Zooming into the San Diego Jubilee Circle Meeting
The big zoom into the July San Diego/U.S. Jubilee Circle happened when Lindsey zoomed in from San Cristobal, Mexico. Lindsey Mercer-Robledo is part of the San Cristobal Jubilee Circle and a JEM board member. It was great to get updates from her on Jubilee ministries in Chiapas following the complete shutdown because of Covid in March of 2020. Limited reopening, with mask protocols, began six months later, in October.
The San Cristobal Circle models well how a Jubilee Circle can organize around the Divine Calls of respective participants. Each Call is different; and each gets supported by the others.
Lindsey
Lindsey and her spouse, Isai Robledo, founded Alter-Nativas as an expression of their Call. Alter-Nativas connects people with the land, growing healthy food and healthy soil. Produce grown through low-intensive agriculture/horticulture yields some income for households. Every week over 100 people are in Isai’s and Lindsey’s home for workshops and more. Wonderful as it is, it’s also taxing to share their home with so many.
Gloria Gonzalez founded Na’Xajobal through which she works with women to become aware of their power—the power of citizenship, their power as a woman, and the power of their productivity. They exercise that power by learning to be effective agents of change in their communities. Recently a woman ran for political office. They are excited about what they can do. They bring about political and economic changes they never imagined they could.
Pedro Robledo trains leadership for congregations, especially underserved ones, through the Yobel School. Pedro recently received a Ph.D. from the University of South Africa. Many congregations in southern Mexico are not served by people with higher education. So Yobel fills an important niche. As a non-campus school, Yobel itinerates to various regions where it collaborates with other institutions to bring excellent teachers in to lead seminars for several days. It allows attendees to maintain their jobs while being better equipped to fulfill their calls to serve congregants. Training includes social analysis, environmental justice, ecological sustainability, as well as theology and Bible.
Currently, the Jubilee ministries in San Cristobal have no facility other than homes, restaurants, and open spaces. Rent cost for a place from which all three—Alter-Nativas, Na’Xajobal, Yobel—could operate, range from $350-650/month, depending on location. To buy a facility outright would be at least $200,000. It’s a sum that’s practically beyond dreaming. Or is it?
Many Congregations and Nonprofits Want Solar, But Obstacles Prevent Them–But Here’s a Way That Might Work
Matt Brennan is an advocate for congregations and nonprofits so that installing solar power becomes doable. Increasingly, nonprofits and congregations believe their values require them to change to clean, solar energy. They recognize the rapidly cascading dramas of climate change—a crescendoing toll of weather extremes, floods, wildfires, droughts, water scarcity, fishing collapse, starvation, warfare, and more. Urgency is quickly replacing the notion that solar would be fine if we could do it.
So OneEarth Jubilee and Simple Living Works! collaborated on a podcast episode featuring Matt Brennan. He’s VP of sales with CollectiveSun, a company that helps congregations and nonprofits switch to solar.
Matt is a solar installation expert with experience in both residential and commercial projects. In addition to being a talented entrepreneur, he has a strong engineering and technical background. His experience includes founding SanDiegoSolarPower.com, a solar sales and procurement company with extensive market reach. Prior to SanDiegoSolarPower.com, he worked as an industrial engineer for a network equipment manufacturer, a sales engineer for electronic equipment manufacturers and an operations manager for an industry-leading mechanical engineering magazine. Now, with CollectiveSun, his focus is entirely on congregations and nonprofits.
A few days after Matt was interviewed for the Simpler OneEarth Living Podcast, JEM’s director, John Michno, was instrumental in connecting Matt with the Catholic Diocese of San Diego. The meeting bore immediate results. Fr. Emmet Farrell knows particular parishes where the approach outlined in the podcast could really help. Simultaneously, the approach frees up money for mission and other parish needs.
Join in the OneEarth Jubilee Covenant
Know that others are with you when you take this action
Footprint—Given that 2030 is the date by which our lives and societies need to be reshaped to fit our planet, I will calculate the ecological footprint of my household through an online calculator (e.g., Nature Conservancy or Global Ecological Footprint) and take every step I can to reduce its size to fit our one planet. Recognizing we are part of nature, I will offset the impact of my household and participate in tree planting projects and other projects that ally with nature’s resilient ways.
From the OneEarth Jubilee Network
Hello Friends at JEM,
Just read with interest your latest newsletter. Some of the profit from my part-time practice goes into our P/T (Projects and Travel) account, allowing us to do special things. That account funded a remodel of our kitchen that cost a lot more than $1500. We’d be excited to use some of that account to upgrade another kitchen—this time in San Mateo, Mexico. It will take a few days to access the funds, but know that very soon a check for $1500 will be on its way. We’d love to see a couple before and after photos, if that’s possible. —Laurel and Tom
June 16, 2021
Nice to hear about the Jubilee Economics groups gathering! Thank you for this key work in our times. —Rick Zemlin
