Who We Are
“Then you shall have the trumpet sounded loud; on the tenth day of the seventh month—on the day of atonement—you shall have the trumpet sounded throughout all your land. And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you.”
— Leviticus 25: 9-10
The Center for Jubilee Practice works with churches, mid-councils, and Christian organizations seeking to consider their legacy of liberation and develop and implement restorative communal practices. Aiming to address historic and present-day harm, CJP offers coaching and concrete tools to help churches and organizations “decolonize their faith” and step back from assumptions of Christian dominance and dominance over the natural environment. We work to dismantle cultural assumptions of white dominance, patriarchy, heteronormativity, and cisnormativity so that we all may imagine and create a more equitable world.
The work of The Center for Jubilee Practice lives at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, climate change, immigration policies, and more. Inspired by historical and current justice movements as well as Biblical justice values, we partner with those aiming to do faith-filled acts of restorative justice and/or reparation. We seek to:
help churches and their governing bodies rethink their rules of engagement related to the sale and disposition of property and other assets in order to create intentional opportunities for reparations, healing, and new life
support and coach groups to take direct action to accomplish healing, repair, and reparations with Black and Brown communities and the environment we all live in
create brave spaces both for those most impacted by historic patterns of oppression and for people to have the challenging conversations needed for growth
Theological Rationale
Hebrew Scripture tells the story of God’s deepest desire for God’s people and God’s intentional instruction to the people of Israel (a group escaping the bondage of slavery in Egypt) as they worked to become a community that could take responsibility for implementing God’s vision. Much of that story is built on the practice of jubilee - an intentional practice of continually releasing one another from bondage and debt in the name of God’s people supporting one another. God’s Jubilee affirms:
a call for regularly resetting the playing field as wealth gets increasingly concentrated in fewer and fewer hands over time
a commitment to address the societal norms that cause some to live in one form or another of slavery while others are free
a practice of making amends and repair as a continual effort in the journey towards liberation
a recognition that the land (and all of creation) sustains God’s people and must be treated justly and allowed an opportunity to rest
an acknowledgement that all people and things belong to God, and that in lifting up those most marginalized everyone grows and God is glorified
This is a moment for the church to embrace the Jubilee Practice that God had in mind. God’s intention was clearly not only to release slaves from bondage, but to offer them a share of the wealth their labor created. It was not just to offer the option of what we would call bankruptcy today, but to encourage a full forgiveness of debt that would lead toward the wholeness that God desires for God’s people. God does not only seek a single moment of reckoning to wipe clean the slate of our responsibility, Rather, we are called to a practice of continual reflection on the ways in which we all fall short of God’s vision and commitment to redress the wrongs that lead to a few people having too much and so many having way too little. God recognizes it will always be tempting to extract more from the land than it can or should be expected to give, and offers a concrete practice of healing and repair of creation.
The Jubilee Practices God offers provide a roadmap for all of us who desire to give our lives to the work of fulfilling God’s promise of wholeness. They serve as the foundation for all The Center for Jubilee Practice does.
The Jubilee Strategy is built on these commitments:
To work with others on acts of healing and repair in recognition of the harm church institutions have caused and inspired by the Jubilee Practices of Hebrew Scripture and the Radical Teachings of Jesus
To offer an independent perspective to church institutions to support them in implementing Jubilee Practices”?
To focus on those in the church who are ready to embrace significant change for we recognize the need for investment in this hard yet liberating work
To build upon the powerful parts of liberationist strands in the Church’s history (especially those grounded in the experience of Black and Brown communities)
Clarity About Our Purpose:
Why are we doing this? We are passionate about helping the church (especially the white church) to “heal its haunted history”¹ in order to become a transformative agent of justice. And we are committed to advocating and acting for justice by offering a space of healing for those who have been traditionally marginalized by the white church.
How do we believe change will happen? We identify, encourage, and support those prepared to take concrete action to make amends for historic harm and use its accumulated (largely unearned) wealth for the work of justice.
What will we do to live into the vision?
Organize in churches and organizations to change the rules and expectations for managing property and assets
Offer classes, workshops, webinars, and more for those who want to be protagonists in this work
Nurture brave spaces of healing and encouragement to provide support for individuals and communities traditionally marginalized by the church
Consult and coach innovative churches to identify and implement transformative acts of reparations (sliding fee scale based on ability to pay)
¹ Enns, E., & Myers, C. (2021). Healing Haunted Histories: A Settler Discipleship of Decolonization. Cascade Books.
“Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”
— Matthew 25: 34-36