Author: Robert

Sunday, June 7, 2026: Ferguson Memorial Park, Shinnston

Robert
Ferguson Memorial Park, Shinnston
Ferguson Memorial Park, Shinnston

We have Spiritual Outings on the first Sunday of each month through the summer (very loosely defined). For this year’s June outing, we will gather on 7 June in Shinnston at Ferguson Memorial Park for a celebration of early summer, the joys of nature, and the challenges of fellowship. Come join us in the park.

We will meet at 11 a.m. in the picnic area for a short service followed by a potluck picnic, conversation, and walking — look for the WFUU banner. Bring food to share if you are able and wish to share; otherwise, just bring food for yourself and share our company. In the event of rain we will probably get wet; in the event of clear sky we will probably get hot — bring weather-appropriate clothing.. [Note that the Shinnston pool is closed.]

We would love to have you come worship with us.

Note that Google Meet will not be available for this service.

For a map and directions, please use this link: goo.gl/maps/enAartS4VNE2

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or to carpool. Or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302

Sunday, 31 May 2026: Seeing and Hearing

Robert
Honeybee on white clover

A deepfake video looks exactly like something we have actually seen, or could see (ken [見]); an AI-generated voice sounds exactly like something we have actually heard or could have heard (bun [聞]). Yet neither is truly real. Social media algorithms now hijack our eyes and ears with fabricated or decontextualised clips designed to trigger emotional responses and compel us toward actions that are as undesirable as they are destructive. Through Tamura’s translation, the word kenbun [見聞] — seeing and hearing — helps to reveal the very faculty under attack today, namely, our direct perception.

— Andrew J. Brown, “Seeing and Hearing: A free-religious response to the information crisis”, CAUTE — Making Footprints Not Blueprints, 8 May 2026.

We currently conduct a full worship service on the first Sunday of each month, and discuss a different short reading each of the remaining Sundays.

On Sunday, 31 May, we will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, followed by our discussion. Robert Helfer will lead the service and discussion. This week’s reading is “Seeing and Hearing: A free-religious response to the information crisis”, by Andrew J. Brown, CAUTE — Making Footprints Not Blueprints, 8 May 2026,

The article, “Seeing and Hearing: A free-religious response to the information crisis”, by Andrew J. Brown, can be found here.

Please Join us for Worship.

Our services are Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on ZOOM and in person at the Progressive Women’s Association Event Center, 305 Washington Ave. in downtown Clarksburg, behind the Courthouse. A coffee hour, a time for discussion and socializing (including ZOOM participants), follows from the end of the service until 12:00 noon. More about us.

If you prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate online, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

Children are welcome.

The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park on the south side of the building, which is marked reserved for the PWA, or the north, where the reserved spaces are available on Sundays.

Map

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302

Sunday, 24 May 2026: Useful Knowledge

Robert

History has told the story of the crown. Epic poetry has sung of the sword. The poet has sung the praises of the plow. And domestic science sings the praises of the needle. Skill to wield this small but powerful weapon makes a pleasure out of an occupation that once was drudgery and gives the assurance that all may become artists in their daily work..

— Miss Ina Randall, an oration delivered upon graduating from The Manual Training School at Ellendale N. D., on May 17, 1901, quoted by Doug Stow.

We currently conduct a full worship service on the first Sunday of each month, and discuss a different short reading each of the remaining Sundays.

On Sunday, 24 May, we will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, followed by our discussion. Robert Helfer will lead the service and discussion. This week’s reading is “Industrial Training in the Schools”, by Ina Randall, reprinted by Doug Stow, Wisdom of the Hands, Tuesday, May 12, 2026,

The article, “Industrial Training in the Schools”, by Ina Randall, can be found here.

Please Join us for Worship.

Our services are Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on ZOOM and in person at the Progressive Women’s Association Event Center, 305 Washington Ave. in downtown Clarksburg, behind the Courthouse. A coffee hour, a time for discussion and socializing (including ZOOM participants), follows from the end of the service until 12:00 noon. More about us.

