Services

Sunday, 25 February 2024: Building Your Own Theology, Volume 2, Session 7

Robert
Solidarity, Käthe Kollwitz

From the beginning the weakness as well as the strength of the democratic ideal has been the people. People cannot be free unless they are willing to sacrifice some of their interests to guarantee the freedom of others. The price of democracy is the ongoing pursuit of the common good by all of the people. One hundred and thirty-five years ago Tocqueville gravely warned that unless individual citizens were regularly involved in the action of governing themselves, self-government would pass from the scene. Citizen participation is the animating spirit and force in a society predicated on voluntarism.

— Saul D. Alinsky, Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals (1971)

This Sunday we will continue our religious education program with Exploring, volume 2 of Building Your Own Theology. In session seven we will discuss Individualism and Community: What is the Role of the Church? The course description and schedule are here.

We will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, after which Robert will guide us through the course of study and discussions.

Please note that you are welcome to participate whether or not you have been keeping up to date on the sessions. We are using the course plan as a guide for discussion, not as a formula to arrive at any specific educational goal — we are, after all, working on *our own theologies*, not learning anyone’s official doctrine. All are welcome to participate. The reading for session seven is here.

** NOTE: If you wish to join us through ZOOM, please let us know before Sunday, so we can be sure to have the equipment in place Sunday morning. **

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 on the west side of the building.

Map

Note: If you wish to join on ZOOM, please let us know so we can be sure the equipment is ready on Sunday morning. If you prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.

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 are a regular attendee, we have added you to our Google Group if we had an email address. If you have not gotten a group email already, please email westforkuu@gmail.com so that we can add you to the group, which we will be using for staying in touch with each other. Public announcements will continue to be posted here on the website and on our Facebook page and Twitter account, 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, 18 February 2024: Building Your Own Theology, Volume 2, Session 6

Robert

A homogeneous community, one exhibiting almost total similarities of taste, habit, custom and behavior is culturally dead, aside from being downright boring. New and different life styles, habits and customs are the lifeblood of America. They are its strength, its growth force. Just as diversity strengthens and enriches the country as a whole, so will it strengthen and enrich a suburban community. Like animal species that over-specialize and breed out diversity and so perish in the course of evolution, communities, too, need racial, cultural, social and economic diversity to cope with our rapidly changing times.

— Justice Morris Pashman, concurring, “Southern Burlington County NAACP v. Mt. Laurel”, New Jersey Supreme Court, 67 N.J. 151 (1975)

This Sunday we will continue our religious education program with Exploring, volume 2 of Building Your Own Theology. In session six we will discuss justice and The Beloved Community — what is our place in the world as Unitarian Universalists? The course description and schedule are here.

We will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, after which Robert will guide us through the course of study and discussions.

Please note that you are welcome to participate whether or not you have been keeping up to date on the sessions. We are using the course plan as a guide for discussion, not as a formula to arrive at any specific educational goal — we are, after all, working on *our own theologies*, not learning anyone’s official doctrine. All are welcome to participate. The reading for session six is here.

** NOTE: If you wish to join us through ZOOM, please let us know before Sunday, so we can be sure to have the equipment in place Sunday morning. **

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 on the west side of the building.

Map

Note: If you wish to join on ZOOM, please let us know so we can be sure the equipment is ready on Sunday morning. If you prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.

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 are a regular attendee, we have added you to our Google Group if we had an email address. If you have not gotten a group email already, please email westforkuu@gmail.com so that we can add you to the group, which we will be using for staying in touch with each other. Public announcements will continue to be posted here on the website and on our Facebook page and Twitter account, 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, 11 February 2024: Building Your Own Theology, Volume 2, Session 5

Robert

If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

During the life of any heart this line keeps changing place; sometimes it is squeezed one way by exuberant evil and sometimes it shifts to allow enough space for good to flourish. One and the same human being is, at various ages, under various circumstances, a totally different human being. At times he is close to being a devil, at times to sainthood. But his name doesn’t change, and to that name we ascribe the whole lot, good and evil.

— Aleksandr I. Solzhenitzyn, The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, translated by Thomas P. Whitney (1973)

This Sunday we will continue our religious education program with Exploring, volume 2 of Building Your Own Theology. In session five we will confront the problem of evil in the world — How do we, as Unitarian Universalists, account for evil? The course description and schedule are here.

We will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, after which Robert will guide us through the course of study and discussions.

Please note that you are welcome to participate whether or not you have been keeping up to date on the sessions. We are using the course plan as a guide for discussion, not as a formula to arrive at any specific educational goal — we are, after all, working on *our own theologies*, not learning anyone’s official doctrine. All are welcome to participate. The reading for session five is here.

