Jubilee! Circle: Where "Church"
Doesn't Mean What You Think it Means

Jubilee! Circle is a progressive, inclusive community, influenced by Creation Spirituality, ecumenical, feminist, and traditional Christian theologies.

We respect and value each person's spiritual path. Whether you come from a church background, a religious background other than Christianity, or no religious background at all, you are welcome here.

At each Celebration we express our faith through music, dance, poetry, prayer, evocative messages, and fellowship. No matter who you are, or where you are on life's journey, you're welcome at Jubilee! Circle. Join us!

Meeting days: Sunday

Meeting time: 11 a.m.

Monthly Schedule:

First Sunday: Recycled Sermon Sunday and Monthly Potluck

Second, Third and Fifth Sundays: Celebration Service

Third Sunday: Faith on Film: "Living the Questions" an introduction to progressive Christianity

Meeting place: 2730 Millwood Avenue, Columbia, SC

Map and directions

Contact Us

The Via Transformativa:
From Glory to Glory

I have to admit, up front, that I don't care for the title of this Via Transformativa. I tried to think of other ways to express this via's theme, but nothing came to me except the poetry of the Apostle Paul. Writing in his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul gives this nice rhetorical exposition about covenant. He tells the early Christian community that they are different from their Hebrew cousins because in their old covenant, there was a curtain - a veil - between them and God. Whenever Moses approached God, he had to veil his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory of God shining forth from him.

Those days are gone, Paul says. When Jesus came into the world, he removed the veil so that every one of us can shine brightly. We don't need the veil because there's no need for our glory - our innate holiness - to be dimmed. Instead, Jesus knew, and Paul understands, that this dark old world needs all the light it can get.

That word, though - glory. I don't like it. It smacks of arrogance. It smacks of too much of the arrogance and exclusion that many Christians proclaim these days. It feels like a pissing match, "My glory is better than your glory."

I searched for other words that mean the same thing like dignity, eminence, exaltation, grandeur, greatness, honor, magnificence, majesty or splendor. None of them, though, seemed to match the simple beauty of Paul's words - that with our faces unveiled, with our holiness shining for all to see, we are transformed into the same image as the divine - from glory to glory.

You know what that means, don't you? It means, we are already in glory - we are already blessed. We already have dignity, and greatness, and magnificence and splendor. No matter where you are in your life right now - you're in glory, you're in grandeur - and it's no delusion - it's real. Whether you judge your current situation as terrible or triumphant - the reality is this: you are already in a glorified state. The terrible times are just as much a blessing as the triumphant times - and this is what we're called to understand during this Via Transformativa.

Let us go from glory to glory, Jubilants, and in each moment remember to say: "Oh, Yeah!"