2016, Mary Catherine Johnson arrived. Mary Catherine now directs the ministry, following the death of Ed Weir in 2017 and Lora Weir’s retirement that same year.
MaryRuth Weir, Ed Weir, Lora Shain, Bill Shain
(left to right) |
Joseph Shippen, Suzanne Hobby-Shippen, Lora and Ed Weir
(left to right) |
Ed and Lora Weir
|