Jubilee Ministry

Jubilee Ministry is a nationwide network of more than 600 social outreach organizations and ministries all affiliated in some way with The Episcopal Church. In Colorado, we have 30 Jubilee Ministry centers, including food banks, day shelters, feeding programs, prison ministries, health care ministries, ministries serving immigrants, Native Americans, children and other vulnerable populations. The Diocesan Jubilee Office works to promote the work of these ministries through education, communication, networking and advocacy.

As the world’s economies decline, we see the need to “feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit the imprisoned” (Matthew 25:35) more than ever both locally as well as internationally. Homes and pensions have been lost, and food banks are struggling to keep up with the increasing need. Jubilee Ministry is called to help the church live out its prophetic vision of empowering people to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before their god” (Micah 6:8).

By creating a direct and dynamic link between our theology and our ethics—the talk and walk of our faith—Jubilee Ministry involves our congregations in the important work of empowering people to change their lives.

Who We Are

Saint Francis Center  is a refuge for homeless men and women in metro Denver. Located at 2323 Curtis St., Denver, the St. Francis Center is a daytime shelter that provides services that enable people to meet daily needs for survival and to transition out of homelessness. On an average day, more than 700 people visit St. Francis Center. All are welcomed and treated with dignity and respect.

St.  John’s Cathedral not only serves as the Diocesan Cathedral but also hosts an array of social ministries including (but not limited to):  the Women’s Homeless Initiative,  the Cathedral Co-operative of Gardeners,  the Abrahamic Initiative,  free blood pressure screenings, and the Faith-in-Action network of ministries. The Cathedral also maintains relationships with Habitat for Humanity, the St. Francis Center, and Metro Caring.

Metro Caring is the largest hunger relief organization in Denver, offering nutritious food and other supportive services and assisting families in overcoming barriers  to self-sufficiency. Located at 1100 E. 19th Ave., Denver, Metro Caring currently serves up to 500 families weekly and has 160 weekly volunteers.

St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Denver serves as a host church for a week about four times a year for Family Promise. The church welcomes two to five families in transition as they search for stable, productive lives and housing, providing a safe environment, food and lodging. St. Thomas also has a community garden that provides fresh produce for nearby neighborhoods that are fresh food deserts. In addition, the church offers an English-as-a-Second-Language program to help non-English speakers develop the language skills they need to survive.

St. Clare’s Ministries  serves supper to an average of 150 hungry people every Tuesday in the fellowship hall of the Episcopal Church of St. Peter & St. Mary, 126 W. 2nd Ave., Denver. Guests are invited to get a change of clothes and hygiene supplies from the clothing closet. Begun as a coffee and sandwich ministry more than 20 years ago, it has grown substantially, and is supported by numerous Episcopal parishes across the Denver metro area.

New Beginnings Worshipping Community is a joint venture among the Rocky Mountain Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado and Prison Congregations of America, serving the women in the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility. It offers Friday night Bible study and ecumenical worship services, connects inmates’ families with resources in preparation for re-entry, and advocates at the legislature and elsewhere on behalf of correctional staff and inmate issues.

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Aurora, focuses its Jubilee Ministry on two areas: homelessness and hunger in the Colfax area of northeast Aurora; and families with children who are dealing with poverty and hunger in the immediate area around the church. Among its ministries: providing backpacks filled with food to sustain children over weekends and through the summer; a summer arts program for children; providing hotel vouchers for the homeless; providing a cooling station during the heat of summer; and supporting the Family & Senior Homeless Initiative.

Project Education South Sudan funds and mentors communities to help build primary schools and educational infrastructure in rural South Sudan. It provides clean wells, commercial grinding materials, cinderblock-making equipment, sewing machines and annual school supply money. Beyond brick and mortar, PESS mentors the indigenous community and girls’ leadership development and provides teacher training, feminine hygiene products and income literacy programs. This ministry grew out of the experience of mentoring more than a dozen “Lost Boys” who wound up at St. John’s Cathedral in Denver.

