HOUSE NEWS: Thanks and consider helping the GCW with your holiday giving

Dear friends,

Last week was our final “active” week of the semester. This week we’ll be finishing up a few odds-and-ends and then taking a holiday break until

Tommy with his "new" bike

the beginning of January. We wanted to take this time to thank all of you for everything you have given to make this semester at the GCW a good one. We are always grateful for how many people seem to find something in this work that they can find joy in and to which they commit themselves.

We also want to invite you to consider supporting the work here at the GCW with a financial gift this holiday season if you are able. We have always undertaken this work based on the premise that it will resonate with many people and that if many of us give a little, then we will find we have what we need to continue to move forward. As you know, no one at the GCW is paid. We are not a social service agency and we do not receive grants or funds from the government. The folks who live at the GCW contribute to help make ends meet, and we rely on friends, family members and supporters to help us continue the work. If you have the means and can offer a gift this holiday, we hope you’ll do so. Checks can be sent to the GCW, 218 NW 2^nd Ave, Gainesville, FL 32601. (One note: This is not a tax-deductible gift. We are not a registered non-profit organization and we try to model

Leroy and Vickie on dishes

sacrificial giving in our community. If you want to know more about our decision to not register as a non-profit, feel free to contact us.)

Lastly, it has been right around ten years since Kelli started the Breakfast Brigade and Dorothy’s Café, as well as close to 6 years since we purchased this house and expanded our work. We have decided that it is time to revisit the vision that has guided the GCW for these many years and to evaluate what the next steps for our community and our work will be. To that end, beginning in January, we will be entering into a period of discernment with several long-time and committed members of the extended GCW community. This discernment period will go through the spring semester and encompass reflection on what we have been and done and where we want to go from here. The vision that sustains a community like the GCW needs to be revisited and evaluated every so often to take into consideration what we have learned, in what direction we are being called, and how to get there. We will arrange our community life and schedule in such a way as to allow us adequate space and time to reflect deeply and seriously. We’ll share a little more about

Football fun on Saturdays!

this process with you when we restart in January and we hope you’ll help us in the process as the months go by next semester.

Thanks again for being part of the GCW. We hope you have a peaceful, joyful holiday.

In peace,

Kelli and John

HOUSE NEWS: Final Breakfast Brigade of the semester

Dear friends,

For a complete schedule of this week, click here.

THANKS: A special thanks to everyone who answered our call for blankets, glasses and pots last week. We are set on both glasses and pots now. We can still use blankets, so feel free to bring blankets by anytime if you have extra.

LAST BREAKFAST BRIGADE OF THE SEMESTER: This Friday morning will be our last Breakfast Brigade of the semester. Last week we started a sign-up process for the Brigade to try to make it a more manageable, as well as enjoyable experience. If you want to sign up for this week’s Brigade, please send an email to gvillecw@yahoo.com or send us a message on Facebook. We’ll send a note out to folks no later than early Thursday to let you know if you’re on the schedule for this week.

DOROTHY’S CAFE: We’re still on for the Cafe this week and next, so join us if you can, especially between 10-12 or 12-2 when we’re a little shorthanded. December 16 will be the last Cafe of the semester. We’ll “officially” be taking a break for the holidays beginning Thursday, December 17 through the beginning of January.

In peace,

John

HOUSE NEWS: As the semester winds down…

Dear friends,

For a complete list of what is happening at the GCW this week, click here.

HOUSE NEEDS: By the end of each semester, we typically find that we are starting to run out of a few necessities at the house. We need the following items:

• Drinking glasses for Dorothy’s Cafe. One of the differences at the GCW is that the folks who join us for meals get to eat off of real dishes, with tablecloths and cloth napkins, flowers on the table, and so on. Keeping up our supply of glasses is always difficult because we use so many of them and they break so easily.
• Blankets. Any blankets will do. We have already given out over a 100 blankets this year, and with the winter starting to come around, we anticipate more folks needing them.
• Dutch Oven-sized pots. We could use 1-2 Dutch Oven-sized pots. We had two when we started the semester, but one went missing and the other is no longer usable.

