In North Carolina, we have 3,375 miles of coastline and seven lighthouses situated along the shore. From north to south, they are located at Currituck Beach, Bodie Island, Cape Hatteras, Ocracoke Island, Cape Lookout, Oak Island, and Bald Head Island. We know that lighthouses serve a critical purpose of shining light at night so that seafaring crews can stay oriented to land and navigate potentially treacherous waters. When one lighthouse passes out of sight, another will soon appear.

I recently learned that lighthouses have unique “nightmarks” and “daymarks.” A lighthouse’s nightmark is its unique light pattern that is fixed and flashes or rotates and flashes. Some lighthouses provide different intervals of dark and light, and some shine continuously.

Lighthouses’ unique designs are considered daymarks. A daymark is a fixed, constant, identifiable feature that can be used by a navigator by day to help determine a ship’s location along the coast. The lighthouse at Currituck is unpainted red brick, the Bodie Island lighthouse is banded in black and white, the one at Cape Hatteras has those well-known black and white spiral stripes. The remote Cape Lookout lighthouse is painted in a black and white diamond pattern (fun fact: black diamonds face north/south and white diamonds face east/west).

Even before I started working at Galilee Ministries of East Charlotte, my image for Galilee is that of a lighthouse: a beacon of hope and light for refugees, immigrants, and the local community. And like the lighthouses on our coast, Galilee itself is a daymark: fixed, constant, identifiable.

Fixed, in that we are rooted as a mission of our diocese in the heart of east Charlotte. Constant, in that people in the community have been and continue to be welcomed and served. Galilee is identifiable in so many ways: the colorful driveway mural, different gardens and green spaces to explore, inviting benches and picnic tables around campus, the labyrinth in the portico, the sign that says “Welcome” in eight languages.

Galilee is a place that is all about hospitality, connection, learning, service, and the love of God. It is a community of communities and a bright daymark in Charlotte where all are welcome.

In service,

Emily+