Jarrod McKenna: recovering consumer, peace preaching eco-evangelist, larrikin seditionist & one day want-a-be permaculturalist
Contact Information:
Phone: The Peace Tree Community (08) 93771258City: Perth
State/Province: WA
Country: au
"Jarrod McKenna and friends are beautiful examples of this new breed of emerging integral leaders. I thank God for them. May their tribe increase!" -Brian McLaren, (Emerging Church Leader, activist and author)
"Amazing that we should need to tell Christians that Jesus taught and surely lived a non violent life! And almost as amazing —and wonderful— that a young Christian like Jarrod McKenna should be able to teach it so well in our time and culture!" -Richard Rohr, OFM (Founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation)
(More from Brian McLaren and others at bottom of page)
Jarrod McKenna’s Bio:
Gandhi said "I claim to be no more than an average person with less than average ability". This is even more true of Jarrod McKenna (!) who is nothing exceptional, (clearly seen from his second hand op-shop (or fair trade) clothes and dreads) just someone seeking to lose his life in living God’s love. Jarrod McKenna is the youngest person to be awarded the Donald Groom Peace Fellowship for his work for peace and (eco)justice. In particular with young people through EPYC (but secretly he would have prefered to win Australian Idol instead.) Here’s some info on the award:
Maybe it’s Jarrod’s ‘regularness’ (or goofiness pictured left) is why diverse groups from big churches to small forest campaigns, The Wilderness Society to primary schools, the Young United Nations to spiritual retreats (for the not so young), often ask him to speak on spirituality, ecology, poverty, prayer, peace, (eco)justice and Jesus. (They figure "if Jarrod can do this stuff, anyone can!"). Realising he can’t do that on his own, he’s been one of the catalysts for the Peace Tree Commune in one of their cities lowest socio-economic areas inspired by community movements like the Early Quakers, the Catholic Worker Movement, the Anabaptists and other groups which have lived lives like Love has started the transformation of all things not through a military leader armed with bombs but through a crucified servant armed with a towel.
The Peace Tree Community is a support group of ‘sinners anonymous’ for ‘recovering consumers’ who pray to embody God’s grace by transforming vacant blocks into permaculture gardens, dumpster bins into delicious feasts for anyone hungry, empty homes into welcoming places for the homeless and refugees, individual lives of "successfulness" into shared lives of faithfulness, enemies into friends, our charity ‘to the marginalised’ into solidarity ‘with the marginalised’, the unskilled over-schooled into workers on the land, swords into ploughshares and other humble beautiful signs of God’s dream for creation (or ‘kingdom of God’).
Jarrod McKenna is the founder of EPYC "Empowering Peacemakers in Your Community" for which he has been nominated for a bunch of stuff that makes him sound much more impressive than he is and is on the national board of Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service Australia and the bi-national board of the Anabaptist Association of Australia and New Zealand which almost makes him sound respectable. Jarrod McKenna one of the most sort after trainers in nonviolence in Western Australia and has spoken at the invitation of groups as diverse as Greenpeace, Lake Joondalup Baptist Church, Buddhist eco-philosopher Joanna Macy, Urban Seed and Mercedes Girls Collage to name drop just a few.
To visit EPYC’s webpage click here or for more about EPYC’s work in "equiping a generation of eco-prophets in transformational nonviolence" contact Wendi at parts [at] wa [dot] su [dot] org [dot] au
When not doing the above he spends time with the wonderful Tyson and Teresa and the Peace Tree Community, volunteers with the ‘Alternative to Violence Project’ in prisons in WA and the Lockridge Community Garden, indulges his ADD by day dreaming, does things that confirming the "treehuger" stereotype, reads, coaches a junior basketball team, hang out with local kids (often skateboarding) and works to incite peoples imaginations that another world is not just possible, it’s at hand! :) (Mark1:15). Jarrod likes it when people give him hugs, like many he sometimes picks his nose when others aren’t looking and finds it funny that bios are written in the third person.
