Join Jubilee Oregon this Sunday, August 12th to launch the Cancel the Debt Fast

David Duncombe to Preach on Purpose for Cancel Debt Fast

Westminster Presbyterian Church,

1624 NE Hancock Portland

Sunday, August 12

10:30 am

David Duncombe spent almost two decades as chaplain for the Yale School of Medicine and a lecturer at Yale Divinity School, his alma mater. In 1967, his chaplaincy at Yale was one of the first at a nondenominational American medical school.

He was active in the civil rights movement, and has long been involved in peace and justice protests. In recent years, his activism has taken the form of protest fasts in the name of peace and poverty. In his social justice ministry, he has been arrested almost 100 times and sometimes jailed.

NEWS ADVISORY

FOR IMMEDIATE CONSIDERATION Friday, August 4, 2007

Contact: Ray Utech, 901-573-7477 ray.utech@gmail.com

Local pastor to fast for 40 days in the nation’s capital, send-off slated for Sunday, August 12, as part of

Hungry for Justice: Jubilee Debt Cancellation movement ‘s 40-Day National Fast September 6 – October 15

Jubilee Oregon is hosting a public event to encourage and support Reverend David Duncombe's trip to Washington D.C. to lobby for debt cancellation.

Event: Reverend David Duncombe Send-Off for Jubilee's "Cancel Debt Fast"

Where: Irving Park; 875 Northeast Fremont Street, Portland, OR 97212

When: 1pm-3pm

Sponsor: Established in 2000, Jubilee Oregon, a coalition of religious and

community groups, is a part of Jubilee USA, a network of local

congregations and 80 religious denominations, faith-based networks,

development and community organizations in the US, including Sojourners, Action Aid International, and World Vision. Jubilee USA also partners on efforts to fight global poverty as a member of the ONE Campaign. Jubilee USA is part the global Jubilee network, with grassroots networks in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe

News/Press RSVP: Jubileeoregon@ gmail.com or call 503-287-7847 or 901 573 7477

PORTLAND, OR – The Rev. David Duncombe, whose water only ‘fast for life’ in 2000 in the halls of Congress convinced people like Jessie Helms and Ted Kennedy to approve debt cancellation measures for the world’s poorest countries, will begin a new fast.

Echoing his statement made then, the 77 year old United Church of Christ minister says now, “I've reached a point in my life in which it's very difficult for me to live on a playing field that isn't level. And it's very difficult for me to avoid the knowledge in my own life that there are millions of starving people and to go about my life as though there were not. I find it very undesirable to eat when other people can't.”

“I believe strongly that as a Christian that we are asked to love our neighbors and particularly people that are at a disadvantage and so this is a window of opportunity to express that. Being a pastor I wanted to do this in a pastoral way so I’ll go from office to office not only to talk about legislations but to try to get to know the staff as people and to understand where they're coming from. I intend to symbolize starvation. I want to do that because a lot of people in Congress -- by no fault of their own -- have never seen a starving person. Their only contact with starvation is that in a very abstract way they know that so many people are starving, but they have never seen it, they have never looked upon it they have never touched it. So I will go back to each office about once a week and let my starving body talk for itself and I hope that my message will get through and lift their consciences."

For additional information and background: http://www.jubileeusa.org/

Jubilee Jumble Success by St John the Baptist at Mission of the Atonement

The Lutheran and Roman Catholic Mission of the Atonement, on busy Scholls Ferry Rd, provided the perfect location of St. John’s first Jubilee fund raiser—a jumble (Brit for rummage) sale on June 30.

St. John’s location is a quarter mile off the road at Oregon Episcopal School. Member Valerie McIntyre caught a vision for the sale and saw it through netting over $800 divided between JubileeUSA and Jubilee Oregon. A good time had by all!

Jubilee Sunday

About a dozen congregations in the Portland/Vancouver metro area observed Jubilee Sunday in January. Some have chosen to become member congregations.

St John the Baptist Episcopal Church, off Scholls Ferry Road, celebrated the day with special prayers, music, a display, sermon and a forum. The response was strong and the February vestry (church council) meeting voted unanimously to become a Jubilee member, which includes prayer, study, simple action and a contribution. A plan for a Jumble Sale to raise a donation is in progress.

This decision is also seen as a way to participate in the Episcopal ONE Campaign, a parish focus for this Millennium Development Goals Sabbath Year 2007. Jubilee is a primary partner for the ONE Campaign focused on MDG goal for removal of odious international debt. Congratulations people of St John's Church!

Speak the Truth Boldly

Speak the Truth Boldly was the sermon title at Ainsworth United Church of Christ’s Jubilee Sunday service on February 18, 2007! We held our service a month after the actual Jubilee Sunday in order to lift up the Africa experiences of two Jubilee Oregon members, Rev. Lynne Smouse Lopez and Dr. Patricia Rumer who traveled to Kenya and Zambia in January.

