www.singlescenter.com

Jubilee2000

by Betty Van Volkenburg
Publisher, The Singles Center
December 1999

Looking for a great way to commemorate the new Millenium? Try Jubilee2000 - referenced in "A Resolution to support the remission of debt to the poorest nations" as Submitted by the Task Force on Public Policy at the 68^th Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester NY on November 11-13, 1999.

According to the Resolution, "the Bible teaches us that everything belongs to God. Ancient Israel, in responding to this theological conviction, introduced the concept of a Jubilee Year when debts were remitted, land was re-distributed and slaves were set free. The Jubilee Year gives recognition to something that we all know: not everyone has an equal opportunity to share in the generosity of God’s creation. The Bible also teaches that forgiveness is central to God’s method of healing. Even in our society this tenet is applied to those people who get into trouble with their credit. This is the moral principle behind our bankruptcy laws."

As mentioned in the Resolution, "The cost to the American taxpayer to forgive loans to the poorest of the poor nations has been calculated at $3. per American taxpayer." That’s a small investment to help our world citizens and commemorate the new millenium.

The moral principle of Jubilee2000 was put into national practice recently when the US Congress responded to ecumenical lobbying from Episcopal, Catholic and Protestant churches, and passed a bill on November 15, 1999 for debt relief for the world’s poorest countries. The Episcopal Life reported "Analysts predict the package will be enough to set in motion an international agreement to leverage nearly $90 billion in debt relief to the world’s poorest countries. The U.S. holds only 3 percent of all such debt."

Share the wealth:

The January 1, 2000 feature story in our online Singles, The Magazine for Today's Single will have more details on Jubilee2000 programs but the focus of The Singles Center for 2000 will be on sharing our God given blessings with those less fortunate, locally or globally, in as many creative ways as our members can suggest.

The first way we will do this is by donating 10% of the Membership fees to non-profit community organizations. In researching ways to handle this we discovered two internet sites that handle online donations.  The first  www.mycause.com   has 275,000 organizations that receive donations of varying percents from your online shopping.  The second  www.charitableway.com   is an excellent example of using the internet to benefit the community.  They have a variety of ways that contributions to worthwhile organizations can be made, including workplace donating.  We will be working with one or both of these sites to allow our visitors and members to make donations to their choice of charities in addition to our donation from Membership fees.

Other sharing ways will be added as we receive suggestions, but we will also be doing fund-raising events and online fund-raising shopping with non-profit organizations receiving 90% of the profits on selected products in our shopping galleria.

Walk the talk:

We urge you to get involved in turning the Jubilee2000 moral principles into practice. Our January 1 feature will have suggestions on how you may do this, but you may have your own unique ideas.  We’d like to hear your suggestions, and your stories of how you are accomplishing this. Send your stories  to us.

Our single Role Model candidates are single people who know all about sharing with those less fortunate. You can read their stories and vote for your favorite until December 30^th. The winner of our 1999 Role Model Search program will be announced on The Singles Center on December 31, and their personal story will be published on our site on January 16^th.

New Millenium Look:

We’re working on creating a new look for the new millenium and expect to have the first pages ready for publication with our January 1 issue, with the balance of the site due to be completed by the end of January. With a part-time and volunteer staff we have to patiently pace ourselves, but God willing, this is the year we will add full time staff to make this site the best site for singles on the internet.

Volunteer Coordinators and Tour Escorts:

We will continue with some part-time and volunteer staff and are looking for people interested in being volunteer coordinators for their town or city. Coordinators receive free membership benefits from The Singles Center like free trips, and would be responsible for submitting local healthy resources for singles, assisting with local networking or fund-raising events, and being tour escorts on our single trips. If you’re interested use our contact form.