Dear Caldwell,
We’ve dedicated this year to the theme of Holy Conversations: Who We Are and Whose We Are. As we travel from Sunday to Sunday this week, God gives us many angles by which we can consider those questions.
First, as part of Black History Month, we are remembering and celebrating black history in worship and in other ways. By remembering, we honor those who have fought the fight with dignity, courage and effect. But we’re also activating the truth of that history to try to change the here and now. On Sunday, I mentioned that the Session had penned a letter to the City Council and the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners encouraging them to use their means and influence to bring healing to our city.
As you may know, the historic Brooklyn neighborhood uptown was demolished in the name of “urban renewal” in the 1960s. Suddenly, Charlotte’s epicenter of black life – arts, schools, education, church, business and homes – was wiped out. The City Council promised what it put back would improve life for all of those effected, a promise never fulfilled. Instead, decades later, African Americans are disproportionately impacted by the city’s affordable housing crisis and low economic mobility. The Session’s letter urges the elected officials to hold a current plan to redevelop what was Brooklyn to a higher standard of justice, inclusion and accessibility. You can read the full letter here. We are grateful to the Greenspon Center at Queens University for its research and leadership on this issue.
Elsewhere, there are a range of offerings to deepen our knowledge of African-American history. Angela Davis will be speaking at UNCC on Wednesday, February 12 at 5:30 pm. She will speak on Radical Resilience: Thriving in the Face of Oppression (read about it here). On Thursday, February 13th at Quail Hollow Presbyterian Church 8801 Park Road, Charlotte, Union Seminary and that congregation host the film “BACKS AGAINST THE WALL: The Howard Thurman Story” 6:30 pm. Both events are open to the community.
Come Sunday, we will listen in on another Holy Conversation that Jesus had with his new followers. We continue with our look at the Sermon on the Mount. In Sunday’s passage, Matthew 5:13-16, Jesus uses several some familiar images and metaphors to tell God’s people who they are called to be in the world, especially in contrast to the powerful Roman Empire of the day. Empire still looms in our day and these verses pose key questions, such as: What is the essence of discipleship? What is our personal and individual responsibility as God’s counter-cultural people? How do we as disciples live into Christ’s call to be like a “shining city on a hill” in a nation that casts such deep shadows of racial oppression and injustice?
As always, life is full of God’s presence and teaching.
In Christ,
John