Save the Date!
Celebrate Faith, Race and Culture at the
Friday Friends Festival

Thursday February 21st 2008
5:30pm- 7:30pm
Levine Museum of the New South

~ Heavy Hors d'oeuvres ~
Cash Bar
Door Prizes

Free Parking available in
7th Street Parking Garage
(with validated parking card)

R.S.V.P. NOW
(704) 347-2404
or
meckmin@meckmin.org


Friday Friends is a Crossroads project
of Mecklenburg Ministries

At times, Charlotte seems to have an especially wide gap. Too often we view people from a race or culture that's different from our own as "people we don't trust" and "people and have no way to get to know". Much too often, we have to ask ourselves..."where's the faith community? Why aren't they leading the way"?

Now, the faith community led by the Executive Directors of Mecklenburg Ministries and the Charlotte Rescue Mission is stepping forward to lead the way with an idea called "Friday Friends.”

Sign Me Up!


Mission
Eat lunch the last Friday each month and get to know one person!

The mission is to identify 500 people through the faith community and the cultural community: black, white, Latin, Asian...and to pair them as lunch partners. They agree to eat lunch on the last Friday of the month for 6 months to get to know each other as people...not as "categories".

The goal at the end of the 6 months is to have at least 500 people who have learned to connect beyond the color of their skin and their ethnicity or cultural beliefs. These 500 people have broken bread and bridged a cultural gap to find the common ground of trust.

As Joe Martin taught us all, trust is something we earn one person at a time. Joe’s wife, Joan, has endorsed this idea.

Friday Friends at a Glance
Commitment: Have lunch with someone of another race, ethnicity or culture on the last Friday of each month for 6 months to build a relationship together.

Partners: Leaders of Houses of Faith, Corporations, Non-profit organizations, Business organizations.

Launch date: March 30, 2007 with a goal of 500 people (250 pairs) partnering to have lunch on the last Friday of the month from March 2007 through August 2007.

History leading to Friday Friends
A study of 40 major metro areas identified Charlotte as number two for attendance at houses of worship and number thirty nine for racial trust. The Knight Foundation asked Mecklenburg Ministries (MM) to address the issues. MM launched “Souls of White Folks” as part of their Crossroads project to address the issue of “white privilege”. One result included addressing racism by the community. This was the genesis of the idea to resurrect the late Joe Martin program of taking someone of a different race or ethnicity to lunch to build relationships.

This program is part of Mecklenburg Ministries’ 20th anniversary celebration and a follow up project by Tony Marciano of Mecklenburg Ministries’ "Souls of White Folks" project. Friday Friends seeks to help us know our neighbors in order to love them as our faiths call us to do.

Click here for a link to Mecklenburg Ministries.

Click here for a link to the Charlotte Rescue Mission.

Click here for a link to Charlotte ’s Community Building Initiative.

Contact
601 East Blvd.
Charlotte, NC 28203-5111
Phone: 704-347-2404
Fax: 704-347-1766
Email Us!


Leadership Team
Co-Chairs
Dr. James Howell
Senior Pastor, Myers Park United Methodist Church

Cecilia Ramirez
Vice Chairman/Treasurer
Latin Chamber of Commerce Charlotte

Willie Ratchford
Executive Director, Community Relations Committee, City of Charlotte

Committee
Dr. Claude Alexander
Senior Pastor, University Park Baptist Church

Debbie Antshel
Mayor’s International Cabinet

Dr. Nini Bautista
Asian Chamber of Commerce

Gene Bucelli
Urban League

Dr. John Chen
Asian Chamber of Commerce

Marlene Cox
TJ Maxx

Dianne English
Community Building Initiative

Natalie English
Charlotte Chamber of Commerce

Drew Henderson
Associate Pastor, Covenant Presbyterian Church

Maj. Gen. Jack R. Hobein
USAF (R) Charlotte Center

Ken Garfield
Myers Park United Methodist Church communications

Jess George
Latin American Coalition

Dr. Maria Hanlin
Executive Director, Mecklenburg Ministries

Dr. Bill Jeffries
Providence United Methodist Church

Mohammad Jenatian
President, Greater Charlotte Hospitality and Tourism Alliance

Rev. Tony Marciano
Executive Director, Charlotte Rescue Mission

Aaron Means
Site Based Initiatives Manager, IBM Charlotte

Francine Marie Morris
Communications Consultant

Moira Quinn
SV Communications/COO, Charlotte Center City Partners

Dr. Jessica Schorr Saxe
Carolinas HealthCare System

Rabbi Judy Schindler
Senior Rabbi, Temple Beth El