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Jubilee We are proud to be a Jubilee Congregation. Jubilee is an alliance of religious denominations and faith communities, human rights, environmental, labor, and community groups working for the definitive cancellation of crushing debts to fight poverty and injustice in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Hence, this freeing from such bondange is reminiciscent of the Biblical understanding of "jubilee" in which slaves were set free, debts forgiven, and the earth restored. Debt cancellation allows impoverished countries to channel their resources into meeting basic needs, such as shelter, health care, and education.
• Jubilee congregations dedicate one Sunday a year to promote awareness of Jubilee goals and to take a free-will
offering in support of this nonprofit organization. Why
are faith communities important to the Jubilee movement? When people of faith join together for a holy purpose, rooted in our scriptures, we can turn the tides of economic injustice, challenge harmful policies, and advance a prophetic vision of fairness, equality, and hope for the world’s poor. The
Vision For many reasons, it feels as if it is midnight in our time. War, the AIDS epidemic,
the rising cost of food, instability, and poverty rage globally, fed by the scandalous inequalities that create a rift between
us and our brothers and sisters in the Global South. Yet is was Martin Luther King Jr. who called attention to the fact that
it is in the midnight sky that the stars shine the brightest. Ours in the blessing and the challenge to be stars that shine
bright through the midnight, bearing witness to God’s vision of a transformed world. When people of faith join together for a holy purpose, rooted in our scriptures, we can turn the tides
of economic injustice, challenge harmful policies and advance a prophetic vision of right relationships among nations, fairness,
equality and hope for world’s poor. People of faith have been at the heart of many major social movement in U.S. history; the abolition,
woman’s suffrage, civil rights, peace and other movements have been sustained by people of faith. By participating in
the jubilee movement, our congregation joins the ranks of many who have faithfully struggled for and won social change. The
Judeo-Christian tradition teaches us where people lack vision they ultimately perish. Our brothers and sisters are perishing
under the crushing weight of international debt payments to wealth creditors. The vision of Jubilee calls for the building of right relationships between communities, peoples
and nations. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. captured the essence of Jubilee best when he said, “We are caught in
an inescapable garment of destiny. Injustice anywhere represents a threat to justice everywhere.” In our world today
international cooperation builds true security while the crisis of debt breeds instability, hopelessness and unnecessary suffering. We know debt cancellation works
It is up to us to generate the political will needed to achieve this life-affirming
goal. Movements turn the impossible into the inevitable. Ten years ago many economists. Politicians and development specials
argued that cancelling the debts of impoverished nations was an impossible task given the entrenched nature of the debt and
the lack of public awareness and engagement around the issue. The rising wave of people of faith contacting our elected leaders,
education the media, and reaching out to other in our communities has put this crisis on the national agenda. The power to create change
is in all of our hands. Only a world that is free from want and need can be world of true security for all. To join us in the fight to save lives and restore hope, contact your Jubilee Congregational Coordinator: Gail Winterbourne at 760-753-2471 To learn more
about Jubilee USA: “Injustice anywhere represents a threat to justice everywhere.” —Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. |
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