Hello Jubilants,

This Sunday is Mother’s Day...a day that is fraught for many of us. We all have mothers – but some of us have lost them to death or estrangement or live with the pain of an unavailable or abusive mother. Some of us are mothers – some by choice, some by accident. Some of us wanted to be mothers but never were. Some of us still wish to be mothers and hate to be reminded that we aren’t. Some of us are mothers of children who have died.
 
The history of Mother’s Day is almost as muddled as our feelings about it now. Even though I love my own mother and love being a mother, I sometimes focus on the Divine Mother and Mother Earth on this Sunday. Or how about focusing not just on procreativity, but on creativity more generally? Our Communications Manager, Michele Bernhardt, shared some lovely thoughts on this in this week’s Seeds for Celebration. 
 
Creativity invites failure. Welcomes it, even! To innovate you have to have permission to fail. The Jubilee! staff will be innovating over the next several weeks and months as we try fresh ways of meeting, use novel technologies, and practice welcoming you back to our Celebration Center in new ways. We will, no doubt about it, fail at some of it. We’ll keep trying, as Samuel Beckett said, to “fail better.” Come, fail with us, as we all play at Becoming Creative.

See you Sunday,
Laura 

MANY THANKS
Once again the Jubilee! community has provided amazing support for the local service organizations that receive our hunger basket donations. Last quarter we donated $1,800 to each of the following organizations ($5,400 total):

• Loving Food Resources 
• Hope Chest 
• All Souls Counseling 

Here is what Brendan Hughes of All Souls Counseling said about our gift:  "Thank you for the gift Jubilee! Community Church recently made to All Souls Counseling Center; it was very generous and we want to extend our gratitude to everyone in your congregation. It will go a long way towards continuing to fund the quality, affordable mental health services we provide to the uninsured and underinsured in this region."  Brendan invites all Jubilants to a public Zoom discussion about the mental health challenges of the pandemic.  Learn more & register

JUST CONVERSATIONS: FULL LINEUP
Jubilee! is co-sponsporing Just Conversations: Dialoguing for a Deeper Truth with the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice.  This is a series of five free online discussions with activists about the lessons they have learned working long-term with people who share their goals but not all of their identities. Each sessions includes time for audience questions.

• May 20th, 6:30-7:45pm ET, Rev. Nontombi Naomi Tutu (Desmond Tutu's daughter) and Rose Bator  Learn more and register
• June 3rd, 6:30-7:45pm ET, Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner and Louise Herne  Learn more and register
• June 17th, 6:30-7:45pm ET, Judge Elaine O'Neal and Dr. Kaaren Haldeman  Learn more and register
• July 8th, 6:30-7:45pm ET, Dorothy Q. Thomas and Prof. Lisa Crooms-Robinson  Learn more and register
• July 22nd, 6:30-7:45pm ET,  Mandy Carter and Pam McMichael  Learn more and register

SOCIAL JUSTICE OPPORTUNITIES
There are so many opportunities to learn and take action to support local and national social justice initiatives...where do you start? Jubilant Ron Katz offers these solid actionable ideas:

• Interfaith Initiative - Social Justice Opportunities
• Buncombe County Remembrance Project
• Voting & Democracy Rights News

ECO GRIEF CIRCLES
Jubilee! is part of Creation Care Alliance, which is offering a new seven-week series of Eco Grief Circles ~ an online opportunity to explore grief and sorrow, anxiety and fear, guilt and shame, anger and despair.  The series starts at 12pm noon on May 13th and continues every Thursday for seven weeks. About one hour and 15 minutes long each afternoon, the series offer mutual support, healing, insight and love, but is not a grief therapy experience. Past participants expressed profound gratitude for being among people who could talk honestly about grief, suffering, and the ecological and social challenges of our time. The leadership team includes counselors, pastors and environmental advocates.  Learn more and register here.

CONNECT WITH OTHER JUBILANTS
Have you added you contact information and photo to the password protected Jubilee! Community Directory yet?  This is a great resource for finding other Jubilants, and helping them connect with you.  Easy to do...just click here, fill out the form and email us your photo.  Password hint:  It's the name of our current Via, all one word with each word capitalized (i.e. ViaWhatever).

WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Jubilee! is looking for folks who can help out with Zoom, Facebook Live, video and audio to support our Sunday Celebrations. Contact Patrick Fitzsimmons at patrickfitzsimmons@jubileecommunity.org if you have some experience and can help out this way. The Communications Team is looking for volunteers to occasionally work on the website, enewsletter and social media.  If you can help out or would like to join the Communications Team, email Michele Bernhardt at michele@jubileecommunity.org.

SO MANY WAYS TO SUPPORT JUBILEE!
We know it's not the same as filling the basket in person, but there are lots of different ways you can donate to Jubilee! and the Hunger Basket.  Please give as generously as you can!

~  Online: Click here.
~  GivePlus app: Download the app, enter zip code 28801, then click Jubilee!
~  Text: Text 844-962-2639
~  Snail Mail: Mail your check to Jubilee!, 46 Wall Street, Asheville, NC 28801

Please donate to the hunger baskets or Jubilee!'s operating costs or both.  Jubilee! continues to have expenses to keep running.  All hunger basket donations are going to organizations that feed the hungry, house the homeless and support underserved communities in a variety of ways.