Special Thanks to the Rev. Lauren R. E. Larkin for her continued support, wisdom, and prayers! Especially for the work of editing this zine into something coherent!
Sister Donna Butler
For what is the Kin dom of God like? What shall we compare it to? It’s like a person dumpster diving searching for what can be reclaimed to feed their neighbors It is like a person seizing thousands of vegetable seeds thrown into the garbage by the hands of the oppressors
Spirit of Liberation, comforter of the hungry, grant that we may have the courage to risk an act of love on behalf of our neighbors. Empower us to resist the devil, to feed the people, and if necessary to wade through the trash heaps of Empire to seize the means of abundance that capital has stolen
This term at United Theological Seminary, I was fortunate to take an independent study focusing on Land, Food, Faith, and Justice in the Biblical witness It was a challenging and lifegiving course load, and I am really looking forward to finding all the ways to synthesize this knowledge into the work we are doing at Jubilee
Concurrently, I have been thinking alot about compost as a result of both my course material and, especially, finally starting a “ proper ” compost bin in our family garden I’ve considered the ways in which I believe the idea of composting is really crucial to our work at Jubilee I wrote a short tweet thread earlier this summer reflecting on the state of the church, and its toward a perpetual allegiance to itself above all else Toward the end of that short thread, I said something I keep coming back to, “If it takes them (our church institutions) rotting to the ground to become compost then so be it. Compost ain’t’ dead We can take an ax to the root knowing that that felled tree will become more alive than we could ever imagine More alive than it ever even was before ”
This statement holds a very important lesson for those of us still somehow, barely? connected (for better or worse) to Christianity We must be willing to let things “die” so other things can live That is at the core of both how we hope to organize in our community and how we understand the world we live in Something new cannot come into being if we refuse to let go of the old I am not interested in self preservation, but liberation Christianity is a mixed bag Here, in the South, we have a
saying about needing to learn to “chew the meat and spit out the bones ” Applied to the church, after a while, if you're anything like me, you grow tired of biting down on the osseous matter of stagnant institutions. I think that maybe we can avoid breaking molars all together by just composting the whole thing Turn it over to the soil and let the earth do what it must so we can see something new come to life
During the duration of my independent study, I scheduled several site visits to local farm and garden initiatives doing similar work to us While at West End Community Gardens in Birmingham, the garden manager, Mr Boyd, an elderly Black man who worships at the outdoor church associated with the Garden pointed at a heaping pile of leaves and other organic matter right behind their pews, and he told me, “If we had enough help we could turn all that into compost But you know, it's like the Good Book says, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few ’” Mr. Boyd’s words helped me realize that if we do not actively do the hard work necessary to turn the organic matter of our institutions and theology into compost then they will be left to rot in the open air as a testimony of our unwillingness to heed the call of the spirit and put our hands to the plow.
"Earth knows no desolation. She smells regeneration in the moist breath of decay."
― George Meredith
As you may know It is officially Fall! And that makes a Summer update a little odd; better late than never….right?! Summer was busy, and that’s putting it mildly, to be honest. With the summer came so much joy, sweat, tears, and a little blood (cinder blocks are no friend to human hands) Despite all that we accomplished, we still feel like we could’ve done so much more But let’s take the W’s where we can….
Below is a mostly complete record of what has happened over the summer with the various initiatives!
Over the summer we launched The Walker County Free Store as a monthly pop up event! A Free Store is a mutual aid tactic that seeks to redistribute goods and items that marginalized communities have been systematically denied access to. It is, just as the name says, a store where everything is free! Free Stores are places where we can imagine a world without capitalism by working to directly aid one another to overcome the social and economic barriers that are thrust upon our communities by the weight of capitalism in our everyday lives. This initiative has received donations from all over the county that have then been redistributed into our community every single month! This initiative took most of our intentional time this summer We worked to gather donations while hosting the event every month! We are excited to announce that after 4 months of our pop up format, the Town of Parrish graciously gave us permission to clean up and use our old high school’s library as a semi permanent location for this initiative! At the present moment, we are not able to officially move into the library. HOWEVER! We are currently at capacity for donations for the launch due to the large volume of support this initiative has garnered!