St. Joseph Episcopal Church in Lakewood has many outreach projects including: preparing sack lunches for distribution to the homeless; partnering with another church to provide dinner and a Saturday day shelter for families involved in Family Promise; sending parishioners to Laguna, Veracruz, Mexico to assist Amiguitos with medical clinics, construction projects and educational programs; volunteering with Habitat for Humanity; hosting a Peace and Justice Community to study a variety of current issues; and hosting Episcopal Peace Fellowship, Colorado.

Broomfield Farmer’s Market at Holy Comforter, a ministry of Holy Comforter Episcopal Church, seeks to connect local residents with healthy food and local farmers. The market is 4-7 p.m. each Tuesday from mid-June to mid-September, and is entirely volunteer-driven. Vendors donate unsold produce to local food pantries. Visitors to the food market – voted Colorado’s favorite in 2012 – are welcome to come inside the church for quiet and prayer.

Evergreen Christian Outreach (EChO), located on the campus of Transfiguration Episcopal Church, provides assistance in a variety of ways to those in need in the Evergreen mountain communities. Among the services provided: groceries, used clothing, housewares, rent and mortgage assistance, help with child care, utilities, prescriptions and auto repair. Founded in 1985 by Fr.Bob Bryan to Transfiguration, the ministry today is supported by 20 churches, a score of organizations and thousands of donors.

St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Centennial is dedicated to providing everyone in the parish opportunities to serve the neglected, forgotten and disenfranchised.  Several ministries, including Stewardship, Samaritan Outreach, the D-Zone Youth Center, Young @ Heart Senior Ministry, the Youth Group and Sunday School play key roles in meeting our diocesan goals of radical generosity and engaging substantively with the suffering of the world.

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Denver’s Capitol Hill has a signature church-wide outreach program, The Sharing Table. It consists of four programs: a Soup Project to benefit the Anglican St. George’s Clinic in Baghdad;  community garden; working with the Colfax Community Network to provide meals and tutoring for children living in motels along Colfax Avenue; and a legislative advocacy group. In addition, in 2012 St. Barnabas became a host church for the Women’s Homeless Initiative, providing meals and shelter for 20 homeless women one night a week.

Covenant Cupboard in Greenwood Village  was founded in 1995 as a mission project by the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant and quickly evolved into a multi-denominational community effort. It is a primary outreach partner for Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Centennial. The pantry’s mission is to lovingly and respectfully provide food to those in need in a compassionate, dignified and secure environment. It’s open every Friday to serve clients primarily from Arapahoe County.  In addition to the regular weekly food distribution, the ministry helps register clients for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, provides birthday bags and Christmas gifts for children, and offers free books for children and adults.

St. Benedict Health & Healing Ministry draws on the Benedictine spiritual values of compassion and hospitality. It organizes a cadre of volunteer health professionals to provide free health clinics to the estimated 40,000 medically underserved in Boulder County, focusing on heart disease and heart health, women’s health issues, dental health and dental aid, diabetes, cancer screening, cholesterol checks, and AIDS/HIV testing and counseling.

Locally Haiti works in partnership with the Haitian people to achieve developmental goals that lift communities out of extreme poverty by increasing access to and capacity for foundational educational opportunities, community health, and economic self-sufficiency. We model community development that is both sustainable and locally driven. Our work supports the vision of the Haitian people in building lives of dignity and self-sufficiency. Our work sustains decentralization by building a permanently integrated infrastructure in and around the community of Petit Trou de Nippes, Haiti.

St. John’s Episcopal Church in Boulder focuses most of its outreach on programs to feed and care for the homeless. It hosts a soup kitchen once a month, which includes haircuts and free medical screening. Its Common Cathedral worship service on Friday evenings attracts both the homeless and regular parishioners. It’s followed by a meal in the parish hall. Each fall and winter, a clothing drive and a food drive help provide for those in need.

