Summer 2011


Jubilee: "Willing to Do the Work that Others Pass By"

Thirty Diocesan Jubilee Officers (DJO) and other friends of Jubilee Ministry gathered at Cathedral Domain camp and conference center in Kentucky, July 6-9, for three days of service, networking, idea-sharing and grounding in the theology of Jubilee.

“The work of ministry in the church is happening mostly in obscure, dark places that most people don’t see,” said the Rev. Chris Johnson, Social and Economic Justice Officer for the Episcopal Church, explaining why the gathering was held where it was - a site far removed from population centers - and why one full day was dedicated to laboring among the people of Appalachia. “Yet that is as important to the church as what happens in high-visibility public places. I am intentional about wanting us to take on some hardship to get somewhere. I want the church to know that Jubilee Ministry is willing to do the work that others may pass by because it’s hard and unnoticed.”

Read a full account of the activities at the DJO gathering here...

Breaking the Cycle: Camps for Children of the Incarcerated Help a Hidden Population Heal

 

Sometime in the last decade, Episcopalians began to notice they were missing an important factor in criminal-justice reform – the children.


“Children of parents in prison are invisible,” said a U. S. Senate report. “No government entity is responsible for them.” There are 2.5 million children of incarcerated parents in this country; 1 in 7 children have a parent in prison, on probation or parole and in most cases they are a “hidden population,” says the sponsor of The Prisoner’s Family Conference of 2012.

Read more about the Episcopal Church's effort to reach out to children of incarcerated parents here...

 

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Jubilee Ministry Funds a Dozen Summertime Camps for Children with Imprisoned Parents...

This summer, Jubilee Ministry provided $1,000 grants to a dozen different church-sponsored camps for children with incarcerated parents.

“These are fantastic kids if you get to know them,” said the Rev. Chuck Lane, deacon at Trinity Episcopal Church in Waterloo, Iowa, and director of Camp Hope in Iowa. “They’ve lived through a lot of things most of us don’t see. For some of them, seeing someone getting stabbed in their front yard is normal. We just help them deal with their frustration and anger, and help them move on.”

To find out which camps for children of the incarcerated won Jubilee Ministry grants this year, and how they're spending the money, click here...

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...and Nearly a Dozen Reading Camps to Promote Literacy, Stem Children's Summer Learning Loss

It’s been almost a decade since the diocese of Lexington launched its first summer reading camp in 2002, and since then, the concept has spread to dioceses across the country.

Eleven such church-sponsored summer reading camps received $1,000 Jubilee Ministry grants this year, and the church hopes to fund even more such camps next summer.

Meanwhile, the original in Kentucky has now evolved into six separate week-long camps, two residential and four day-camps, all serving children who struggle with poverty and the associated impact that has on their schooling.

Read more about how Lexington's good idea has spread to diocese across the country, and find out which camps got Jubilee Ministry grants this year...


Advocacy: How One Jubilee Ministry Hopes to Create a Model for Use of Surplus Buildings

 

Four decades ago across the nation,  states began closing their mental hospitals,  sending patients to community programs, and leaving  behind large, tree-shaded campuses with empty brick buildings.


Some became college annexes; some became hospital expansions.  But others have stood empty, their roofs caving in, broken windows gaping, and historians saddened by the deterioration. That is the situation in Maryland, at the site of the Crownsville State Hospital, originally built for the “Negro Insane” in 1910.  Sitting on over 500 acres are 66 buildings – some of them considered by a local historic trust worth permanent protection.


The state wants a developer to purchase it for real-estate tax revenue; the community fears traffic congestion and destruction of the rural landscape.  But a group of nonprofits have a vision for a “Village of Health, Healing and Hope” – a one-stop shopping center for community members, veterans and ex-offenders seeking help,  along with recreational facilities.

Read how one Jubilee Ministry, the Prison Ministry Task Force of the Diocese of Maryland, is advocating on behalf of those released from prison...

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Jubilee Ministry Grant Applications are Sought, First Round Deadlines Set for Oct. 1

 

The Office of Social and Economic Justice is pleased to announce Jubilee Ministry grant funding opportunities for the remainder of this year and the first half of 2012.

Applications for Diocesan Initiative grants and Health and Nutrition grants will be due by Oct. 1. Applications for funding Asset-Based Community Development workshops and summer camp programs will be due by Dec. 30. Application forms for all grant requests can be found online by clicking here.  To learn more about these grants, how past winners have used the money, and ideas for partnerships and projects, click here. 

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On the Jubilee Calendar

Set My People Free: Finding Life and Health in Appalachia

Sept. 9-10, St. John's Episcopal Church, Huntington, West Virginia

 

This conference brings together powerful Exodus stories from our own time, showing how Christian leaders and congregations are combining faith, hope, and hard work to help their communities break free of the pressures that enslave many in Appalachia today:  addiction, post-traumatic stress, the huge challenges facing ex-offenders, and the low expectations that entrap our youth

 

Everyone Everywhere 2011

Oct. 13-16, Estes Park, Colorado

 

A conference for individuals, dioceses, congregations, and groups active in the global and domestic mission of the Episcopal Church.

 

 




Jubilee Ministry in the News

"Reunion after ICE Raid ," a story in the Ellensburg, Washington, Daily Record, featuring Dianne Aid, a member of the national Jubilee Executive Advisory Committee.

 

" Procession celebrates unity as new Naco clinic is dedicated," a feature in the Sierra Vista (Arizona) Herald on the Naco Clinic, a new wellness clinic in Naco, Sonora, Mexico, one of our newest Jubilee Ministries.

 

" Episcopal Migration Ministries celebrates a legacy of welcome at Tucson conference," an Episcopal News Service story on EMM's annual conference in Tucson, Arizona.

 

"New Bethany Ministries celebrates 25 years of serving the poor in Bethlehem, "an article from the Express Times in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley. 

 

 

 

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Rooted in Worship: 'Beans and Rice' Ministry Feeds the Hungry While It Grows a Church

 

Little did the Rev. Bill King, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Clanton, Alabama, know that six years after launching a simple "Beans and Rice" ministry at his church, a dozen Alabama parishes would follow suit. 

In 2005, King didn't realize Alabama had the nation's highest percentage of "food insecure" families. And he certainly never thought it possible that Trinity, a parish of just 35 members, would eventually be spending 10 percent of its annual budget to provide seven and a half tons of food to the needy. Nor could he have foreseen how Trinity would double in size since becoming known as Clanton's "Beans and Rice Church." 

"I am more and more convinced that Trinity, Clanton, is a growing congregation because the parish operates out of a theology of abundance and sharing rather than that of scarcity and sharing," King says. 

Read more about the "Beans and Rice" ministry in Alabama...





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