If you are in a position to help, please do.  And if possible, please remember us in your holiday giving this year!

MASS AND THANKSGIVING: Join us at 6pm on Thursday for our first Thursday Mass with our chaplain, Fr. John Phillips. Following Mass, we’ll share a potluck dinner and be celebrating the end of another semester at the GCW. In particular, we’ll be thanking Kim and Lawrence for their time with us at the house and blessing them on their next steps. We hope you can join us!

NEW PROCEDURE FOR BREAKFAST BRIGADE: Starting this Friday, we’ll be doing Breakfast Brigade a little differently than we have in years past. We’re asking folks who want to do Breakfast Brigade to “sign up” for it ahead of time. We’ve been a little overwhelmed by the number of volunteers lately, and we want to make sure that everyone who would like to gets a chance to help with the Brigade, and that it is fully experienced by those participating. So we’ll be limiting the number of volunteers each week to about 6-8 folks. If you want to do Brigade this week or next (the last two Brigades before we take a break for the holidays), please email us back at gvillecw@yahoo.com or put your name down on the list at the house which will be posted on the refrigerator.

Thanks again to everyone for all of your kindness and care as we do this work together.

In peace,

John

REFLECTION: On the 29th anniversary of Dorothy Day’s death

Dorothy Day passed away on November 29, 1980, after nearly a half-century of leading by word and example the Catholic Worker movement. Dorothy is “up for sainthood” in the Catholic Church, and many who have not otherwise known of her life and work have become familiar with her and the Catholic Worker movement through the effort to have her named a saint.

On this day, the anniversary of her death, we share with you a short prayer sent to us by a friend in New Jersey:

Prayer for the Intercession of Servant of God Dorothy Day

God our Creator,
your servant Dorothy Day exemplified the
Catholic faith by her conversion,
life of prayer and voluntary poverty,
works of mercy, and witness to the justice and peace of the Gospel.

May her life inspire people to turn to Christ as their Savior and guide,
to see his face in the world’s poor and
to raise their voices for the justice of God’s kingdom.

We pray that you grant the favors we ask
through her intercession so that her goodness
and holiness may be more widely recognized
and one day the Church may proclaim her Saint.

We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

NO BREAKFAST BRIGADE, “Science and Religion” at the Roundtable, SOA trip!

For a complete schedule of events happening at the house this week, please click here.

There will be no Breakfast Brigade this week and next due to our trip to the School of the Americas and the Thanksgiving holidays. Please spread the word! When we return in December, there will be some changes. – stay tuned.

On Thursday, long-time friend of the house and doctoral student in engineering Dave Cheney will lead a roundtable entitled “Science and Religion: Where is Truth?” Please join us from 6-7:30, and bring a dish to share if you can.

If you are interested in a ride or in caravaning with us to Ft. Bening for the SOA protest, please give us a call or an email and we will try to hook you up. We will be leaving the houes at 9 on Friday morning, with one additional car leaving at 2pm. Please call ahead of time to make sure we have space for you if you need a ride.

One last heads up: There will also be no cafe next week on the day before Thanksgiving. A number of groups will be preparing massive holiday meals the following day, so we are taking a break to be with family!

Have a great week!

HOUSE NEWS: Happy Birthday Dorothy Day!

Dear friends,

For a complete schedule of events happening at the house this week, please click here.

Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOROTHY DAY: Yesterday, November 8, would have been Dorothy’s 112th birthday. Many people believe Dorothy to have been the most influential Catholic of the 20th century, and it is indeed her witness that led our founding members to want to begin a Catholic Worker in Gainesville. For a brief blog entry that Kelli wrote yesterday about two of her great influences (Dorothy being one; Wendell Berry the other), click here.

