Three weeks ago, after I got off the Red Line at Porter Square, I saw something that I haven’t seen in this area but something which is a Black church staple.
A church bus.
The church I grew up in had 2. My cousins’ church had 1. Most of my friends’ churches had at least 1.
This got me to thinking…..does any UU congregation have a church bus?** How many UUs have any idea what what a church bus is?
I’ve been wrestling with what I was going to say in this post since that Sunday. Am I going through a fit a nostalgia? Am I asking for too much from UU congregations to wonder why UU congregations don’t provide this really simple form of hospitality and welcoming?
What does it mean that no UU congregation I can think of offers a transportation ministry?
What avenues would be opened if UU congregations did have a church bus? Who would get to be included?
of course, these thoughts bring up other issues like where UU congregations are in relation to both population centers and where their members/friends live, etc.
I’m still wrestling with this Black church memory and what it could mean for Unitarian Universalism. Maybe we can wrestle with it together.
**–my friend Patty tells me that First Church Roxbury has one. Fits the profile.
East Of Midnight 
Some years ago, while working at a UU congregation (far from where I am now), we briefly looked into getting a church bus (for both seniors and low-income congregants). Running a bus would have cost more than that small congregation could afford, so we went back to trying to form carpools. The sad thing was, that congregation was near several city bus lines, but the city didn’t run many buses on Sundays, so that was pretty useless.
I did learn one thing during that brief episode that might be of use to someone else: insurance companies HATE 12-person vans, because they’re supposedly dangerous. There are a couple of small Pentecostal churches near where I live now that both have 12-person vans for their church bus, and I think about that every time I see those buses.
Having said all that, I would like to be part of a UU congregation with a church bus. I can think of lots of uses for it: Sunday morning transport for persons without cars and persons who can’t drive; field trips for Sunday school; and transport to and from social justice events.