If you prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate online, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

Children are welcome.

The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park on the south side of the building, which is marked reserved for the PWA, or the north, where the reserved spaces are available on Sundays.

Map

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302

Sunday, 17 May 2026: Poetry’s Vital Role

Robert

Of all nations the United States with veins full of poetical stuff most need poets and will doubtless have the greatest and use them the greatest. Their Presidents shall not be their common referee so much as their poets shall.

— Walt Whitman, preface to the first edition of Leaves of Grass, 1855, quoted by Nissa Parmar, “Poetry’s Vital Role in Politics”, JSTOR Daily (December 10, 2025).

We currently conduct a full worship service on the first Sunday of each month, and discuss a different short reading each of the remaining Sundays.

On Sunday, 17 May, we will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, followed by our discussion. Robert Helfer will lead the service and discussion. This week’s reading is “Poetry’s Vital Role in Politics”, by Nissa Parmar, JSTOR Daily (December 10, 2025).,

The article, “Poetry’s Vital Role in Politics”, by Nissa Parmar, can be found here.

Please Join us for Worship.

Our services are Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on ZOOM and in person at the Progressive Women’s Association Event Center, 305 Washington Ave. in downtown Clarksburg, behind the Courthouse. A coffee hour, a time for discussion and socializing (including ZOOM participants), follows from the end of the service until 12:00 noon. More about us.

If you prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate online, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

Children are welcome.

The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park on the south side of the building, which is marked reserved for the PWA, or the north, where the reserved spaces are available on Sundays.

Map

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302

Sunday, 10 May 2026: The Ordinary

Robert

… the ordinary is not banal at all. It is messy, dense, artful. What is hidden behind habitual activities is a cacophony of textured, sensual experience – the lifeblood of human culture itself. The everyday has its own aesthetic integrity. And the more we study it, as social scientists say, the stranger and more interesting the ordinary becomes.

— Nadine Levy, “What if your life turned out to be ordinary? Slow down and relish this – it might even be enchanting”, The Guardian (April 19, 2026)

We currently conduct a full worship service on the first Sunday of each month, and discuss a different short reading each of the remaining Sundays.

On Sunday, 10 May, we will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, followed by our discussion. Robert Helfer will lead the service and discussion. This week’s reading is “What if your life turned out to be ordinary? Slow down and relish this – it might even be enchanting”, by Nadine Levy, The Guardian (April 19, 2026)

The article, “What if your life turned out to be ordinary? Slow down and relish this – it might even be enchanting”, by Nadine Levy, can be found here.

Please Join us for Worship.

Our services are Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Google Meet and in person at the Progressive Women’s Association Event Center, 305 Washington Ave. in downtown Clarksburg, behind the Courthouse. A coffee hour, a time for discussion and socializing (including Google Meet participants), follows from the end of the service until 12:00 noon. More about us.

If you prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate online, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using Google Meet.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

Children are welcome.

The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park on the south side of the building, which is marked reserved for the PWA, or the north, where the reserved spaces are available on Sundays.

Map

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302

Sunday 3 May 2026: But How Do We Fit In?

Robert

We hear much about the importance of preserving the environment, preserving the natural world in contrast to the world that has been created by human actions. But aren’t people part of the natural world, too? How do we fit in?

This Sunday Robert Helfer will contemplate the idea of “nature” and consider our place in it.

Please Join us for Worship.

Our services are Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Google Meet and in person at the Progressive Women’s Association Event Center, 305 Washington Ave. in downtown Clarksburg, behind the Courthouse. A coffee hour, a time for discussion and socializing (including Google Meet participants), follows from the end of the service until 12:00 noon. More about us.

If you prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate online, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using Google Meet.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

Children are welcome.

The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park on the south side of the building, which is marked reserved for the PWA, or the north, where the reserved spaces are available on Sundays.