 All Saints Episcopal Church of Loveland sponsors three principal ministries in which parishioners engage, all while encouraging members to involve themselves in other organized community efforts. Through its affiliation with Family Promise, All Saints offers shelter for a week at a time to homeless families. In addition, All Saints regularly provides teams of volunteers to staff The Community Kitchen. And during winter, the church becomes a cold-night shelter for those who have nowhere else to go.

Brigit’s Bounty Community Resources is an outreach program of St. Brigit’s Episcopal Church in Frederick. Established in 2011, BBCR helps residents of Firestone, Frederick and Dacono improve their neighborhoods through community gardening, healthy food access and educational opportunities. It provides fresh produce to needy residents that is grown locally and organically.

Crossroads Ministry of Estes Park  provides non-judgmental love and care to those in need in the Estes Park Valley with temporary emergency help with food, medical needs, partial rent, short-term lodging, utilities, transportation, laundry and shower, self-sufficiency instruction, literacy classes and referrals. Founded as a food pantry as St. Bartholmew’s Episcopal Church in 1982 following a devastating flood, the organization today is supported by 15 local churches and services organizations.

Christ’s Cornucopia, a food pantry established by St. Raphael Episcopal Church in the community of Security, is open every Friday and is staffed by volunteers from the church. Parishioners obtained, transported, sorted, stocked, and distributed more than 8.5 tons of food last year.

St. George Episcopal Church in Leadville hosts Community Meals to provide nutritious meals in a welcoming, safe and open environment, where connections are forged and community is built. Lunch is served on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and dinner is served every Saturday. The church also hosts the Food Bank of the Rockies on the third Wednesday of every month.

St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church in Pagosa Springs is involved in several outreach ministries to serve the needy in Archuleta County. Among them: The Pagosa Outreach Committee, which meets weekly to discuss the needs of local residents; the church sponsors a monthly hot lunch to serve 325 to 400 people; there’s an annual clothing drive; and each Thursday the church opens its food pantry.

St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in Breckenridge  focuses its ministry on serving those who struggle to live in a high cost resort community by providing a free dinner each week, transporting food to St. George’s, Leadville, giving to the local food bank, offering free Thanksgiving dinner ingredients to local families, and a festive meal  for veterans and their families during the Wounded Heroes Week. Partnering with the local Family Intercultural Resource Center, assistance has been provided to local DACA recipients. Outside the Diocese, teams of from St. John’s and the local community, guided by the expressed needs of the Honduran people, engage in medical, construction and educational projects in outlying communities in Honduras. Additionally, ongoing activities to address racial justice issues are offered to the parish and those in the region.

Grace’s Kitchen provides lunches three times a week – hot lunches on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and a sack lunch on Saturdays – to the needy in Cortez. Begun as an outreach program of the Episcopal Parish of St. Barnabas of the Valley, the meals are prepared in the church kitchen, and served in the fellowship hall. On any given day, anywhere from 35 to 120 people are served.

Good Samaritan Center in Cortez is open four afternoons a week to provide people in need with food, clothing or other assistance. But more than that, volunteers listen, care, respond and comfort them, pray with them and for them after they leave. The Rev. Cindy Irvin, retired deacon at the Episcopal Parish of St. Barnabas of the Valley is the longtime director of Good Shepherd, and parishioners at St. Barnabas regularly support the  ministry.

Join Us

Interested in becoming  a Jubilee Ministry of The Episcopal Church in Colorado? The criteria for Jubliee Ministry recognition are that 1) Must be an Episcopal Congregation, Episcopal cluster or an ecumenical cluster with Episcopal presence, and/or an agency with connections to the Episcopal Church. 2) Must be involved in mission and ministry among and with poor and oppressed people wherever they are located. 3) The mission and ministry must be rooted in worship. 4) The mission and ministry must include several programs, including at least one human rights advocacy program and one human services program.

Once designated a Jubilee Center, the ministry must be willing to demonstrate the operation of its programs to others as models, maintain “how to” files, act as a resource center and funnel for information, and be subject to annual review.

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