Portland Action Plans for “Jubilee Sunday and Sabbath Year 2007 “

More than 14 Portland area congregations will observe Jubilee Sunday, January 21^st, and events related to 2007 as a Sabbath Year. They include Central Lutheran, St Andrew’s Catholic, Westminster Presbyterian, Valley Presbyterian, St John Baptist Episcopal, First Unitarian, and Ainsworth UCC among others.

Jubilee Year 2000 was proclaimed across the world as a way to live out God’s call to remove extreme debt and restore balance in creation and among peoples. The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of the UN were also adopted widely then as a means to achieve major poverty reduction by the year 2015.

Seven years later the New Year is full of potential for progress. One way is to fulfill the call to action in Sabbath Year 2007 and continue earlier commitments to live out the Jubilee promise for our time. Half way to the MDG goal year of 2015 much remains to be done as poverty has increased, for example, in Sub-Saharan Africa from 1990 through today.

There are many ways to keep the Sabbath Year personally and publicly. Jubilee Oregon invites you and your congregation to use the extensive, free resources available at www.jubileeusa.org to inform yourself as well as create worship experience and vision to last through the year. In addition, www.jubileeorgon.org features local information and resources.

Debayani Kar, Communications & Advocacy Coordinator for JubileeUSA, describes this call well: “In light of the Jubilee message of salvation, redemption, deliverance and liberation, debt burdens that prevent countries from meeting the most basic needs of their people cease to be merely a financial concern for a few and become a spiritual concern for all of us. To advocate and educate for debt cancellation in solidarity with the people of the world’s impoverished countries is one way we can participate in God’s Jubilee.”

For further information, contact Jubilee Oregon through Chris Laing, lecm4psu@k-com.net or 503/704-7254, or Nancy Johns, nancyjohns@comcast.net or 503/331-7702.