WOMEN-ONLY ROUNDTABLE THIS WEEK: This Thursday at 6pm, we’ll hold our first ever “women-only” Roundtable. The topic is Women in Islam and we’ll be joined by women from the University of Florida group, Islam on Campus. This Roundtable will be an opportunity for women to dialogue across faith traditions, share their stories and build friendships. Kimberly set up a Facebook group for the Roundtable here. Pleas bring a dish to share if you can!

WANT TO LIVE AT THE GCW? We’ll be finalizing our in-house community for the Spring 2010 semester sometime in the next two weeks. Several folks have already inquired about living at the house as part of our immersion experience, the Metanoia semester. If you’re interested and want to know more, contact Johnny within the next 7-10 days and let us know of your interest.

WE NEED BLANKETS: With the recent cool nights, we have depleted our inventory of blankets at the house. Though the nights have been a little warmer the past few days, more cool nights are around the corner. Typically we give out between 5-15 blankets each of the first few days when a new cold front moves in. Feel free to drop blankets by the house before 10am each day or after 3pm.

JUSTFAITH AND FOOTBALL–SATURDAYS AT THE GCW: Thanks to the JustFaith groups which have been providing some snacks and beverages for the Saturday football games at the house several times this semester. JustFaith-Gainesville group #1 did a great job this past Saturday (a lot of football fans were here!), and JustFaith-Gainesville group #2 will be joining us for the South Carolina-UF game at 3:30pm this Saturday. Thanks so much!

Thanks again for your kindness and support! Hope to see you this week!

In peace,

John

HOUSE NEWS: Remembering those who have gone before us

Dear friends,

For this week’s complete schedule, click here.

(We keep adding new folks regularly to our email list, but we also wanted to let people know that if they are on Facebook, the Gainesville Catholic Worker does have a Facebook page too and we’d love to have you join us there as well!)

ALL SAINTS DAY: Also called Day of the Dead, each November 1st we remember all those who have gone before us and their influence on our lives. Kelli wrote a reflection on this yesterday on her blog. At the GCW, we take the entire month of November to remember and recall the names of those people who have gone before us–family members, mentors, friends, heroes and heroines, and so on. We’ll have on display a board at the house where visitors, volunteers, guests and anyone else who passes through our doors can write the name of anyone they’d like us to remember in prayer this month.

FOOTBALL SATURDAYS CONTINUE: Special thanks to the JustFaith group from St. Catherine of Siena in Orange Park who provided sandwiches, iced tea, and snack foods for a lively group of folks who took in the Florida-Georgia game at our home this past weekend. This Saturday, we have another JustFaith group, this one from Gainesville, providing snacks and beverages for the LSU-Alabama game (UF-Vandy is on ESPN and we don’t get cable). This is a chance for some of our friends who may not have anywhere else to relax on Saturdays to join us for some camaraderie and fun while watching football at the house. Thanks to the groups who continue to make this happen. Photos from past games can be found here.

MOVIE AND MASS THIS WEEK: On Wednesday, at 7pm, we’ll be showing the award-winning documentary, Trouble the Water, a movie that despite having Hurricane Katrina as its backdrop, says, “It is not about a hurricane… It’s about America.” And on Thursday at 6pm, we’ll be celebrating our First Thursday Mass with Fr. John Phillips at the house. Everyone is welcome to join us and we’ll follow the service with a potluck dinner (so bring a dish to share if you can!)

SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS TRIP: Each November, we take a group of folks to the annual vigil and action to close the School of the Americas in Columbus, GA. It is important that we get an accurate count of who will be joining us so we have enough car-space and hotel-space once we get there. To confirm that you plan on coming (we’ll be leaving Friday, November 20 at around 9am and returning Sunday, November 22 in the early evening), either sign up on the Facebook page for the event or email us back confirming your interest asap.

Hope everyone has a good week and we look forward to seeing you around the house!

In peace,

John

HOUSE NEWS: Rudy is home, thanks to the CIW and a relatively light week

Dear friends,

For a complete schedule for this week, click here.

