Jubilee 2000 wraps

House blessing wraps up Jubilee

Conference Youth and Camping Coordinator Colin Kerr-Carpenter greets a perspiring Tony Campolo following the speaker's challenging remarks, Thursday night, August 10. Campolo almost didn't make it to Jubilee, as he was caught up in the continuing weather and lack-of-pilot related cancellations of United Airlines Flights. Photo by Robert Sanford

Powerful preaching, spirited music send participants home

By Chuck Myer, J2K Admin. Coordinator and
Bill Sanford, Jubilee Committee member

With a rousing rendition of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus, Jubilee 2000 concluded on Sunday morning, August 13. A short time later, people were weeping during the dedication of the “blitz-built” house which Habitat for Humanity turned over to the Duran family. (Click here to see “HouseTurnedOver.html”)

Some 1,200 had attended the event on the lovely campus of Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park.

While not everyone liked everything, according to the evaluation forms, people were generally enthused about what they experienced. “Great event!”, “Beyond my expectations!”, “Had a wonderful time!” wrote some attendees. There were positive remarks about the setting, the weather, the schedule, the variety in the program. “Sunday worship was glorious! I’m proud to be a United Methodist.”

It’s hard to imagine more being packed into one worship service. The closing program of the gymnasium lasted just over two hours but contained a multitude of highlights:

Bishop Melvin Talbert’s closing sermon to the conference he has led for twelve years recapped the impact of the Civil Rights struggle on his pastoral career.
Original music on the “Imagine a World” theme by Hope Kawashima, music director of Lake Park UMC, Oakland, was performed by a multi-ethnic chorus.
The people who filled the gym heard a vocal performance and “light show” by the choir from Melrose UMC in Oakland, “Siyahamba” and other special music by beloved recording artists Jim, Jean and Michael Strathdee, the Jubilee 2000 Chorus, under the direction of Doug Albertson, with solos by Rev. Scott Wylie and Ray Jellison.
The chorus sang “The Lord’s Prayer” to the tune of “Auld Lang Syne” and closed the service with Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus from “Messiah”.
Closing meditations centered on the final phrases of the Lord’s Prayer. Rev. Janette Saavedra, worship chair, explored use of the theme-prayer throughout the event in various art forms and languages, including American Sign Language.
The Rev. Bob Walker, introduced Bishop Talbert for Talbert’s last large-group gathering in the Conference. Walker is a former member of this conference now living in Washington State who lost his vision to retinitis pigmentosa. He is also a member of the United Methodist Congress of the Deaf. Vacation Bible School children participated. They’d been learning and creating on campus all week under the leadership of Jan Dahl and Boni Fields.
Worship was enhanced by special visual effects coordinated by Tech Director Ardyss Golden and her crew.
A special offering to help underwrite the costs of Jubilee 2000 raised about $7,000. At press time, treasurer Gene Lefevre reported that the offering brought the Jubilee budget to near the break-even point with some bills still left to pay.

Other projects benefitted financially at Jubilee: $151,678 were donated to Heifer Project International, $27,179 of which were brought to the campus. The pre-Jubilee challenge to churches had been to fund an ark a wide variety of animals priced altogether at $5,000. Some churches responded to the challenge by doing a whole ark all by themselves. Such were Campbell, Half Moon Bay, Merced, Modesto-First and Sacramento-St. Marks. Some churches associated themselves with others to rise to the occasion. For instance, the Hill and Dale Cluster bought two arks (Farmington, Jamestown, Linden, Oakdale, Riverbank, Sonora, Soulsbyville, Tuolumne—all Delta District). The Fresno District funded an ark with significant money left over to help Habitat.

The power-packed Sunday service reflected the nature of the entire week where approximately 1,200 United Methodists gathered together as a community to “Imagine a World” and join in creative thinking and worshipping to form new energy and spirit for the third millennium. Those at Jubilee 2000 spent full days in perfect weather attending just under 100 “Kaleidoscope” and UMW workshops on various topics (arranged by Sylvia Bardes), attending one of five types of Bible Study series, enjoying recreational opportunities coordinated by Erin Dunning of Colfax UMC, and living and dining in the campus residential quadrant.

Attendees with special needs enjoyed riding around campus on a shuttle provided by the Endowment Board and driven by Conference lay leader Pete Taylor.

Saturday afternoon’s special feature was a “Global Village Faire” organized by Heifer Project International veteran Rev. Bill Beck. The event included demonstrations such as butter-making, children’s art workshops led by Rev. Jeff Kunkel, and a performance by Paloo, the Christian Clown (Kelly Ballagh).

Special youth events coordinated by Colin Kerr-Carpenter, featured percussionist Michael Strathdee and Nashville musical duo “Say-So”. Other featured musicians during the second half of Jubilee 2000 included Cynthia Wilson from Decatur, Georgia, and the Celebration Delegation Choir from Genesis United Methodist Fellowship in Milpitas.

Speakers featured on Thursday, Friday and Saturday included Tony Campolo, Harry Wood, Joyce Sohl, Junius Dotson, Marcus Borg and N.T. Wright. Audio tapes of various jubilee speakers are available on Audio Cassette, and a Video showing the day-by-day progress on the Habitat House is also for sale. Click here JubileeAudioVideoTapes.html for information on how to order.

“Campolo’s talk aroused the greatest reaction from among the people,” said retired pastor Robert Sanford. Sweating profusely as he spoke, Campolo was “very challenging in his approach, and criticized the church, which was losing young people because it was avoiding social conflicts,” Sanford said.

A number of respondents ventured the view that there should be more Jubilees down the track and in less than eight years. Someone suggested one every four years, in a year that does not also contain General and Jurisdictional Conferences.

Bishop Talbert appointed Rev. Don Fado as chair of Jubilee 2000 in 1996. The planning group first met on June 3, 1997, and will meet last on Sept. 5 to wrap things up and hand on materials which may assist any future Jubilee Task Force. Twenty meetings were required for the total effort.

One evaluator saw behind the scenes, saying: “Can tell a lot of work and planning involved. Well done!”