Taylor Ranch Report

Bruce Mulkey asked me to share a report on the board retreat at Taylor Ranch with our beautiful community.
Humbly, I will begin with the poem the Lord of dreams offered as I awoke this Sunday. Inspired by Laura Collins’ observation that in the Gaelic tradition, the wild goose is considered an avatar of the Holy Spirit:

Trí Ghé Fhiáine
three wild geese (Gaelic)

As the first frost comes
I find myself familiarly waking in a new house too early
Full of friends and strangers
Confusing my right and left, over-trusting GPS,
Underscored by memory.
Surrounded by strong, wise women.

And so it was as I crested the hill
One already brought the Word.
One brought the wood.
Three wild geese moved over the waters.

Later, down to shirtsleeves, a calico albino and braided donkey
Observed our full company
A circle in the Sun
21st-century apostles, iPhones connecting the one in Zion
We sit,
awaiting Pentecost.

In the Hindu tradition, in many traditions, actually, the fire is a symbol of renewal. And so we began our retreat with the building of a fire.

Molly split the first log.

Laura Collins opened with the invocation of blessing and a series of questions …
How did you feel, when …
Howard said he is leaving …
On Amy’s 1st Sunday …
When Howard suffered his stroke …
We think of those who left Jubilee …
As Covid affects our community …
As racial equality uprisings come to past …
We processed these and many other questions into two cards; one described what we wish to bring to Jubilee in this season.
We placed this card in our pocket.
The other described what we wished to let go in this apocalypse (attic greek: lifting the veil).
This we placed in the fire.
We shared our gratitude, for the community, for the staff, for the setting, for each other.
For Amy.
As the Sun stubbornly shied away from our fire, we moved our circle a tad west and enjoyed Delia’s excellent cooking.
Patrick recapped the work we have done as a community this fiscal year to date (it is much) and our current financial health (it is stable).
We then reflected on the fear and excitement of being a congregation in interesting times.
We touched on the need for quiet and discernment. Observing how Spirit moves each of our hearts. How Spirit moves the collective soul of Jubilee in the deep ground of the Via Negativa.

We shared a few of the crazy ideas we have brewing in our brains:
A rooftop concert to christen our return to Wall St. Think the Beatles or U2.
Hanging gardens that serve the community as educational labs and food resources.
Small group dinners. Sunday morning hybrid meetings. Pods of Jubilants that call and check in on each other in a one kind thing vein.
During Covid opening the Patton Ave. space for short term leasing to non-profits, professionals, artists, and healers while the pandemic limits our options to come closer.
Post Covid opening our Celebration Space up during the week to the community as a sanctuary for the weird.
Continue our education on racial equity to prepare us to make real change, not whitewashing.

We concluded with the commitment to allow Spirit to move as She will through this community and through these ideas. We moved to continue the 2nd stage of the retreat, which I have nicknamed the knitty gritty, on Nov. 17.

We closed singing All Shall be Well.

And so it shall be. Thank you, dear Jubilee, for sharing this unexpected journey.

In service,
John David