Friends from the CIW

COALITION OF IMMOKALEE WORKERS: It is always such a great honor for us to host our friends from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers whenever they come to town–whether just coming through on one of their educational tours or stopping by to lead us in a rally or protest on behalf of a fair and just food system. To see photos of their visit with us this past weekend, click here.  Special thanks to everyone who showed up either Saturday at UF or Publix or on Sunday at the house for breakfast. Your solidarity and help was very much appreciated! To keep up with the CIW and their efforts to get Publix to sit down and talk to them, visit http://www.ciw-online.org.

THE RETURN OF RUDY: Some of you might have seen yesterday our message about Rudy. Rudy went missing for about 3.5 hours yesterday, but luckily, as I was putting up fliers on the block around our house, two young people drove by with a small, familiar dog in their car. When they got out to look at the sign down the block, I knew that much to Rudy’s benefit, he had been picked up and found by some folks susceptible to his charms. Thanks Tanya and Mike for bringing him back to us!

FLORIDA-GEORGIA COURTESY OF JUSTFAITH: The good folks from JustFaith are providing snack food and beverages this Saturday at 3:30pm for our friends who will be stopping by to take in the game at the house. For other folks interested in weekend projects like this one, contact us anytime and we’ll work out a good weekend that works for you and our guests and friends.

ROUNDTABLE WITH THE WOMEN FROM ARBOR HOUSE: Miriam, the Program Coordinator at Arbor House (AH), will be bringing 3 moms from AH to share about their program at this week’s Roundtable on Thursday at 6pm. AH is a Christian Maternity Home & Motherhood Community for adult homeless women. They offer long term transitional housing while the women further their education. The goal is to enhance their academic or career qualifications so that they can earn closer to a living wage & be able to better support their family. The women attend daily classes at AH that include life skills, Bible Study, parenting, health & wellness & more. Three afternoons per week they are paid to work on site in the Cottage Industry making cloth bags & purses, greeting cards, quilts & more. The women will share some of the items they have made on Thursday night & tell you about themselves & their goals. Bring a dish to share if you can!

A RELATIVELY LIGHT WEEK: Looking over the schedule for this week, I noticed that it seems a little lighter than normal. For all the help over the past several extra busy weeks, we thank you, as always. You are all wonderful and we are grateful for your continuing presence and support.

In peace,

John

HOUSE NEWS: Farmworkers’ rights, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, healthcare reform and more

Dear friends,

For a complete list of events at the house this week, click here.

SOLIDARITY WITH FARMWORKERS: We’re honored to have members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers stay with us this weekend as they come to Gainesville as part of a month-long series of protests aimed at encouraging Publix supermarkets to join them at the negotiating table. You’ll have several opportunities to meet with the farmworkers while in town: 1) At 2pm on Saturday on the UF campus at a protest directed at Aramark, the food service provider; 2) at 4pm that same day at the Publix supermarket on University Ave and 34th Street; 3) at the Civic Media Center for a film and educational event also on Saturday at 6pm; and 4) at the GCW on Sunday morning (around 8am) for breakfast. We encourage folks to come out in support of the workers. If you join us Sunday morning for breakfast, let us know if you can bring some juice or fruit to share. For more on the CIW, visit http://www.ciw-online.org.

PRAY THE DEVIL BACK TO HELL: Twice a month on Wednesdays, we feature a movie at the GCW for anyone who would like to attend. This week, Kim has chosen to share the film “Pray the Devil Back to Hell,” a powerful story about how Liberian women brought the civil war in that African country to an end. Movie will start at 7pm. Join us if you can!

ROUNDTABLE ON HEALTHCARE: We’re excited to have this week’s roundtable on healthcare, a topic for which there has been a lot of misinformation and demagoguery in the national media. Dave Chynoweth, longtime member of the GCW and retired UF professor, will lead us in a discussion on healthcare in the U.S., reform and more. Bring a dish to share on Thursday at 6pm if you can!

