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Collaboration, mutuality, cooperation are not just buzz words for the 8th Day Center. They are, we believe, the life blood of what makes it possible to celebrate 25 years in the struggle for justice. The idea of the Center was born in 1974 when Terri Grasso, SP and Mary Sullivan, a former Mercy Sister, decided there was an opportunity lurking behind a crisis facing promoters of peace and justice in Chicago at the time. When the Chicago Archdiocese cut the funding of the Urban Sisters Apostolate Project, the possibility of religious congregations collaborating to provide monies and personnel for an independent justice office became a reality. In 25 years what began with six congregations has grown to a partnership of 29 with ten of these communities giving a full time staff person todo the work of researching, organizing, educating, resisting and advocating on a myriad of social issues. A 25th celebration gives us the opportunity to re-member, to give thanks and to re-commit ourselves to the Center's mission to be a critical alternative voice to systems that oppress. In this technological age we re-member the stories of what it was like to have only one typewriter, one phone and a creaky elevator at 8th Day's humble beginnings at 22 E. Van Buren. We re-member that hunger, the first issue addressed by the Center, is still a major social concern and sadly is joined by a myriad of economic and human rights issues the Center now addresses. The upside of such a phenomenon is the many new friends we've made along the way. We give thanks to you, friends in our religious congregations, and in the coalitions and grassroots groups. Your support lightens the load as we travel the journey to justice. You give us hope that despite the struggles of injustice we don't face them alone. You remind us that alone we can do very little, but together we can continue to chip away, as we say, at the systems that oppress and do it with a light heart. The message of one of the first and still hanging banners ever to adorn the center's walls proclaims this aptly: "When all else fails, throw a party!" We're doing just that and hope you can join us December 5, 1999, for 8th Day's 25th Celebration! We also asked Jean Hughes, staff member for nearly half of 8th Day's existence, to reflect on the center's mission. Jean Hughes, an Adrian Dominican, was on the staff at 8th Day from 1984-1996 and now works at St. Leonard's House Project for ex-prisoners. Twenty five years and growing 8th Day Center for Justice was created out of an urgent need to identify and respond creatively to the root causes of injustices affecting millions of people around the world. It was begun as a collaborative effort among Catholic religious congregations whose leadership recognized the latent power in their own membership because of their diverse ministries and understood the increased potential for significant social change if they worked together. To this end, congregations have committed personnel and resources for 25 years. The Issue Circle style of 8th Day staff has insured that a variety of social concerns are thoroughly researched and that appropriate strategies are employed to address them. The original notion of collaboration has been expanded by the Issue Circles who have effectively worked with other religious and grassroots groups committed to a world in which nonviolence, equal access to resources, self-determination and sustainable development are not just goals, but rather fundamental to a truly just existence. 8th Day Center is so much more than just another organization or another "think tank." It is the audiovisual of our deepest longings, the itinerant prophet who chastises the king and embraces the person who is homeless. 8th Day asks the hard questions and challenges us to answer them with our lives. It embodies interdependence in the fullest sense, concretizing in its activity the Daniel Berrigan notion that to be fully human one finds oneself screaming when another is touched with a hot poker. 8th Day Center reminds us that creation is bigger than our species, neighborhood, town, city, state, country, planet. Changing unjust power relationships requires theological reflection, tenacity, hard work, humility, humor, and knowing that God is faithful and friendly. 8th Day encourages each of us to fully participate in the joys and sufferings, the transformation and sanctification of the next century. Congratulations and thank you on your 25th Anniversary!