The People’s Pantry is officially a year old! Over the last year, hundreds of dollars of groceries have come in and gone out from the fridge/pantry It continues to be the center from which all of our other work stems and grows The scheduled work day to clean, paint, and do some general maintenance on the structure in August was canceled so we could help someone in our community move
Despite needling a little TLC over the past year, this initiative is going strong! We Hope to make the updates to the structure soon
Reclamation Gardens: Our community garden and farm initiative did not get nearly the amount of love that it needed this summer; though we did nurture the vision for it Over 1,000 concrete blocks were donated from folks all over the county These blocks will go toward building community garden beds. One of our neighbors started the difficult work of clearing out nearly three acres of the property Once the land is cleared, there will need to be a soil test sent off to Auburn University letting us know what we need to plant to reinvigorate the soil before next year ’ s growing season! Utilities on the property are setup We hope to get the community garden beds built before the end of winter
The Jubilee Fund has raised and covered nearly $10k worth of expenses for folks in our community since June These funds are crowdfunded and cover funeral expenses, power bills, rent payments, and other financial burdens weighing down many in our community.
Walk Country Mutual Aid has kept us extremely busy this summer I told you we were really busy! We helped gather and distribute donations for folks in precarious situations in severneed of essential furniture, appliances, beds, and refrigerators
Aside from these details, on the back end (administration and stuff) things are going well, and we ’ re working to start releasing monthly financial statements showing all
the money we received that was redistributed into the community. One way we work against current violent systems is making sure we are transparent as possible, eliminating the competitive nature from our work Our relationship with Transform Network, the Town of Parrish, and a whole cadre of individuals continues to deepen; we are so thankful for their continued support and partnership
I’m sure I’m forgetting so much from this summer But details about tasks and this project and that initiative do not eclipse the most important experiences of the summer: the stories of real people with real lives and real struggles coming together to take care of one another and struggle for a better world in solidarity That is it for now! Maybe I won’t wait until winter to get the Fall zine into your hands!
O HOLY ONE, WHO STIRS OVER THE FACE OF THE WATERS, WHO CREATED AT THE BEGINNING, THE GARDEN, WHO GIVES US THIS VISION OF A HEAVENLY CITY, WITH A GARDEN IN THE MIDDLE OF IT.
MAY WE, EACH INDIVIDUALLY AND COLLECTIVELY, BE PRESENT, WITH THE JOURNEY OF COMPOST.
MAY WE BE PRESENT WITH THE DECOMPOSITION, TO GRIEVE, TO CELEBRATE, TO LET GO.
MAY WE BE COURAGEOUS AND ACTIVE TO BEING FERTILIZER FOR THE NEXT GENERATIONS. MAY WE BE PURPOSEFUL AND BOLD, MAKING CHOICES NOT OUT OF SURVIVAL OR COMFORT, BUT FROM OUR LOVE FOR ALL THAT IS GOOD AND TRUE
AND MAY WE BE CURIOUS, ENGAGED, AND ON THE LOOKOUT FOR NEW GROWTH. MAY WE BE DELIGHTFULLY SURPRISED, AND TOUCHED TO THE CORE OF OUR HEART, WHEN WE SEE HOW YOU, O HOLY ONE, ARE BIRTHING YOUR NEW CHURCH
WE SEE A GARDEN AHEAD OF US, THE GARDEN OF THE NEW JERUSALEM, WITH THE RIVER THAT FLOWS THROUGH THE CITY, GIVING TRUTH AND QUENCHING THIRST, TO ALL WHO SEEK IT.
THE TREES WITH LEAVES THAT HEAL THE NATIONS WE SEE TWELVE GATES, WELCOMING ALL TO ENTER AND COME AND TAKE THE WATER OF LIFE FREELY.
THIS GARDEN, WHERE THERE IS NO TEMPLE, WHERE GOD IS THE CENTER OF THE CITY. AND IN THIS GARDEN, I DO BELIEVE, THERE PROBABLY IS A COMPOST HEAP
We are currently almost 1/2 way to our base funding goal of $1,200 a month! Every dollar that we receive goes straight back into our community and you can contribute to the struggle in several different ways!