** NOTE: If you wish to join us through ZOOM, please let us know before Sunday, so we can be sure to have the equipment in place Sunday morning. **

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 on the west side of the building.

Map

Note: If you wish to join on ZOOM, please let us know so we can be sure the equipment is ready on Sunday morning. If you prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.

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 are a regular attendee, we have added you to our Google Group if we had an email address. If you have not gotten a group email already, please email westforkuu@gmail.com so that we can add you to the group, which we will be using for staying in touch with each other. Public announcements will continue to be posted here on the website and on our Facebook page and Twitter account, 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

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson, 6 April 1992

Sunday, 4 February 2024: Love Is Too Strong a Word

LdeG

In 1986, Kurt Vonnegut asked what makes us so bloodthirsty, in the Ware Lecture “Love Is Too Strong a Word” at the Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly. Vonnegut was a third-generation Unitarian, and great-grandson of a founder of the Freethinker’s Society of Indianapolis. We will hear a tape of his lecture, which is still startlingly topical today.

Lisa deGruyter will lead the discussion.

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 on the west side of the building.

Map

If you wish to join on ZOOM, please contact us for logon information. If you prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.

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 have been a regular attendee, we have added you to our Google Group if we had an email address. If you have not gotten a group email already, please email westforkuu@gmail.com so that we can add you to the group, which we will be using for staying in touch with each other. Public announcements will continue to be posted here on the website and on our Facebook page and Twitter account, 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, 28 January 2024: Building Your Own Theology, Volume 2, Session 4

Robert

“Do you believe in the soul?” It wasn’t quite the question he had been going to ask, and it took him by surprise to hear it coming from his mouth. He had intended to say something less direct, but there was nothing less direct that he could say.

“Depends. Back in my day, we had it all set up. You lined up when you died, and you’d answer for your evil deeds and for your good deeds, and if your evil deeds outweighed a feather, we’d feed your soul and your heart to Ammet, the Eater of Souls.”

“He must have eaten a lot of people.”

“Not as many as you’d think. It was a really heavy feather. We had it made special. You had to be pretty damn evil to tip the scales on that baby. Stop here, that gas station. We’ll put in a few gallons.”

— Neil Gaiman, American Gods. 

This Sunday we will continue our religious education program with Exploring, volume 2 of Building Your Own Theology. In session four we will explore the nature of sin and salvation, asking ourselves “Are We Saved?”, and what does that mean, anyway? The course description and schedule are here.

We will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, after which Robert will guide us through the course of study and discussions.

Please note that you are welcome to participate whether or not you have been keeping up to date on the sessions. We are using the course plan as a guide for discussion, not as a formula to arrive at any specific educational goal — we are, after all, working on *our own theologies*, not learning anyone’s official doctrine. All are welcome to participate. The reading and wheel diagram for session four are here and here. Regarding the questions of Sin and Salvation, a service on the teachings of Hosea Ballou can be found here.

** NOTE: If you wish to join us through ZOOM, please let us know before Sunday, so we can be sure to have the equipment in place Sunday morning. **

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 on the west side of the building.

Map

Note: If you wish to join on ZOOM, please let us know so we can be sure the equipment is ready on Sunday morning. If you prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.

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 are a regular attendee, we have added you to our Google Group if we had an email address. If you have not gotten a group email already, please email westforkuu@gmail.com so that we can add you to the group, which we will be using for staying in touch with each other. Public announcements will continue to be posted here on the website and on our Facebook page and Twitter account, 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

— Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes, 20 December 1985

Sunday, 21 January 2024. No Service

Robert

Because of the cold weather and apparent road problems here tomorrow morning, we have decided to cancel tomorrow’s service and again postpone this week’s session of Building Your Own Theology until next week.

We hope everyone stays warm and safe, and that we will see you all next week.

We expect to return next Sunday, 28 January.

Thank you.

Sunday, 21 January 2024: Building Your Own Theology, Volume 2, Session 4

Robert
Sunset

Strange! that no one has ever been persecuted by the church for believing God bad, while hundreds of millions have been destroyed for thinking him good. The orthodox church never will forgive the Universalist for saying “God is love.” It has always been considered as one of the very highest evidences of true and undefiled religion to insist that all men, women and children deserve eternal damnation. It has always been heresy to say, “God will at last save all.”

— Robert Green Ingersoll, “The Gods”, The Gods and Other Lectures (1879)

This Sunday we will continue our religious education program with Exploring, volume 2 of Building Your Own Theology. In session four we will explore the nature of sin and salvation, asking ourselves “Are We Saved?” The course description and schedule are here.

We will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, after which Robert will guide us through the course of study and discussions.

