He sent me to give the Good News to the poor; tell prisoners that they are prisoners no more...
Go Tell Everyone - Fr. Alan Dale
JG Joint Choir at the Commissioner's Retirement Concert
Courtesy UNTOLD Docuseries (2019) |
A CALL TO LOVE
In his book In Pursuit of Love, Vincent Genovesi writes, "Perhaps the hardest and strangest truth is that we can love God only to the extent that we learn to love others." Possibly nowhere is this philosophy more challenging than in the way we respond to those who commit crimes, those who are incarcerated. For us at Jubilee, we have come to recognize the men we interact with at the POS prison as our brothers. We are not naive. We know what each has done, some crimes more horrific than others. And yet they are still our brothers. And as Christians, believers in Christ, we are still required to be our brother's keepers. |
If we follow Christ's example then we know that needing love has little to do with what is normally meant by deserving love. It is the sinner who is most in need of God's love though it is the sinner who least deserves it. But in the Gospel, no one is more assured of God's love than a sinner. Which sinner you ask? You. Me. Them. Truthfully, ALL of us. (See more below)
HOPE FOR THE FUTURE
And so, we hope for two things for them. First, on their behalf, we desire and seek simply what God wishes for them, namely, that they be friends of God and members of God's people, courageous and free enough not only to accept God's love for them but also to love God in return and to offer love to others.
Second, our hope is for them to be adequately equipped with the life skills and skill training that ensures the best possible chance of living a life of true potential. We want each inmate, each person, to come to understand his worth and purpose as a human being, a member of a family, community, society. |
Joint choir rehearsal at the POS Prison (2019)
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We know that the odds are stacked against them. For many of us, the war begins in the home; others in the mind. And for these men, it is lived out daily behind bars. We also know that it can be excruciatingly difficult to face reality and to do the work to climb out of the holes we find ourselves in, especially without support and encouragement. That is true for all of us. But it is not impossible. And so we are determined to operate in God's "all things are possible" realm.
Our brothers from the POS Prison wait to minister as part of Jubilee Generation's joint choir at the Trinity TV Telethon in 2019
THE WAY FORWARD
Outside of sport, we know that NOTHING unites like music! As such, we are committed to using our skills in support of any organization's rehabilitation, empowerment and reintegration efforts.
Music is one of the ways that we preach the Gospel, tell others of God's love for all his people but we also have others skills and networks which allows us to engage and assist our brothers in terms of human development. Our music is only the beginning. |
PRISONERS NO MORE
We believe that for a society to be strong, all individuals must be strong and that means developing the skills to make the decisions that affect society positively, not negatively. That cannot occur if our institutions that deal with society's so-called disenfranchised and marginalized are institutions that focus on punishment exclusively and at the expense of development, empowerment and rehabilitation. And it cannot occur if as Christians, our 'works of charity' only require us to give of our surplus and not our substance (See Luke 21:1-4). That kind of response distracts us from the effort needed to truly address the social, economic and human rights issues that exist in our society. Each of us is called to do more. Our baptismal call demands no less.
"I thank God for your willingness to serve in uncommon places. Blessings."
Lynette Noel |
Jubilee Generation Music Ministry appears in the funding promotion for The Forgotten Boys, a documentary by Alexandra Warner. Courtesy UNTOLD Docuseries
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COLLABORATING FOR SUCCESS
As such, we are prepared to work with like-minded organizations to advance our mission of empowerment. The prison system is where God asked us to begin but he has also created other opportunities for us to use music education as a tool for human development.
We are now - in collaboration with music and education specialists - working to develop a series of pilot programs to achieve this objective. And we are not alone. Young and old, many persons have come forward in support of our mission to lend time, talent and treasure. We are grateful. Pray for us. |