MERCH
You can purchase shirts and other merchandise over on our store like the "Resist the Devil, Feed the People" shirt in the above photo!
https://www redbubble com/people/Jubile eHouseCo/shop
Jubilee House is a dream about what it means to collectively struggle for a different world A world free of the evils of racism, oppression, and alienation
Jubilee House is a dream of a radically different future for Walker County, a future shaped by jubilee (Leviticus 25, Isaiah 61:1 12, Luke 4:18 19) in which the material and spiritual needs of the most vulnerable and marginalized are met through acts of mutual solidarity.
Gustavo Gutierrez once said, “Every attempt to evade the struggle against alienation and the violence of the powerful and for a more just and more human world is the greatest infidelity to God To know God is to work for justice There is no other path to reach God ” For us, Jubilee House is our attempt to be faithful to the struggle for a more just world by facing the evils of racism, oppression, and alienation head on, starting with Walker County, Alabama
We do not see ourselves as saviors or heroes, but rather as those willing to bear witness to the reality that the Spirit of Liberation is already present, working in and among those who are the most marginalized (BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and the poor) in our towns and communities.
We have a long road ahead of us, but we know that a different world is possible and we are left with no other choice but to love, dream, and fight for it For our future
“The prophet engages in futuring fantasy
The prophet does not ask if the vision can be implemented, for questions of implementation are of no consequence until the vision can be imagined The imagination must come before the implementation Our culture is competent to implement almost anything and to imagine almost nothing The same royal consciousness that make it possible to implement anything and everything is the one that shrinks imagination because imagination is a danger Thus every totalitarian regime is frightened of the artist It is the vocation of the prophet to keep alive the ministry of imagination, to keep on conjuring and proposing futures alternative to the single one the king wants to urge as the only thinkable one. ” Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination
“The scandal is that the gospel means liberation, that this liberation comes to the poor, and that it gives them the strength and the courage to break the conditions of servitude ” James H. Cone, God of the Oppressed
“Communities of resistance are creative places, full of invention, performance, freedom of identity, consensual relationships, and gift giving But they can be a destructive force, too; as each member confronts their domination by modern society on their own terms, little pieces of that world crumble away A community of resistance is a demonstration of the lives we want individually, we may be stuck in the real world, but collectively, we inhabit another real world ”
Unknown
We believe that poverty and economic class today are not ordained by God or by some kind of natural order, but are established by the exploitation that comes from the machinations of capitalism which can be overturned through the material and spiritual liberation taught by Jesus Christ (Luke 4:16 19; James 5:2 6)
We believe that racism is anti Christ and that Christ calls us more than simply being “not racist.” Rather we believe that we must be committed to the active dismantling of hatred, bias, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific minority groups in Walker County (Ephesians 2:14; Revelation 7:9 10)
We believe that solidarity, rather than charity, most accurately reflects the Kingdom of God Charity is top down aid that only addresses the symptoms of the issues present in our community while solidarity seeks to change the systemic problems from which the symptoms arise through horizontal acts of love and mutual aid.
(Acts 2:44 45; 1 Corinthians 12:12)
We wholeheartedly celebrate people of every gender, sexuality, religion, race, and circumstance as being made fully in the image of God just as they are (Galatians 3:28)
We are rooted in a very spacious Christian theology and seek to accompany folks on their spiritual journey wherever they are we are not trying to convert anyone (1 John 4:16)
We seek ways to actively be good news by not being apathetic to the injustice in our community, and posturing ourselves to labor for reconciliation and healing in Walker County. (Luke 10:27)
We believe in dialogue, the interplay of faith and doubt, the importance of asking questions, openness to the mystery of God and movement of the Spirit Because we know that we do not have it all figured out (Matthew 7:7 8; 1 John 4:18)
We care about the’ entire well being: social, emotional, spiritual, physical, and intellectual of those in our community by embodying a holistic approach that is exclusively focused on religion or spirituality. (John 10:10b)
We will seek to partner with a variety of people and organizations that share our values in an effort to create something meaningful and positive for the people of Walker County (Romans 12:4 5)
