A mid-week word from Pastor Darren...
On Good Friday, April 3, 2026, I invite you to join me, Rev. Jennifer Porto, District Superintendent Rev. Sheila Bates, and Deaconess Clara Ester for a special congregational pilgrimage to the Legacy Museum and memorial sites in Montgomery, Alabama.
This will be a full day away together–a time of shared reflection, silence, and conversation–and a unique way to deepen our understanding of faith, justice, history, and reconciliation.
Montgomery’s Legacy Sites, created by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), are powerful places of truth-telling and remembrance.
The Legacy Museum explores the history of slavery, racial terror, and injustice in America and draws connections across generations to our present day.
Nearby, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice honors the thousands of African Americans killed in racial terror lynchings in this country and invites visitors into contemplative remembrance.
The Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, reached by a brief boat ride on the Alabama River, offers an immersive outdoor space that honors those who endured slavery and commemorates more than 122,000 formerly enslaved people, preserving their legacy in landscape, art, and story.
This journey is more than a field trip — it is a pilgrimage of faith, a chance to walk together as a community, to confront hard truths, and to open our spirits to transformation. For more information, go to www.eji.org.
Our REVISED itinerary will include:
- Early morning departure from APUMC by charter bus (7:00 am)
- Guided visit to the Legacy Museum in the morning
- Lunch at a local Montgomery restaurant
- Visit to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice
- 20-minute boat ride to the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park
- Light Dinner (perhaps “to go” depending on timing)
- Return home between 8-8:30.
Cost for the trip: $75 per person (to cover bus, meals, and tickets to the different sites).
This will be a full day culminating in worship, prayer, dialogue, silence, and sacred space for reflection — a journey that invites each of us to open our hearts to the Spirit’s work in our lives and our world.
Registration is now available through the link below. There are 56 seats available on the bus. I hope to fill every one of them! This will be a Holy Week to remember. All are welcome to join us for this journey.
Darren