Mission: to Amplify Compassion by amplifying marginalized voices in our community, including those marginalized by their race, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, or any others searching for equity. We will help challenge our congregation to amplify justice, mercy, and humility to create a more compassionate church.
Reflection – by Pastor Cade
As the pandemic has gone on, Dilworth UMC has continued to donate lunches and homemade face masks to the Roof Above shelter, and I have made several trips myself to deliver these supplies personally. Watching the tent city that has formed around N. College and N. Tryon Streets continue to sprawl over the months has been mind-boggling and heartbreaking. Perhaps the cruelest irony is that across the street from the Roof Above campus is a self-storage facility. Hundreds of people live in tents, carrying all of their belongings in backpacks, right in front of a four-story temperature-controlled building designed so the wealthy's extra possessions can be secure and safe from the elements.
This year, I have encountered two terms that are used to describe the patterns of disparity in Charlotte: the crescent and the wedge. The wedge is a triangular-shaped area south of uptown Charlotte that contains neighborhoods like Dilworth and Myers Park. The crescent is also an area of neighborhoods, shaped like an arc, that borders the wedge to the east, north, and west. The economic disparities between the crescent and the wedge are astounding. It's fascinating how other demographic trends and inequalities map themselves onto this exact formation as well. Of course, these areas are racially segregated.
While the outreach committee at our church is doing the good work of showing God's love to those who find themselves at the shelter or struggling to make ends meet in the crescent, the Amplify team is interested in asking the question of 'why our city is so segregated?' Furthermore, the Amplify team is committed to making the bold claim that the God we worship does not want our world to look like this. If you know that there is no "wedge" or "crescent" in the Kingdom of Heaven and believe that there shouldn't be on earth, you are welcome to join our work.
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Join A Tu Lado
- a ministry opportunity through the Migrant Assistance Project in which houses of faith partner with an immigrant family and walk with them on their journey through the immigration process in the U.S. If you are interested in joining an A Tu Lado team at Dilworth UMC please reach out to
Pastor Cade for more information.
Suggested Resources
Read: 50 States, 50 Different Ways of Teaching America's Past
Listen:
74 Seconds Episode 9: The Prosecution Rests, the Defense Begins
Check Out: An Antiracist Reading List by Ibram X. Kendi
Join the Amplify Book Club as we read and discuss "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents" by Isabel Wilkerson. If you are interested in participating in this opportunity,
click here to purchase a copy of the book, and please reach out to
Pastor Cade to express interest.
Are you interested in sharing a reflection in the Amplify newsletter? If you feel called to share a story, testimony, or devotion related to diversity, inclusion, and reconciliation, please reach out to
Pastor Cade. The Amplify Team is open to all members who feel passionate about shaping our conversation and working for justice in and through Dilworth UMC. Please contact Pastor Cade to become a part of this important ministry.
