Get on the Train to Selma! 

Unitarian Universalist Association Moderator Jim Key has called upon Unitarian Universalists to Return to Selma, and the Central East Regional Group invites you to travel to Selma as our fellow UU’s did 50 years ago… on the Crescent Train!

Fifty years ago this Spring, many Unitarian Universalists answered the call to join in the struggle for voting rights in Selma Alabama.  Many Unitarian Universalists from the congregations of our Region went to Selma on the Amtrak Crescent Train… a train that is still running today. 

The issues for which people marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma are still very much with us today.  Voting inequality, mass incarceration, gun violence, the militarization of police, civil rights violations are as much a part of our country now as they were 50 years ago.  Our country remains rooted in institutions of systemic racism. 

You can read Moderator Key’s Call to Return to Selma here: http://www.uulivinglegacy.org/call-to-selma.html

You can register for and learn more about the Marching in the Arc of Justice Conference here:  http://www.uulivinglegacy.org/re-visiting-selma-2015.html

On the trip to the Amtrak Station in Birmingham Alabama, we will share in small group ministries the stories of those who marched and bled in Selma 50 years ago, and share our own stories in the struggle for Racial Justice.  We will prepare ourselves for Marching in the Arc of Justice.  On the trip home, we will plan together how we can translate the transformative experience into our work for Justice back in our congregations, in our Districts, and in our Region.  The small Group Ministry program on the train will be facilitated by CERG Staff and other experienced leaders. 

Below you will see the times and locations for all stops of the Crescent Train throughout the Metro New York and the Joseph Priestley Districts!  You can purchase your tickets on the train as individuals, or get together with other members of your congregation and purchase a group of tickets.  Once you have purchased your tickets, make sure you register for the conference, and register with us that you will be on the train!   We will have name badges and materials for all of those who register.

To purchase tickets to the conference from Amtrak, go to www.amtrak.com and enter March 4^th 2015 for the departure date, your closest departure station from the list below, and Birmingham, Alabama as your arrival station.  Select the Crescent #19 train. 

To purchase tickets for the trip home from Amtrak, go to www.amtrak.com and enter March 9^th 2015 for the departure date, select Birmingham, Alabama (BHM) as the Departure Station, and the station you departed from as your return destination from the list below.  Select the Crescent #20 train that departs from Birmingham at 2:24pm.