Who are we | jubilee

Who are we?

JEM was formed out of relationship as a group of folk from the Chicago area, who had been changed by immersion experiences in Central America, began meeting together. Soon one couple knew of the Kinslers, former missionary colleagues in Guatemala, who had written a book called the Biblical Jubilee and the Struggle for Life. After reading the manuscript a few of us felt called to organize ourselves more structurally as a not for profit. From the beginning we knew we wanted to continue meeting together on a regular basis, seek ways to get the message out to others and invite others to an initial immersion experience that had so transformed us. From mission groups around such themes as fair trade, prison reform, socially conscious investing and alternative spiritualities came small informative booklets which were used to sponsor workshops and a couple conferences.

After about 5 years our small group from Chicago dispersed to San Diego, Indiana and Mexico. Each of us, however, carried the message to these new places and began trying to form Jubilee communities. The small booklets grew into manuals and a series of books. The short-term immersions developed into full fledged relationships with indigenous communities in Mexico. Finally, JEM itself, became a bi-national organization seeking to build bridges where others want to build walls. Today, we invite you to browse our brand new website with an open mind and heart allowing the Spirit to speak to you about where your passion might intersect with ours. Whether it be from your local faith community, an intentional community seeking to live more simply or infiltrating the dominant system with Jubilee ideas of cooperation, simplicity and relationship. We welcome your partnership in word, deed or financial support. Thank you for joining us in this joyful sojourn.

Our Mission

Jubilee Economics works to promote practices, ideas, and stories for living economically on Earth, our one-planet home.

Our Vision

We believe another world is possible when we:

Share resources fairly
Reclaim the planet for future generations
Hold sacred the interrelatedness of life
Live intentionally in peace and community

…in order that those with more will not have too much and those with less will not have too little— not someday, but now.

The 2020 Initiative

There is an economy that uses only the resources of one planet, and puts out no more waste than the planet can reuse. We are NOT now living that economy, but we can. Doing so is the great work for this decade. The 2020 Initiative is how JEM is contributing to this great work. Participants in the 2020 Initiative commit to stop using structures of a multi-Earth economy and increase their use of at least 10 structures of a one-Earth economy in the next decade. These choices are holistic, i.e., ethical, ecological, spiritual, economically practical, interdependent, and generating of human and Earth community, a community with all of life. It’s how we can live a jubilee economy in the 21st century.

Living the economy that fits planet Earth depends on our choices, our models, and our policies

Today we are a bi-national org. still holding to our foundational beliefs of a creation centered theology, holistic salvation and redistribution of Earth's resources