Get to Worship Another Way: marketing alternate transit to congregations

Circa 2010 – bless local photographer and Portland Green Streets board member, Corey Templeton, (also of Portland Daily Photo fame) for all the design work he did for us over the years!

While serving as the director of Portland Greens Streets a few years ago, I helped organize an annual community-wide Get to Worship a Greener Way Weekend and associated Blessing of the Bicycles, in conjunction with Maine’s Commute Another Way Week in May. While there is often traffic getting to the synagogue or mosque on Friday evenings, car travel is much lighter on Saturdays and Sundays – so getting to worship a greener way seemed like a strange pitch to make.

However, from my experience with folks of various faiths and practices and through my Quaker meeting, I know that people heading to services are taking stock of their lives and their actions. And a number of folks are often already carpooling because of mobility needs, too. So it’s a great time to engage folks in trying alternate ways of getting around.  (Disclaimer: you don’t have to be a part of any organized religion to do the same thing. 🙂 )

This week I got to do a new little plug along the same vein, by producing and distributing a flier encouraging my home congregation, Portland Friends Meeting, to use METRO’s new Sunday service to get to worship. It’s not so new – METRO was able to start Sunday service on all it’s routes in August (previously it was only offered on a couple).  As a one-car family, one of us often has to bike separately to get to an earlier meeting on Sunday morning or some other event.  Biking isn’t a bad way to start the day and we’re lucky to not have mobility or other issues – except when the roads are slick in winter, rain is falling heavily, etc. Either way, Sunday service is a real boon to local congregations and folks who just would like to be out and about and getting somewhere on any given Sunday. Thanks for making it possible, METRO!