Author: CZ

Sunday, December 16 2018

CZ

What would it be like if our UU worship service centered entirely around
the voices and the experiences of black Unitarian Universalists? What truths might we hear, however difficult? What might we learn? How might these black UU leaders teach us to be better allies, better siblings in faith, and even better citizens in our community?

This Sunday, John, will facilitate a service called “The Promise and the Practice.” In our commitment to dismantling white supremacy as a system, being anti-racist, and embracing the presence and leadership of people of color, white Unitarian Universalists are still learning to decentering our whiteness so that people of color are brought from the margins to the center. Join us as we practice that work, and promise a new way of being together.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

Our services are Sundays at 11 a.m.  at the Progressive Women’s Association Event Center, 305 Washington Ave. in downtown Clarksburg, behind the Courthouse. There are classes for children and adults 10 to 10:45 am, and a coffee gathering before the service. More about us.

Classes and worship are replaced by Spiritual Outings on the first Sunday of each month during the summer, with brief worship, a potluck picnic, and outdoor activities. The schedule is in the sidebar.

Children are welcome.  There is childcare and an activity for young children during the service.

The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom.

Map

The schedule for the current adult religious education class is here.

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information

or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302

First Sunday in Advent – Hope

CZ

“Advent is a season of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the nativity of Jesus. The name derives from the Latin adventus, meaning “coming.” Marked over the course of the four Sundays before Christmas, Advent is traditionally celebrated with an advent wreath: a ring of evergreen with 3 purple candles and one pink one (or 4 purple candles) that represent: Hope, Love, Joy (pink) and Peace. ” – From the UUA Website

 

In her reading “Christmas Comes Whether you are Ready or Not“, Cynthia Frado discusses the feeling of not being ready for the season.

 

Here is a prayer from Cricket

In this time of waiting, may we hold the world in our hearts.
In this time of waiting, may we hold each other’s hands.
In this time of waiting, may we be thoughtful and introspective.
In this time of waiting, may we delight in the darkness and all it teaches us.
In this time of waiting, may we rekindle the fires of hope, love joy, and peace within ourselves and our communities.
In this time of waiting, may we become ready for the coming day.

Unitarian Universalists offer homes to asylum seekers in caravan

CZ

Here is an article from Elaine McArdle published in UU World about the crisis at our border.

“Central American asylum seekers, fleeing violence at home, may be released from detention centers to sponsors’ homes.”

Photo Information:

“A volunteer lawyer informs migrants on what to expect when requesting asylum in the U.S., at an office in Tijuana, Mexico, Friday, April 27, 2018. Close to 200 migrants from Central America, mostly from Honduras, arrived in Tijuana seeking to enter the United States. (AP Photo/Hans-Maximo Musielik)”

Blessed Thanksgiving

CZ

May your Thanksgiving be full of blessings, thanks, and love. What are you grateful for?

Lillian Nye offers thoughts on Thanksgiving, our tables, altars, and spirituality in her sermon Let Our Table Stand Like an Altar.

“Sean Sherman, an Oglala Lakota chef and founder of The Sioux Chef, shares his perspectives on Thanksgiving.

“The thing is, we do not need the poisonous “pilgrims and Indians” narrative. We do not need that illusion of past unity to actually unite people today. Instead, we can focus simply on values that apply to everybody: togetherness, generosity and gratitude. And we can make the day about what everybody wants to talk and think about anyway: the food.”” Article Found Here

Transgender Day of Remembrance

CZ

It is Transgender Day of Remembrance. Here are some thoughts: from Rev. Sean Dennison

Today is a sacred day,
a day to remember and mourn,
a day to count the cost of so much hatred.
But don’t think that saying the names
of my 368 siblings–
(a number that rises so fast that by the time
we are done with our rituals, it may be more,
and more again)
almost all of them my sisters,
black and brown sisters–
don’t think saying their names
is enough.
It will never be enough.
Each year I am asked to absorb
the losses of hundreds
of my people, my family.
To use the word “tragedy,”
instead of genocide.
To express grief
instead of rage.

I am tired.
For decades now, I have mourned.
For decades now, I have politely
listened to lists of names, mispronounced
and loved too late, honored only
posthumously.

I want to know.
Can you love me while I live?
Can you love my siblings?
My black and brown sisters?
Can you love them no matter
the choices they made to survive?
Can you love them politically?
Can you love them personally,
allowing them to come into your church?
your home?
your heart?

I am tired.
Because these hundreds of names
are not even all.
These are only the ones who died
at the hands of someone else’s hatred.
That number does not count the ones
I have lost to self-hatred, to despair,
to hunger and cold.
It does not count the ones who are dying inside
because seeing all this,
they don’t dare to live.

So today, when you ask me to perform
my grief and sorrow on your stage,
Do not be surprised if it comes with
rage. If it comes with weeping so fierce
that I cannot speak, cannot breathe.
If it comes with wailing so loud
that (if only, if only) it could wake the dead.

And tomorrow, when the world moves on,
and I am left alone again,
with all of this,
all my beloveds dead
all my people endangered,
all the pieces of my broken heart
still piercing and bleeding,
still enraged
still heavy with grief,
Will you still remember?
And more importantly,
What will you do?

 

TRUUsT calls on Unitarian Universalists everywhere to take immediate action to live out the above truths and directly support trans UUs. #TDOR #WontBeErased

This evening there is a vigil for Transgender Day of Remembrance this evening in Morgantown at the Morgantown Church of the Brethren-Mennonite at 6pm.