HOW ABOUT LIVING AT THE GCW FOR A SEMESTER? Each semester, we invite folks who are interested in what it is like to live and work at the Gainesville Catholic Worker to consider spending a semester with us. This semester-long immersion experience is called the Metanoia semester, and if you think you might be interested, let us know so we can talk. We’d like to have our “house community” set for the January-May 2010 semester by mid- to late-November. So if you’re interested in living and working as part of an intentional, faith-based community, get in touch with John or Kelli.

In peace,

John

HOUSE NEWS: The Blue House is turning green (literally)

Dear friends,

For a complete calendar of events for the house this week, click here.

First, let me welcome all the new folks who signed up to join our email list at my workshop in Jacksonville last weekend, our anniversary party last Sunday, and after Masses at St. Augustine Church and Catholic Student Center where I spoke yesterday. If you’re new to the email list, we typically send out a quick email on Monday mornings letting folks know what is happening at the house this week and inviting you to join us for any project that interests you. And if you’re on Facebook, feel free to join our group there too!

BLUE HOUSE GOES GREEN (LITERALLY): Over the past few weeks, we’ve been really blessed to have Danny, a long-term guest with us, fixing up a number of things around the house. From building and putting in new window screens to pulling out rotten wood on the frame and replacing it, the house is undergoing a steady transformation. But this weekend at Danny’s urging, we got bold and decided to paint the house, a project long on our list of things to do. So if you come by this week, you’ll see that the “Blue House” is slowly becoming the “Green House.” We like it and we hope you will too.

COALITION OF IMMOKALEE WORKERS TO GAINESVILLE, OCTOBER 24-25: Our good friends from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers will be in Gainesville with us the weekend of October 24-25 and they are looking to speak to groups, especially churches, on Sunday morning, October 25. Here’s the scoop:

“Farmworkers of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) will be visiting Gainesville on the weekend of Oct. 24th and 25th and are available to share in congregations about the conditions faced by farmworkers and how people of faith can join in improving them. They are available for Minute for Missions or a presentation after services or to share with youth or adults at religious education classes. The CIW is a community-based farmworker organization that has uncovered and assisted the US Department of Justice in prosecuting six cases of modern-day slavery in the Florida fields, freeing over 1,000 workers. Members of the CIW have been recognized with the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, 2007 Anti-Slavery International Award, and the Cardinal Bernardin New Leadership Award. For more information or if you are interested in having a farmworker share with your congregation, please contact Brigitte at info@interfaithact.org or 239-986-0688.”

If you think your church/synagogue/mosque might be interested, contact Brigitte. More information on other events with the CIW for that weekend will be posted next week.

YES WE CAN…CHANGE THE WORLD: Our roundtable-potluck this Thursday is entitled “Yes, We Can Change the World,” and will be led by the GCW’s own Kimberly Hunter. Each of us changes the world somehow each day with our words and actions. Why not use our power, intelligence, and energy to work for positive, achievable change right here at home in Gainesville? Come out and join other Gainesville residents as we decide which issue(s) to tackle first and how to organize and begin. You can read more about Kim’s plans on Facebook. Bring a dish to share if you can!

RECAP OF LAST WEEK: A quick thanks to all of the folks who have been donating socks at St. Augustine Church and Catholic Student Center the past few weeks through the Christian Service Ministry there. We have received hundreds of sock and we’re now running a “sock exchange” out of the house, exchanging people’s dirty socks for clean ones, then washing the dirty ones and passing those on as needed. We almost had one of our friends die last year from a bad

Go Gators, Beat LSU!

infection that began with his feet, after wearing the same pair of socks for weeks. So thanks to all who have contributed.  Also, we had our largest cafe to date this year last Wednesday, with over 130 turning out for Santa Fe Chowder, apparently a new favorite soup of many. And we had about 20-25 folks join us for the Gator-LSU game Saturday night. All-in-all, a busy week, and we’re grateful to all of you who helped out, contributed, and so on. Many, many thanks!

Have a great week!

In peace,

John