Call to Faith in 2022:
“Teach Jubilee in the Face of Climate Breakdown”
The following quotes are from The Guardian, August 5, 2022, in their report on their extensive analysis. The analysis conclusions are based on a review of hundreds of scientific documents—the most extensive such analysis to date.
“Gone are the days when global heating was in the future,” said Christiana Figueres, the former UN climate chief who delivered the 2015 Paris climate deal. “Human-induced heating is wrecking lives and livelihoods today. Every day of higher emissions increases human poverty and misery. Continuing on the path of rising emissions is senseless, selfish and avoidable.”
“The most striking single finding of the Guardian analysis of the attribution studies is the identification of at least a dozen major extreme events that would have been wildly improbable without human-caused global heating.”
JEM is announcing a series of one-hour, monthly “Jubilee Forums,” on the first Saturday of the month, STARTING SEPTEMBER 3, 2022, 9 am Pacific Daylight Time. The first Forum will be on “Jubilee and Climate Breakdown.” Seeing that Jesus framed his entire ministry on Jubilee, we will too. There is no charge. Send an email to lee@jubilee-economics.org or john@jubilee-economics.org to indicate you plan to attend. In return, we will send you a Zoom link to the Forum. All forums will focus on how to address the existential issues people are facing by living the OneEarth Jubilee worldview.
Update on Jubilee Ministry in Tapachula, Mexico,
Begun In January
by Edman Lopez, educator, activist, pastor, and JEM advisor
Once again it is a pleasure to greet you from the Chiapas coast. Our wish is that God continue to bless your lives and ministries wherever each one of you is. Once again we let you know the activities that our God has allowed us to carry out in these past months.
- We have had the blessing of accompanying different communities of faith and ministering to them in preaching, teaching the word, in the administration of the sacraments: holy supper and
baptisms. - On the last Sunday of the month of May (29), we had the opportunity to baptize, in the community of faith “Salvos porgracia” (Colonia Belisario Domínguez, municipality of Motozintla Chiapas), more than twenty catechumens, including adult sisters, women, boys and girls, who waited for this act for more than a year, because of the discipline (for not accepting the Presbyterian liturgy) that their presbytery has imposed on them. Their joy could be seen in the faces of each of them.
- The Lord has allowed me to continue teaching in some seminaries and we have just reached the closing of courses in some of them, as well as in some presbyteries that have invited me to share in some workshops and conferences. Thank God for continuing to train seminarians and new pastors in our area of the State of Chiapas.
- Now we will begin to work on the formation of a new Presbytery, more in accordance with the values of the kingdom of God. We will intensify the visits to those Communities of faith that walk without pastoral accompaniment and that, thank God, we are getting to know little by little.
- Despite the low economy that we have had in our family business, due to the intense rains and hurricanes that are recorded on the Chiapas coast, this has not hindered serving some migrant
brothers and especially continuing to build a special space to host them like at home. Thank God, we have already managed to pay for the land that was purchased especially for this project and now we are looking for resources to continue with its construction. It is a piece of land that is located about 50 meters (164 feet) from the Tapachula—Huixtla highway.
Many thanks to God for Jubilee Economics, which in many ways makes ministerial work possible in the State of Chiapas, Mexico. —López Pérez family: Rosy, Edman, Idelette,
and Jeff. (click on images to enlarge)
Severe Water Shortage in San Mateo, Mexico, Intensifies
by David Delgado, San Mateo Jubilee Circle
The dry toilet works very well for us here at the Centro Cultural. It allows us considerable savings. However, if it is very expensive to place. It was quite beyond our budget; so it is not a replicable project, as we had hoped. Our current situation in San Mateo is that there is more and more time between each delivery of water. We are talking about 3 weeks or even a month. Going forward, we are placing our bets more on rainwater collectors, than dry toilets. We are teaching how to use them. These we can replicate.
That said, it is true that the dry toilet at the Centro continues to have a very large impact on our facilities. Before installing the dry toilet a water pipe equivalent to 20,000 liters was bought on a monthly basis to provide enough water for our conventional toilet. The dry toilet has saved all those monthly liters.
Donations—Thank You!
Your donations are sustaining the various ministries of Jubilee. Thank you.
From a message to JEM director, John Michno, June 3, 2022, describing how a monthly donation is being made—
“It looks like my bank is currently processing this month’s transfer to Jubilee. I also set it up for automatic payment until otherwise notified so my bank will process $300 the 2nd of every month.
“Sorry we cannot participate in the virtual trip, but I am going to be out town. (First time my 3 sisters and I are getting together since before Covid. I’m excited.)” —Jan and Lee Dorsey, Indiana
Travel to Mexico Is Possible Again
Safe travel to the Mexico Jubilee Circles is possible again after a couple-year hiatus. Are you interested in traveling with JEM? Affordable—JEM doesn’t do luxury travel. Face-to-face with the people of Mexico, not just tourism. A trip may be forming for this fall. Let us know of your interest then or anytime in the months ahead. There’s no way we can describe in newsletters the impacts, the culture, the elegant frugality of JEM ministries.
From a message by JEM friend Grace Dyrness to Gloria Gonzales in the San Cristobal Jubilee Circle, that tells of a trip to San Cristobal, Chiapas arranged by Jubilee friend, Grace Dyrness—
“I don’t know if you saw my message on FB but so far I’ve been able to raise almost $1000 [for your important radio broadcast].
“…I have three Latino/American friends who are going to San Cristóbal for 4 days starting August 8th. One is the former director of the Fuller Latino Center with a background in Honduras, another is a professor of Chicano studies at UCLA, and the third is a fairly young pastor of a very progressive (!) Nazarene church, and he has a Tico background. [They are] wanting to build decolonization networks…. They are very close friends of mine and I would love it if they could be in contact with you at Casa Jubileo San Cristóbal. If you agree, I can write an introductory email between you and Oscar Garcia-Johnson.” (click on image to enlarge)
