Because of the current weather conditions, we are canceling our in-person service this Sunday. Please join us on ZOOM.
Author: Robert
Sunday, 19 January 2025: Pardon, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation
We can say that there might sometimes be an obligation to pardon. There is never an obligation to forgive. “Forgive” is from the Old English word forgyfan – “to give, grant, or bestow.” It’s a gift. It cannot be required. If it is forced or coerced or pressured, then it’s not a gift.
— Rev. Meredith Garmon, “Pardon, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation”, 17 November 2024
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, 19 January, 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 a sermon , “Pardon, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation”, by Rev. Meredith Garmon of First Unitarian Church, Des Moines, IA.
The sermon, “Pardon, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation”, can be found here.
All are welcome to participate.
**If you wish to join by ZOOM and do not already have the link, please email us at westforkuu@gmail.com**
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.
Children are welcome. The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park in the lot on the west side of the building; DO NOT PARK in the Washington Avenue pay lot. Please enter through the door at the back on the west side of the building.
A half hour for coffee, discussion, and socializing, including those who attend through ZOOM, follows from the end of the service until 12:00 noon. More about us.
If you have been a regular attendee and we had an email address for you, we have added you to our Google Group. If you have not gotten a group email already, please email westforkuu@gmail.com so that we can add you to the group. We encourage members to continue discussions through the week using the WFUU email group. Public announcements will continue to be posted here on the website and on our Facebook page as usual.
Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302
In-person services canceled for 12 January 2025
Because of the current weather conditions, we are canceling our in-person service this Sunday. Please join us on ZOOM.
Sunday, 12 January 2025: It’s Worse than You Think
In fact, your situation is worse than you think — because the truth is that the incoming supply of things that feel as though they genuinely need doing isn’t merely large, but to all intents and purposes infinite. So getting through them all isn’t just very difficult. It’s impossible.
— Oliver Burkeman, “It’s Worse than You Think: On the liberation of defeat”
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, 12 January, 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 an excerpt from Oliver Burkeman’s book Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts, 2024.
The excerpt, “It’s Worse than You Think: On the liberation of defeat”, Tricycle, 16 December 2024, can be found here. This is a gift copy you are free to read without subscription to Tricycle.
All are welcome to participate.
**If you wish to join by ZOOM and do not already have the link, please email us at westforkuu@gmail.com**
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.
Children are welcome. The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park in the lot on the west side of the building; DO NOT PARK in the Washington Avenue pay lot. Please enter through the door at the back on the west side of the building.
A half hour for coffee, discussion, and socializing, including those who attend through ZOOM, follows from the end of the service until 12:00 noon. More about us.
If you have been a regular attendee and we had an email address for you, we have added you to our Google Group. If you have not gotten a group email already, please email westforkuu@gmail.com so that we can add you to the group. We encourage members to continue discussions through the week using the WFUU email group. Public announcements will continue to be posted here on the website and on our Facebook page as usual.
Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302
Sunday, 5 January 2025: In Every Newborn Child
Whatever else Christmas is about, its origins lie in a very ancient tradition that, whatever else God is, or the gods are, they are, “with us.” In the singular, the phrase, “God is with us”, is … the meaning of the name, Emmanuel, given to the newborn baby Jesus by the author of the Gospel of Matthew (1:22–23), a name which he borrowed from the much earlier author of the first chapters of the book of Isaiah (7:14).
— Andrew Brown, “An obvious framework of ordinary, everyday existence, or the universal life seen in every newborn child”
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, 5 January, we will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, after which Robert Helfer will guide us through our discussion. This week’s reading is Andrew Brown’s short sermon “An obvious framework of ordinary, everyday existence, or the universal life seen in every newborn child”, 28 December 2024.
“An obvious framework of ordinary, everyday existence, or the universal life seen in every newborn child” can be found here.
All are welcome to participate.
**If you wish to join by ZOOM and do not already have the link, please email us at westforkuu@gmail.com**
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.
Children are welcome. The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park in the lot on the west side of the building; DO NOT PARK in the Washington Avenue pay lot. Please enter through the door at the back on the west side of the building.
A half hour for coffee, discussion, and socializing, including those who attend through ZOOM, follows from the end of the service until 12:00 noon. More about us.
If you have been a regular attendee and we had an email address for you, we have added you to our Google Group. If you have not gotten a group email already, please email westforkuu@gmail.com so that we can add you to the group. We encourage members to continue discussions through the week using the WFUU email group. Public announcements will continue to be posted here on the website and on our Facebook page as usual.
Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302
Sunday, 22 December 2024: Fourth Sunday in Advent: Love
It seems to me that one of the happiest lessons in the gospel is that of love. We are told to love one another and to show that love by giving. And that love becomes more like that of God when we see Jesus Himself in those around us, as the apostles did… He taught them about love, about loving. The prodigal son, the sick, the lepers, the privileged, the tax-gatherers, the sinners, those in prison — in other words, loving the unlovable. Love is the reason for it all
— Dorothy Day, an undated entry in her diary, The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day, edited by Robert Ellsberg (2008)
Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302
Sunday, 15 December 2024: Third Sunday in Advent: Joy
One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between man and nature shall not be severed, that is, that he shall be able to see the sky above him, and that he shall be able to enjoy the sunshine, the pure air, the fields with their verdure, their multitudinous life. Men have always regarded it as a great unhappiness to be deprived of all these things.
— Leo Tolstoy, My Religion, translated by Huntington Smith (1885)
Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302
Sunday, 15 December 2024: Humility
Being humble is virtuous but devilishly elusive, especially for some people. As Benjamin Franklin — known by contemporaries for his lack of humility — joked in his autobiography, “Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome [my pride], I should probably be proud of my humility.”
— Arthur C. Brooks, “Why Humility Is the Key to Well-Being”, The Atlantic, 17 October 2024
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, 15 December, we will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, after which Robert Helfer will moderate our discussion. This week’s reading is Arthur C. Brooks’ October 2024 essay commemorating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, “Why Humility Is the Key to Well-Being”, The Atlantic, 17 October 2024.
A gift copy of “Why Humility Is the Key to Well-Being” can be found here. No subscription is needed to read this copy.
All are welcome to participate.
**If you wish to join by ZOOM and do not already have the link, please email us at westforkuu@gmail.com**
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.
Children are welcome. The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park in the lot on the west side of the building; DO NOT PARK in the Washington Avenue pay lot. Please enter through the door at the back on the west side of the building.
Please note that this Sunday we will be on the second floor. Please enter, as usual, through the door at the back on the west side of the building, then go to the second floor. There is an elevator in the hallway.
A half hour for coffee, discussion, and socializing, including those who attend through ZOOM, follows from the end of the service until 12:00 noon. More about us.
If you have been a regular attendee and we had an email address for you, we have added you to our Google Group. If you have not gotten a group email already, please email westforkuu@gmail.com so that we can add you to the group. We encourage members to continue discussions through the week using the WFUU email group. Public announcements will continue to be posted here on the website and on our Facebook page as usual.
Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302
Sunday, 8 December 2024: Second Sunday in Advent: Peace
If we want there to be peace in the world, we have to be brave enough to soften what is rigid in our hearts, to find the soft spot and stay with it. We have to have that kind of courage and take that kind of responsibility. That’s the true practice of peace.
— Pema Chödrön, Practicing Peace in Times of War
Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302
Sunday, 1 December 2024: First Sunday in Advent: Hope
Hope is not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.
— Václav Havel, Disturbing the Peace: A Conversation with Karel Hvížďala, translated by Paul Wilson (1990)
Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302
West Fork Unitarian Universalists 