Below are people much more respectable than Jarrod saying despite his dreads and the fact he get around on a skateboard and only wears second hand op-shop (or fair trade) clothes, that even in this ‘jar of clay’ there may be the treasure of Imago Dei (worth keeping in mind "Woe to you when all speak well of you" though :):
"Jarrod McKenna has practised nonviolence being more than a tool for social change - he makes it the way of his life. I’ve appreciated working with Jarrod on a number of campaigns, and know him to be strongly committed to peace in action, and an excellent communicator."-Jo Vallentine (Joint Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, Environmental activist, Former Greens Senator)
"If you are looking for a compassionate spirituality that will enable you to engage a violent world effectively, then Jarrod McKenna can help you. He can unpack the radical implications of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in a way that will give you clear, specific, practical set of guidelines for nonviolent engagement to work with. And he can do it with a magician’s touch - Jarrod is cool, clever, and creative."-Dave Andrews (Renowned advocate for the marginalised and Author of "Christi-Anarchy" and "Compassionate Community Work")
"One of the doctors I met in Iraq said (with tears in his eyes), ‘This violence is for people who have lost thier imagination.’ Jarrod McKenna and the good people of EPYC are prophets of imagination. They are on a mission to create new heroes and sheroes and to reclaim God’s dream for this world. And as they help young folks to learn not to hurt each other, hopefully the nations will take some lessons." Shane Claiborne (activist, author of "The Irresistible Revolution")
"Around the world there is an emerging generation of young leaders who are rediscovering the radical implications of Jesus’ message and are letting their lives speak of these alternatives to the cycles of violence, poverty and environmental destruction. Jarrod McKenna is one such leader Australia has to offer, and his EPYC program promises to empower many more." -Rev. Tim Costello (CEO of World Vision Australia)
"Jarrod is a unique young man passionately committed to a particular, and strangely uncommon message that is an inextricable part of the Gospel of Jesus, namely that of peace-making. His passion is infectious. I commend him to you as an articulate advocate of the cause of Jesus in this war-torn world." -Alan Hirsch (Australian Emerging Church leader & author of "The Shape of Things to Come" and "The Forgotten Ways")
"Jarrod McKenna builds bridges between books and actions and prayers. A person of practical action, Jarrod has a real gift for showing people young and old concrete ways to make peace with their hands. A person of prayer, Jarrod has deep roots in the Gospel, knowing that all peace is a gift from God. When people ask ‘What can we do about the state of the world?’, Jarrod’s program [EPYC] is one small but hopeful answer." -William Cavanaugh (Theologian, Catholic Worker scholar and author of "The Theopolitical Imagination")
"Jarrod McKenna is a gifted teacher of nonviolence, and a bright light to Australia’s youth. I know him well, and highly recommend his team for schools and church groups wanting to go deeper in the great issues of peace, love, compassion and nonviolence, in compelling and inspiring ways." -Father John Dear (peacemaking pastor, priest, activist, former director of ‘Fellowship of Reconciliation’ and author of "Jesus the Rebel" and "Transfiguration")
"Jarrod McKenna is excellent practitioner and educationalist in the field of nonviolence. He is equipped with listening, communication & facilitation skills to share this essential tool with young people. As both a high school teacher and a peace activist, I highly recommend EYPC as an exciting addition to the education of young people." -Ciaron O’Reilly (Internationally renowned Ploughshares& Catholic Worker Activist)
"In my travels around the world, I see a lot to inspire cynicism -including a lot of shabby religious stuff I’d rather not even give examples of. But I also meet people who inspire hope and courage in me -emerging young leaders who "get" Jesus’ message of the kingdom of God, and who are living it and giving it away. They see the integral nature of mission - that it brings together God and humanity, humanity and creation, grace and nature, contemplation and action, evangelism and social justice, faith and politics, the making of disciples and the making of peace. Jarrod McKenna and friends are beautiful examples of this new breed of emerging integral leaders. I thank God for them. May their tribe increase!" -Brian McLaren (Emerging Church Leader, activist and author of "Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope")
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