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

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

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

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

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

Dear friends,

Our good friends from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers will be in Gainesville the weekend of October 24-25. They’ll be staying here with us at the Blue House. They are looking to speak to groups, especially churches, on Sunday morning, October 25. Read the blurb below:

Coalition of Immokalee Workers

“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 anyone is interested, contact Brigitte.

Peace,

John

Bones and Kimberly at the GCW 2009 Anniversary Party

Dear friends,

For the schedule for this week, click here.

GCW ANNIVERSARY PARTY: Thanks to everyone who joined us yesterday for the anniversary party. It was a fantastic day, with a ton of people dropping by, hanging our and celebrating with us between 1-4pm. We’re grateful to everyone who brought food and drink, especially the JustFaith group from San Juan del Rio Catholic Church over near Jacksonville. You can see photos from the day on our Flickr account here. We’re also grateful to everyone who posted notes on our Facebook page for the event. Some folks also asked about how they could help with a contribution toward the work we do at the house. If you want to make a gift, you can make a check out to the GCW and send it to us at the house address, 218 NW 2nd Ave, Gainesville, 32601. Thanks again to everyone for a very special day!

LATEST GCW NEWSLETTER AVAILABLE ONLINE: We also published our first newsletter in a year, just in time for the party yesterday. You can see the newsletter by clicking here or send us your address if you’d like to be added to our mailing list and receive a hard copy in the mail.

SPECIAL VIEWING OF “CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY”: We’ll be taking a group of people to see the new Michael Moore movie, “Capitalism: A Love Story,” for the 7pm showing on Tuesday of this week. If you want to join us, meet at the GCW between 6-6:30pm for a ride to the theater. We’ve been given a gift to cover the cost of a number of tickets for the show but if anyone else wants to chip in so we can take as many people as possible, please let us know. Thanks! For more on the movie, click here to read Kelli’s thoughts.

ROUNDTABLE ON RITUAL, PERFORMANCE AND THE CREATIVE PROCESS: Join us this week as GCW regular Leah Sarat, a PhD student in the religion department at UF joins us to lead a roundtable on “Working Playfully and Playing Workfully: Understanding Ritual, Performance and Creativity.” Leah will be leading us in an exploration of ritual, performance, and the creative process, with the hope of gaining some insights that can be applied to our social justice work. We’ll talk a bit about the relationship between ideas and action, body and mind, and the role of memory in ritual. Bring a dish to share if you can!

Hope you’ll join us this week for any of these activities and more!

In peace,

John

To read the full schedule for this week, click here.

Dear friends,

To read the full schedule for this week, click here.

GCW ANNIVERSARY PARTY ON OCTOBER 4: Each October, we celebrate the beginning of the Gainesville Catholic Worker community. We started 9 years ago, October 2000, in a little house (Jeremiah House) just two blocks from our current home. We feel it is important to give thanks and celebrate with all of our friends and supporters who have been essential to keep this house going. Whether you are near of far, we invite you to join us for food, music, some speakers, and more from 1-4pm, Sunday, October 4. We’re excited to have the JustFaith group from San Juan Del Rio

Past GCW anniversary party!

Church over near Jacksonville join us that day and provide much of the hospitality, but we also want to encourage everyone who can to try and bring some food or drink, potluck-style. We are so hopeful that many of you will join us.! So mark it down: Sunday, October 4, 1-4pm.

EDUCATION ROUNDTABLE: This Thursday, from 6-7:30pm, we’re happy to have with us Diedre Houchen, good friend to the GCW, mother, teacher and activist. Diedre has a background in education, anti-racism work, sustainability and community-building. Diedre will be addressing issues around education, our educational system and how race and class factor into our educational policies and priorities. We hope you can join us! It is a potluck dinner so bring something to share if you can!

NEW TRUCK FOR THE GCW: Just over a year ago, our old truck gave out. We made do with the Pathfinder, but frankly, for so much of the work we do–hauling garden equipment, picking up food from the farmers’ market, moving people into apartments and so on–a truck is so, so, so much better. And to our great delight, Jon Meinholz, a regular volunteer with us and parishioner of Holy Faith Catholic Church, donated us his old truck a few weeks back. We are so grateful to Jon and for what this means for our work at the house. Kelli wrote a nice blog entry about Jon, his truck and caring for things last week. You can see the truck and read more by clicking here. Thanks so much Jon!

DAYS OF AWE AND PEACE: Today is officially the International Day of Peace/Prayer for Peace. The organization I work for, Pax Christi USA, is sponsoring actions and prayers and other events to mark this day throughout the country. If possible, we ask everyone to take a moment today and to pray for peace in our world. Also, these next few days are called the “Days of Awe” in the Jewish calendar, marking the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Kelli recently wrote about the connection Jews make between this time of year and the work of “mending the world” – click here to read her post. And to our Muslim friends who just completed the month of Ramadan, we give thanks for your witness!

WE NEED BLANKETS, SOCKS: Even though the weather hasn’t turned yet, we’re in need of a handful of blankets at the GCW. We have folks regularly come by looking for something to cover them for the night, and we’re plum out of blankets to give away right now. Last week we got three requests and were able to find a sheet, old tablecloth and some fabric, but it’s nice to keep a few blankets on hand. If you can donate an old one to the house, it would be much appreciated. AND at St. Augustine Catholic Church and Student Center, the good folks on the Christian Service Committee are collecting socks for us to give out to our guests and visitors to the house. Foot hygiene is a big deal for homeless folks and we’ve instituted a “swap-a-sock” program at the house where people can give us their dirty socks and we’ll give them a clean pair in return. There is a nice bin (courtesy of Kimberly) in the vestibule of the church for folks to drop off new socks for us to hand out.

Hope everyone has a great week and we look forward to seeing you at the house!

In peace,
John

Kiki and the works of mercy

I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day. – E.B. White

In Jewish tradition, these are the Days of Awe – the span of ten days between Rosh Hashanah, the birthday of the creation of the world, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It’s a time to examine one’s life and ways before your fate is sealed.  Sharon Astyk writes just beautifully on this tradition in the context of our environmental crisis in a recent post where she describes how and where she finds hope.

Reading it, I was reminded of another Jewish woman who inspired me a couple years ago with her description of these high holy days. Sharon Brous, a rabbi, was interviewed by Krista Tippett on how she brings this ancient tradition to bear meaning to her young congregation:

This is a moment when we celebrate the possibility of transformation, the possibility that every single one of us can be re-created . . . [a time] in which we identify that we have a real purpose and meaning in the world and that we can redirect our lives so that we’re actually responsively going after those priorities. . . We actually have the capacity to radically transform the way we understand our lives and the world. So really this is a moment of celebration.

To read the rest of this post on Kelli’s blog, click here.