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What
is Jubilee?
One
of the most powerful visions of a new beginning for people
and for the earth, in the biblical tradition, is that of Jubilee.
According to the Bible, every fifty years, during the year
of Jubilee, debts are to be forgiven, slaves are to be released
from bondage, wealth is to be redistributed, and the land
is to be given a time for rest and renewal.
Jubilee
intertwines two important strands of the biblical story -
the teaching about creation and the promise of liberation.
God created and is creating the world. The Exodus story speaks
of God's liberating action to deliver people from bondage.
Jesus began his ministry by announcing good news to the poor,
release to captives, sight to the blind, and freedom for the
oppressed. All this was placed in the context of "the
year of the Lord's favour" echoing the call for Jubilee.
The
three years of Jubilee, 1999, 2000, and 2001, were celebrated
in churches throughout the world. Here in Canada, many denominations
cooperated as the "Canadian Ecumenical Jubilee Initiative"
- a call for global justice in the Jubilee tradition. CEJI
put forth themes for each year of jubilee: Release from Bondage,
Redistribution of Wealth, and Renewal of the Earth.
Jubilee
at St. Catherine's
St.
Catherine's Liturgical Arts Group celebrated Jubilee by creating
three panels on the three yearly themes. The panels were created
of silk, 90 - 95% of which is recycled fabric The circle on
each panel represents wholeness in God, and the grid pattern
in each panel draws us from the chaos of the world as humanity
has re-created it into the circle of God's wholeness once
more.
Panel
1 - Release
from Bondage
The
first panel, titled "Release from Bondage", prays
for and celebrates release for all people from physical bondage,
as well as from the bondage of hunger, poverty, ignorance,
fear, greed, injustice, oppression, hatred, war, apathy, complacency,
and consumerism.
We
see desert and mountaintop in this panel. The desert is one
that in the Bible is associated with a place of trial, temptation,
abandonment and, ultimately, of deliverance and purification.
The mountaintop is one where we see visions, and walk upon
holy ground. The
first human figure crouches, between stone walls and barbed
wire, in a defeated, almost fetal position, turned away from
the vision of wholeness in the circle. The second figure turns
in an attitude of hope and possibility and openness and becomes,
in the third figure, the personification of joy and freedom
- arms reaching out toward the dove of the Holy Spirit, soaring
beyond the circle into the gift and holiness of dawn and rebirth.
Panel
2 - Redistribution
of Wealth
The
second panel, titled "Redistribution of Wealth",
reminds us that we live in a world of great inequality, where
the very rich continue to amass wealth and power, as the very
poor continue to suffer. As Mahatma Gandhi said, "Earth
provides enough for everyone's need but not enough for everyone's
greed." The circle portrays the sun rising on a fertile
earth, with clear, running water bringing forth harvests for
all to share. Even in the world of chaos outside the circle,
Jesus inspires a small boy to share his own lunch, five loaves
and two small fishes, with those who go hungry. Growing in
the world and into the circle are abundant crops of wheat
and corn, the world's most common food staples, to be shared
with all God's creatures. The combination of living water
and bread blessed by heaven reminds us that God also provides
the spiritual food with which we are sustained and strengthened
to do God's work in the world.
Panel
3 - Renewal
of the Earth
The
third panel is "Renewal of the Earth". Jubilee teachings
remind us that life on earth is both a gift and a responsibility.
We are stewards, and in that spirit, we have a responsibility
to share and take care of the earth, since ultimately it belongs
to the Creator. To destroy it or to take more than our share
is to betray the Giver, the God of Life.
This
panel shows in perhaps most dramatic perspective how we are
drawn powerfully into relationship with our Creator God. When
we open ourselves to the working of the Holy Spirit, portrayed
here in the Celtic symbol of the goose, our eyes are opened
to the "gift of joy and wonder in all {God's} works".
And the renewal of a healthy balance in nature, depicted in
the tree which moves from skeleton to full new growth, mirrors
our own spiritual growth into wholeness.
Behind
the Scenes
This
project was the most challenging that the Liturgical Arts
Group has undertaken since the completion of the Celebration
Banners, and involves developing skills in: exploring themes,
design, perspective, colour work, pattern making, working
with recycled materials, bonding, machine piecing, hand and
other appliqué techniques, machine embroidery, pressing,
fabric manipulation and embellishment, snippet and collage
work, working with "fancy" fabrics, framing and
mounting, - and problem solving! This has been a lengthy project
for the group, and each one has been challenged to develop
skills and to participate in "construction" in many
different ways.
A
JUBILEE PRAYER
God of Life,
You create an abundant world
and promise enough for all.
Yet we betray you
as hunger and poverty thrive in our midst.
Turn us to trust Your promise,
to believe that what seems impossible
is possible in You.
Stir us to rediscover
your Gospel as Good News for the poor.
Lead us to act in courage and love,
so that Jubilee might find a home
in our communities, our country, and our world.
AMEN.
A DEDICATION PRAYER
Creator God, God of Love,
across the millennia
you call us into covenant with you.
Through the centuries, your light has been
a symbol of your love for all your creatures,
and a symbol of hope for health and wholeness
for all the earth.
May these banners of light
be constant reminders of your love for us -
ever present -
ever wondrous -
and ever freely given.
In Jesus' name we pray.
AMEN
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