Understanding Jubilee 2025
What is a jubilee? Jubilee years are a time of newness. They have been celebrated throughout the history of the Church, but their roots go back to the Old Testament, when the Israelites were commanded to celebrate a jubilee every 50 years. Beginning with the blowing of a ram's horn-the yobel, from which the word jubilee comes-on the Day of Atonement, it was meant to be a kind of 'reset' or 'refresh' for their relationship with God and with each other. Debts would be forgiven, misappropriated land returned, slaves freed, and the land given rest. It was a stark and dramatic reminder for the ancient Israelites that nothing was absolutely theirs-not even the Promised Land. The Israelites were to live as if everything was a grace and blessing from the God who brought them out of Egypt.
Logo Explanation
The Jubilee 2025 logo the most striking part of the logo for this jubilee is the cross: bending towards humanity and forming an anchor, it depicts the cross as something to cling to, especially in rough seas. It is a contemporary 'riff' on an old biblical image. The epistle to the Hebrews describes the hope we have in Christ as 'an anchor of the soul, as sure as it is firm' (6:19). The cross is not a dead symbol from the past. It is a living sign of God's unfathomable love, and one that carries us together in pilgrimage towards heaven.
Amen!