Please note that you are welcome to participate whether or not you have been keeping up to date on the sessions. We are using the course plan as a guide for discussion, not as a formula to arrive at any specific educational goal — we are, after all, working on *our own theologies*, not learning anyone’s official doctrine. All are welcome to participate. The reading and wheel diagram for session four are here and here. Regarding the questions of Sin and Salvation, a service on the teachings of Hosea Ballou can be found here.

** NOTE: If you wish to join us through ZOOM, please let us know before Sunday, so we can be sure to have the equipment in place Sunday morning. **

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 on the west side of the building.

Map

Note: If you wish to join on ZOOM, please let us know so we can be sure the equipment is ready on Sunday morning. If you prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.

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 are a regular attendee, we have added you to our Google Group if we had an email address. If you have not gotten a group email already, please email westforkuu@gmail.com so that we can add you to the group, which we will be using for staying in touch with each other. Public announcements will continue to be posted here on the website and on our Facebook page and Twitter account, 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, 14 January 2024: Building Your Own Theology, Volume 2, Session 4

Robert
Sunset

Strange! that no one has ever been persecuted by the church for believing God bad, while hundreds of millions have been destroyed for thinking him good. The orthodox church never will forgive the Universalist for saying “God is love.” It has always been considered as one of the very highest evidences of true and undefiled religion to insist that all men, women and children deserve eternal damnation. It has always been heresy to say, “God will at last save all.”

— Robert Green Ingersoll, “The Gods”, The Gods and Other Lectures (1879)

This Sunday we will continue our religious education program with Exploring, volume 2 of Building Your Own Theology. In session four we will explore the nature of sin and salvation, asking ourselves “Are We Saved?” The course description and schedule are here.

We will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, after which Robert will guide us through the course of study and discussions.

Please note that you are welcome to participate whether or not you have been keeping up to date on the sessions. We are using the course plan as a guide for discussion, not as a formula to arrive at any specific educational goal — we are, after all, working on *our own theologies*, not learning anyone’s official doctrine. All are welcome to participate. The reading and wheel diagram for session four are here and here. Regarding the questions of Sin and Salvation, a service on the teachings of Hosea Ballou can be found here.

** NOTE: If you wish to join us through ZOOM, please let us know before Sunday, so we can be sure to have the equipment in place Sunday morning. **

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 on the west side of the building.

Map

Note: If you wish to join on ZOOM, please let us know so we can be sure the equipment is ready on Sunday morning. If you prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.

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 are a regular attendee, we have added you to our Google Group if we had an email address. If you have not gotten a group email already, please email westforkuu@gmail.com so that we can add you to the group, which we will be using for staying in touch with each other. Public announcements will continue to be posted here on the website and on our Facebook page and Twitter account, 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, 7 January 2024: Building Your Own Theology, Volume 2, Session 3

Robert

My text this morning is taken from no Hebrew Scriptures, whether of the Old or New Testaments. America is every whit as sacred as Judea. God is as near to you and to me, as ever he was to Moses, to Jesus, or to Paul. Wherever a human soul is born into the love of truth and high virtue, there is the ‘Holy Land.’ Wherever a human soul has uttered its sincere and brave faith in the Divine, and thus bequeathed to us the legacy of inspired words, there is the ‘Holy Bible.’

— Francis Ellingwood Abbott, farewell sermon to The First Unitarian Society of Christians in Dover, New Hampshire, 29 March 1868, as cited in Hale v. Everett, 53 N.H. 9 (1868), Dec. 1868-New Hampshire Supreme Court

This Sunday we will continue our religious education program with Exploring, volume 2 of Building Your Own Theology. In session three we will explore the nature of spirituality, asking ourselves “What is Holy?” The course description and schedule are here.

We will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, after which Robert will guide us through the course of study and discussions.

Please note that you are welcome to participate whether or not you have been keeping up to date on the sessions. We are using the course plan as a guide for discussion, not as a formula to arrive at any specific educational goal — we are, after all, working on *our own theologies*, not learning anyone’s official doctrine. All are welcome to participate. The reading for session three is here.

** NOTE: If you wish to join us through ZOOM, please let us know before Sunday, so we can be sure to have the equipment in place Sunday morning. **

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 on the west side of the building.

Map

Note: If you wish to join on ZOOM, please let us know so we can be sure the equipment is ready on Sunday morning. If you prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.

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 are a regular attendee, we have added you to our Google Group if we had an email address. If you have not gotten a group email already, please email westforkuu@gmail.com so that we can add you to the group, which we will be using for staying in touch with each other. Public announcements will continue to be posted here on the website and on our Facebook page and Twitter account, 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