Sunday, October 4, 2016: Defying the Nazis

Martha and Waitstill Sharp

Welcome: To Remind Ourselves What Is Real, By Elena Westbrook

In a world ravaged by violence, by hatred,
by conflicts that seem eternal and insoluble,
sometimes the only thing we can do
is be still for a moment
to remind ourselves what is real:
the sun that rose this morning,
the dirt under our feet,
the air whispering in and out of our lungs.

This hour, try just to be present in each moment as it unfolds.
Your simple attention is what makes these moments holy.

Chalice lighting: Embrace The Night, By Jennifer Leota Gray

Universal mystery,
Guide us away from the desire to
Shine light in all the corners.
Teach us to embrace the night,
For without the darkness,
We never see the stars.

Continue reading →

Sunday September 25, 2016

​Our youth and children will explore journeys in literature and faith. The service will be fun and interactive.

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.

Our Religious Education/ Life Long Learning Class will meet at from 10am to 10:45 am with a coffee gathering before the service. More about us.

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

~
Namaste
Cricket

Sunday September 18, 2016: Veteran’s Park

We have Spiritual Outings on the third Sunday during the summer. This month, we will gather at the Hilltop Shelter at the Veterans’ Memorial Park in Clarksburg at 11 a.m. for a short service, followed by a potluck picnic, conversation, and walking the trail by the river. The picnic area, trail, and restrooms are wheelchair-accessible.

Please email westforkuu@gmail.com if you would like to carpool.

The Hilltop Shelter is the smallest shelter in the Park, located on the upper parking lot on the left hand side.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

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

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

Sunday September 11, 2016

Cricket Hall will lead us in a service about the 4th Principle which is a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.

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.

Our Religious Education/ Life Long Learning Class will be from 10am to 10:45 am with a coffee gathering before the service. More about us.

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

~
Namaste
Cricket

Image Credit to The Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Bridgeport

Sunday, September 4, 2016: Love in a Time of Fear and Loathing

Prelude: Once to Every Man and Nation

Welcome: Thich Nhat Hanh (SLT 505)

Let us be at peace with our bodies and our minds. Let us return to ourselves and become wholly ourselves. Let us be aware of the source of being, common to us all and to all living things.

Evoking the presence of the Great Compassion, let us fill our hearts with our own compassion—towards ourselves and towards all living beings.

Let us pray that we ourselves cease to be the cause of suffering to each other.

With humility, with awareness of the existence of life, and of the suffering that are going on around us, let us practice the establishment of peace in our hearts and on earth.

 Chalice Lighting: The Gift of Love

Come, Spirit, come, our hearts control,
Our spirits long to be made whole.
Let inward love guide every deed;
By this we worship, and are freed.

Song: Gathered Here (3 times) Continue reading →

Sunday August 28, 2016: Mother Jones Alive

Mother Jones

Mother Jones

In 1902 she was “the most dangerous woman in America”.

Mary Harris Jones, commonly known as “Mother Jones”, was an Irish immigrant, a refugee of the “Great Famine”. Widowed in 1867 when her husband and four young children died of yellow fever, she became a champion of the rights of children and a tireless labor organizer in the coal fields of West Virginia and other places across the United States until her death at age 93 in 1930.

On Sunday, August 28, members of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Charleston, together with members of West Fork Unitarian Universalists, will bring Mother Jones to life, up close and personal, through her own words and the words of others from her times. Special music will be provided by members of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Morgantown.

Please join us at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, August 28, at the Progressive Women’s Association Event Center, 305 Washington Ave., in Downtown Clarksburg, WV, behind the Courthouse.

Our Religious Education/Life Long Learning Class will meet from 10 a.m. until 10:45. We will gather for coffee and conversation before the service. More about us.

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

Sunday August 21, 2016: Audra State Park

We have Spiritual Outings on the third Sunday during the summer. This month, we will gather at Audra State Park at 11 a.m. for a short service, followed by a potluck picnic, conversation, and walking or swimming in the river. The picnic area and restrooms are wheelchair-accessible, but the restroom is some way from parking, and the swimming area is not accessible.

Please email westforkuu@gmail.com if you would like to carpool.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

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

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

Sunday August 7, 2016: Redemptive Art?

6 Turning Leaves

Prelude: Amarillo by Morning – George Strait

Welcome: We gather together to face ourselves honestly, By Philip Larson

We gather together to face ourselves honestly,
to forgive ourselves gently,
to love one another fervently.

Chalice lighting: For every time we make a mistake, By Maureen Killoran

For every time we make a mistake and we decide to start again:
We light this chalice.
For every time we are lonely and we let someone be our friend:
We light this chalice.
For every time we are disappointed and we choose to hope:
We light this chalice.

Song: Gathered Here In the Mystery of This Hour (3 times)

Gathered here in the mystery of this hour.
Gathered here in one strong body.
Gathered here in the struggle and the power.
Spirit draw near.

Principles of Unitarian Universalism
Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote seven Principles:

  • The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
  • Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
  • Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
  • A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
  • The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
  • The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
  • Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

Story for All Ages: from “Leaf by Niggle”, by J.R.R. Tolkien
(https://heroicjourneys.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/niggle.pdf)

{Today’s “story for all ages” was taken from a little-known story by J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien says that he wrote it around 1938 or 1939, after he woke one morning “with it already in mind.” It was originally published in 1946 in the Dublin Review, then republished in 1964, joined with the essay “On Fairy-Stories”, in a small volume titled Tree and Leaf.}
Continue reading →

Sunday July 31, 2016: Tygart Lake State Park

Tygart River Lake and Dam

We have Spiritual Outings on the third Sunday during the summer. This month, we have changed to the last Sunday because so many of us are in a theater production on the third Sunday. We will gather at Tygart Lake State Park at 11 a.m. for a short service, followed by a potluck picnic, conversation, and walking or swimming in the lake. There are trails and restrooms which are wheelchair-accessible.

Please email westforkuu@gmail.com if you would like to carpool.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

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

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

Sunday July 24, 2016

Cricket Hall will lead us in a service about spiritual practice of touchstones and how they help us connect to “that which is not us”.

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.

Our Religious Education/ Life Long Learning Class will be from 10am to 10:45 am with a coffee gathering before the service. More about us.

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

~
Namaste
Cricket