March 2026 - Monthly Newsletter
- Helms Jarrell
- Mar 11
- 4 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
AT A GLANCE
Reflection Prompts for Lent
As you pay attention to the places you move through this season, what do you notice aboutyour place, its people, land, buildings, or history that you might have overlooked before?
Where do you see signs of harm or disconnection in this place, and where do you see signs of healing, repair, or hope emerging?
What small details in your neighborhood or daily life are inviting your attention right now, and what might they reveal about harm that needs healing or practices that bring life?
What is one way that repentance or reorientation could take embodied form this season through your habits, relationships, or care for the places you inhabit?
What might the land, water, plants, and objects in your neighborhood reveal if you paid close attention to their stories of resilience, neglect, care, or change?
As you fast from distraction and feast on awareness this season, what new understanding about your place or community is inviting you toward transformation?
Upcoming Events
Gathering Dates
Until further notice, we meet at 2916 Parkway Ave; Charlotte, NC 28208
2026 dates: April 5- Easter, April 26- Nina Simone Day, May 10, May 24- Pentecost, June 7, June 21, July 5- Funeral for the Empire, July 19, Aug 2, Aug 16, Sept 13, Sept 27, Oct 4, Oct 18, Nov 1- All Saints/Children’s Blessing, Nov 15, Nov 29. Dec 6, Dec 13, Dec 20.
Please remember to bring a snack to share at communion each time we gather.
The theme for this season is: Field Notes for Change: remaining attentive to place with a critical eye toward change
Easter Sunday is April 5th. We will have a big meal, sing songs, and celebrate. Please bring a dinner dish to share.
For our School for the Common Good Activation this season, we’ll all be taking a workshop together: A Forager's Botanical Journey - From Identification to Infusions with Cheryl Terry; April 14, 6-8pm. Register at: https://linktr.ee/qcfamilytree
Nina Simone day is April 26, 2026 from 5-7pm. On Nina Simone Day, with her songs playing in the background, we honor Nina Simone as a guiding example of truth telling and courageous creative expression. The gathering includes community dialogue, art, and collective remembrance of how her message and music continues to inspire.
Community Life
Leadership at Gatherings:
Date | Childcare | Prayers for the People | Creative Contemplation | Music |
March 29 | Laura | All- Urbanariaum | Christine | |
April 5 | No One | No one | No one |
Beloved Community Charlotte's Urbanarium
This season's School for the Common Good central practice takes shape in Beloved Community Charlotte’s Urbanarium.* Here, preserved land, water, and street specimens- dried plants, seeds, fungi, wood, found objects, and community-contributed materials- are gathered as a living archive of the urban landscape. These specimens form an altar of attention. Field notes- indicating the context of when and where the specimen was gathered- will surround them. You’ll be encouraged to learn the stories each piece carries and to respond. Our Urbanarium will help us to be students of place, recorders of change, and co-creators of a more just and regenerative common life.
*a play on the word “herbarium”
Here's how to participate:
Notice an object- any object- throughout your week. Pick it up. Label it. Think about the story of this object. Bring it to Beloved Community Charlotte Sunday gatherings. Put the object in our Urbanarium. Offer a prayer prompted by your reflections on the story of the object. (examples of objects: found items, trash, plant life, ticket stub, receipts, soil, rocks, sticks, moss, etc.)
Governance
The March Governance meeting will be after our Sunday, March 29 gathering in person
Here’s our Governance meeting agenda:
Check in
Looking ahead at 2026 calendar.
Working group updates
Comms
Justice praxis
Visitors
Budget/finance
Childcare
Misc
UCC grant status
Space updates
Close
Remember to RSVP
Please remember to RSVP to the attendance text that went out. If you did not get it, please reach out to Shelly Murphy.
Beloved Community School for the Common Good
forming a culture of justice, connection, and collective care.
Feb 18-April 2, 2026
This Season's Theme for our School for the Common Good is:
Field Notes for Change: Remaining Attentive to Place with a Critical Eye Toward Change
Throughout the first spring season of School for the Common Good-from Ash Wednesday through Palm Sunday-we enter Lent as apprentices of place. We slow our steps and become students of the ground beneath us, mapping, walking, witnessing, and observing. We learn the names of streets and streams, plants pushing through cracked sidewalks, buildings that once held gathering and now stand empty. Attentiveness becomes a spiritual discipline. We naturalize ourselves to a neighborhood and its history—not as consumers of space, but as accountable neighbors.
Activation= Learn new songs of resistance and sing them in community with others. March 22nd, time and location TBD.
For our School for the Common Good Activation this season, we’ll all be taking a workshop together: A Forager's Botanical Journey - From Identification to Infusions with Cheryl Terry; April 14, 6-8pm. Register at: https://linktr.ee/qcfamilytree
Toolkit - Resources to use at home, with family, and in small groups. become a sponsor of the school to receive an all seasons pass to this toolkit or order a season at time. Check out our resource guide for Spring 2026.
Beloved Community Circles: Information to come.
Ritual Gatherings: Bi-weekly practices of ceremony, creative contemplation, story sharing, and connection rooted in the Christian tradition.
Communications
Ways to stay up to date
Slack is a communication tool that BCC folks use to update each other throughout the week. If you want to join the slack, let Helms know.
If you don’t want to find us on Slack, you can still find updates on our Linktree.
You can also add the Beloved Community Charlotte Google calendar to your calendar.
If someone you know wants to join our belovedcommunityclt email list, email iamhelmsie@gmail.com and she’ll add you to the list.
If you want to schedule some time to connect with Helms, feel free to find a time that works for you using this link: https://calendly.com/helmsjarrell
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