Map

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302

2026 Universalist Convocation

Robert
white frame church
Fork Ridge Universalist, Marshall Co., WV

2026 Universalist Convocation
May 15 – 17, 2026, Clayton Memorial UU Church, Newberry, SC

“Since 1990, our yearly Convocation has gathered people who wish to learn, explore, and celebrate our Universalist heritage.  This year’s Convocation will be our last scheduled in-person gathering. We encourage all who have joined us before or wish to experience the fellowship of attending a Convention to join us this year.”

Click to access 2026-Universalist-Convocation-Flyer.pdf

See the full announcement: https://universalistconvocation.org/announcement/

Sunday, 26 April 2026: A Path of Peace

Robert

Walking a path of peace through these dark and broken roads requires much more of us than warm, fuzzy feelings. To walk such a path through a world that is anything but peaceful, means prioritizing how each of us cultivates our internal landscape first and foremost. It all starts and ends with this <point to heart>. And it requires grit. Awareness. Resilience.

— Mo Myokan Weinhardt, “Stop the war”, a dharma talk at Empty Moon Zen, April 4, 2026.

We currently conduct a full worship service on the first Sunday of each month, and discuss a different short reading each of the remaining Sundays.

On Sunday, 26 April, we will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, followed by our discussion. Robert Helfer will lead the service and discussion. This week’s reading is “Stop the War”, by Mo Myokan Weinhardt, a dharma talk at Empty Moon Zen, published in James Ford, “STOP THE WAR: Commenting on a Zen koan”, Monkey Mind: Easily Distracted (April 17, 2026)

The article, “STOP THE WAR: Commenting on a Zen koan”, by James Ford, can be found here.

Please Join us for Worship.

Our services are Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Google Meet and in person at the Progressive Women’s Association Event Center, 305 Washington Ave. in downtown Clarksburg, behind the Courthouse. A coffee hour, a time for discussion and socializing (including Google Meet participants), follows from the end of the service until 12:00 noon. More about us.

If you prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate online, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using Google Meet.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

Children are welcome.

The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park on the south side of the building, which is marked reserved for the PWA, or the north, where the reserved spaces are available on Sundays.

Map

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302

Sunday, 19 April 2026: Spiritual Outing at The Pringle Tree Park

Robert
Pringle Tree

Newspaper editorials deplore such human-caused degradations of the oceans as the Gulf of Mexico’s “dead zone,” and reporters describe practices like “mountain removal” mining in eastern Kentucky. Some day we may finally understand the connections.

The health of the oceans depends on the health of rivers; the health of rivers depends on the health of small streams; the health of small streams depends on the health of their watersheds. The health of the water is exactly the same as the health of the land; the health of small places is exactly the same as the health of large places. As we know, disease is hard to confine. Because natural law is in force everywhere, infections move.

We cannot immunize the continents and the oceans against our contempt for small places and small streams. Small destructions add up, and finally they are understood collectively as large destructions.

—  Wendell Berry, “Contempt for Small Places”, The Way of Ignorance, and Other Essays, 2005

We have Spiritual Outings on the first Sunday of each month through the summer (very loosely defined), but this month it will be on the third Sunday. For this year’s April outing, we will gather on 19 April at Pringle Tree Park for a celebration of Autumn, the joys of nature, the oddities of history, and the challenges of fellowship. Come join us on the banks of the Buckhannon River.

We will meet at 11 a.m. in the picnic area for a short service followed by a potluck picnic, conversation, and walking — look for the WFUU banner. Bring food to share if you are able and wish to share; otherwise, just bring food for yourself and share our company. In the event of rain we will probably get wet; in the event of clear sky we will probably get hot — bring weather-appropriate clothing.

We would love to have you come worship and eat with us.

Note that ZOOM will not be available for this service.

This link will take you to a map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Tb4jxf44wFXrwyq3A

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or to carpool, or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302