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Con Browne and Joseph Jones share their Koinonia experiences with visitors near and far

On a recent, rainy Saturday, a diverse group gathered in the dining hall to hear stories about Koinonia in years past. Among the listeners were Boy Scout Troop 260 of the Americus area (who often come to Koinonia to camp, do Eagle Scout projects, and have meetings)… a small group from Georgia Southwestern State University of Americus… a class of students from Presbyterian College, SC studying utopian communities… and a few family and community members. We started out in the museum to review some history, then toured the pecan plant and the bakery (learning about fair trade coffee, and sampling delicious Koinonia chocolate), then headed for the dining hall. Sitting close in circles around Joe and Con in the dining hall as spring rain poured down outside, we were privileged to hear these two share about their Koinonia experiences.

Joe Jones visited Koinonia as a pre-teen and youth, often with his cousin, Collins McGee. (Collins McGee was an African-American friend of Koinonia. You may recognize his name as the man who, along with Clarence Jordan and five others, accepted an open invitation to attend a mass meeting at the white Baptist church of Americus in 1965. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, their integrated group was unceremoniously tossed out of that church, but not before Clarence “put in a parting shot: ‘Well, everything in Americus is integrated now except the churches and the jails. And I have hope for the jails.’ (Dallas Lee, The Cotton Patch Evidence, p. 202).

Persecution and Nonviolence during the Civil Rights Movement and Today

As an African-American, Joe had to take the back roads and leave well before dark to ensure that he would not be persecuted for his trips to Koinonia by hostile whites. Later, he became involved in the civil rights movement in Americus. “We prayed before those marches that nobody would have a penknife in their pocket, because if the police found anybody with any kind of knife, you were finished. They beat you some in the street, but that was nothing compared to what would happen once they got you back to the jail where nobody was watching.” He stressed the importance of nonviolence in these actions, and impressed upon his Boy Scouts—for he is now one of the scoutmasters for Troop 260—the huge difference between his boyhood and theirs. “Now it’s no big thing to eat together, walk together. But then, it was unheard of. You could really get in trouble for it.”

Con, who visited us for a wonderful two weeks this year with his wife Cay, shared what life was like for his family, who lived at Koinonia from 1949-1963. A pacifist, he found Koinonia a wonderful place to raise children, even though by night they were threatened with bullets and threatening phone calls, and by day harassed as they went to the all-white public schools. But at home they could run free, take dips in the pond, listen to Clarence tell spell-binding stories, and be themselves in a very loving and faithful community. Con also shared us many stories about what it was like to farm on this land, and shared with us the four commitments that people joining Koinonia would make:

To hold Jesus in a special place in your life and heart
To accept all people as your brother or your sister
To share everything equally, according to need, not greed
To value nonviolence as a way of life, not just a technique.

The group broke into applause after the sharing ended, and all parted ways into the rainy evening, but we’ll hold the memories and stories in our hearts for a long, long time. Thank you, Con and Joseph!

Koinonia Partners - 1324 GA Hwy 49 S - Americus, GA 31709 - 229-924-0391 -

Koinonia is a Christian farm community founded in 1942 by Clarence Jordan,
author of the Cotton Patch Gospels. Birthplace of Habitat for Humanity