Pat and Lynne shared how the Jubilee movement, South and North, is speaking truth boldly in demanding total debt cancellation to the United States government and in former “debtor” nations such as Zambia. Wangari Mathaai, Nobel peace prize recipient from Kenya, denounced the actions of the World Bank and IMF in a fiery speech at an Illegitimate Debt forum in Nairobi. She asked “how could the most powerful bank loan money to governments that could not pay without sacrificing the lives of people? We cannot tolerate these debts because they are literally killing our people.”

She and other speakers urged the churches to use their moral authority – “we have the numbers and the voices, but we don’t raise that voice! We cannot be silent while people suffer – we are the agents of the Lord!”

Lynne spoke of how debt cancellation is inextricably linked to trade justice. Although much of Zambia’s debt has been cancelled, the same harmful IMF economic conditions continue. The IMF is urging the Zambian government to impose a 17.5% value-added tax (VAT) on food, drugs and mosquito nets in a country that is malaria-ridden! She asked the congregation – how would we react in Oregon if the government imposed such a tax? Or if China, to whom the USA is in debt, suddenly imposed conditions that compromised our sovereignty by changing the Constitution or Congressional laws? How would we feel?

The service included a Scripture reading in Swahili by Geoffrey Bunyoli, Kenyan member of the congregation; a children’s sharing with Rev. Cecil Prescod in which the children were given basic school supplies and health aids and then, because of IMF conditions, all these supplies were taken back. The choir sang two special Jubilee hymns.

Living out our call to Jubilee! The service concluded with an altar call where congregation members pledged their involvement in local Jubilee Oregon activities – ranging from visits to Congressional representatives around debt cancellation legislation to participation in book discussion groups on global economic justice.

Ainsworth UCC has been a Jubilee congregation since 2001. Four AUCC members traveled to Africa in January – in addition to Pat and Lynne, Dustin and Cara Pattison also participated.

Pat Rumer
February 20, 2007

Report about Jubilee Sunday Celebration - Rev. Chris Laing

St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church, on the grounds of the Oregon Episcopal School, held a full-blown Jubilee Sunday. Display table, use of many of the worship resources, a chance for me to preach, and a forum discussion following. There was also use of bulletin inserts from the Episcopal Church detailing aspects of the Millennium Development Goals.

This was the third year, I think, of raising the subject of Jubilee with the congregation. This year there was a strong response to bring the congregation membership issue to the next vestry (council) meeting. An announcement in the Oregonian led to a couple of new visitors. And a new
member stepped forward to be our parish contact person.

I am thankful for the support from parish leaders and what clearly seems to be the Spirit moving at St John's!

Chris

Why am I a Jubilee debt campaigner? - by Pat Rumer

Why am I a Jubilee debt campaigner? The movie, The Constant Gardener, offered a realistic, brutal picture of one of Africa's largest slums, Kibera. The on-the-ground reality is a slum surrounded by a lush golf course, elegant homes with a wall to keep out slum dwellers, and a nearby supermarket offering a "variety of choices."

What the movie does not show is the vitality and resilience of the children and in particular, the mothers organized in the Watoto Wa Dunia (Children of the World) project.

Debt is not about economic statistics - it is about people and their lives. Kenyans know that the debt service burden affects their health, schooling, job opportunities (or the lack thereof) and housing. Debt is slavery and at times, death. Mary, an AIDS orphan in Kibera, shared about a poem about AIDS and how it brings misery and loss. It is the people who suffer and yet struggle for their lives and those of their children. To make a better world is why I demand that the debt be cancelled.

An African man, Mr. Washiri, at the Illegitimate Debt Forum in Nairobi,challenged the audience saying, "it is morally wrong as church people not to pass the message. People must be aware. It is the reponsibility of the churches to bring the message home!" Cancel the debt requires public outrage.

Wangari Matthai, Nobel peace prize recipient from Kenya, asked, "How can you punish these poor people? Poor people are being sacrificed by their governments to pay these debts. We cannot tolerate these debts as they are literally killling our people!"

It is the women's voices that are the strongest - demanding, exhorting and importuning for justice because debt = death and slavery. Can we in the USA be morally outraged and raise our voices to demand the cancellation of the debt?

This is a story from Gloria, a Zambian business woman, and Ella, a Zambian Consultant.

They have increased the fuel costs, so now people are walking because they can not afford the bus. The food is too expensive, people are having one meal a day. Some do not even have that meal. A loaf of bread costs $0.70 which is prohibitive.

The households are being run by children, orphans, who have nothing left, the eldest at 12 years of age is looking after all the other children, so they have to stop school. Because of SIMS (HIV/AIDS).

The new “investors” come in and abuse the wage structure. You are so happy to have a job, but you do not even know how much you are going to be paid. You can not even afford transportation to work, you have to walk. The job does not have a pension, so once you are off, that is it.

Gloria says, What I want is to increase the salaries, take care of the doctors and nurses salaries, then they will remain with us. Create job opportunities, screen the investors who come in. They only have the profit in mind, they will do what ever they can to make money, at the expense of the worker who will not get anything. They are employed on a casual basis.

Ellas says, the wages must be increased and the health sector salaries must be increased. The anti-retroviral drugs must be moved to the rural areas so that the people there can access it. We need more counselors so people can understand what AIDS is.