Daylight Saving Time ENDS tomorrow, Sunday, November 3, 2024, when 2:00 a.m. is mysteriously revealed to be a repeat of 1:00 a.m., and we all have to relive that hour. But an extra hour of sleep might not be a bad thing.
Remember to set your clocks back one hour tonight so you’re not an hour early tomorrow morning! The coffee won’t even be ready yet!
There was a Door to which I found no Key;
There was a Veil past which I could not see:
Some little talk awhile of ME and THEE
There seemed — and then no more of THEE and ME.
— Edward FitzGerald, translation of a poem attributed to Omar Khayyam
We are told that there are certain times of the year when the veil between the world of the living and that of the dead becomes thinner. The end of October and beginning of November — the time of Diwali, Halloween, Samhain, All Saints Day, All Souls Day, Día de los Muertes — is one such time. This Sunday we will reflect on this veil and its thinning. Robert Helfer will lead the service.
This is a time to remember those who have passed from our lives, and for this reason, we create an altar, a table of remembrance, to help us feel the presence of those we miss. Please bring a momento that connects you to a person whose memory is dear to you — a photograph or some other object — for display on our table of remembrance.
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.
**If you wish to join by ZOOM and do not already have the link, please email us at westforkuu@gmail.com**
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 coffee hour, a time for 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 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.
Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302
On this date, 27 October 1553, Michael Servetus, physician and theologian, was burned at the stake in Geneva, Switzerland, for the crime of rejecting the doctrine of the Trinity. He was the first European to describe pulmonary circulation. The description, unnoticed by any of the heretic hunters who examined Servetus’ books, was hidden in the book that Calvin ordered to be burned along with Servetus himself.
A useful summary of Servetus’ life, works, and death, as well as a list of his works, can be found at the Michael Servetus Institute web site. Fuller descriptions of Servetus’ life, works, trial, and execution can be found in Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone, Out of the Flames: The Remarkable Story of a Fearless Scholar, a Fatal Heresy, and One of the Rarest Books in the World, or Roland H. Bainton, Hunted Heretic: The Life and Death of Michael Servetus, 1511-1553.
Due to schedule conflicts, there will be no WFUU service and no ZOOM session on Sunday, 27 October 2024.
We will return on Sunday, 3 November, and hope to see you all then.
Thank you.
The seasons have been shown to influence many elements of our psyches and behavior: mood, color preferences, how charitable we are, even cognitive performance. But recently, researchers found they may also affect what we tend to consider among our most profoundly held convictions: how we decide what is right and wrong.
— Alice Sun, “Our Morals Change with the Seasons”, Nautilus, September 9, 2024.
We are currently having a full service on the first Sunday of each month, and discussing a different short reading each of the remaining Sundays.
On Sunday, 20 October, 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 Alice Sun’s “Our Morals Change with the Seasons“, Nautilus, September 9, 2024.
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 coffee hour, a time for 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 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 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
You see, I’ve increasingly come to realize that many people are tempted to fall into thinking that what’s being offered within the local community is the well-fitting, bespoke spiritual suit or dress itself. But it’s not. What’s on offer here, in the company of fellow students and experienced free religious and spiritual seekers, is an apprenticeship in how to tailor for yourself your own well-fitting, bespoke spiritual garment suitable for every aspect of your everyday life. …
— Andrew Brown, “What an apprenticeship in tailoring might tell us about the making of a creative, free spirituality or religion …”, a “thought for the day” for February 24, 2024.
We are currently having a full service on the first Sunday of each month, and discussing a different short reading each of the remaining Sundays.
On Sunday, 13 October, 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 “thought for the day” for February 24, 2024, on making a creative, free spirituality or religion, “What an apprenticeship in tailoring might tell us about the making of a creative, free spirituality or religion . . .“, which is, in part, a sequel to his “thought for the day” for February 17, 2024, “Will ready-made religion ever really fit us properly?“. I encourage all to read the full source of the excerpt included in this announcement, and perhaps consider reading the earlier “thought”.
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 coffee hour, a time for 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 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 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
12 October 2024 at Watters Smith State Park
Celebrate our watershed at Watters Smith State Park, Saturday, 12 October 2024, 10 to 4
All ages are invited to bring a picnic lunch and spend the day, bring your mountain bikes and ride the trails, walk the trails or visit the Watters Smith farm museum. Or drop in for the morning, the afternoon, or just one activity.
Learn more at https://guardiansofthewestfork.org/2024/09/09/west-fork-watershed-day-at-watters-smith-state-park-12-oct-2024/
The Fairmont State Univeristy Masquers student theatre organization will present The Laramie Project, November 1-3 and 6-9, 2024, in the Wallman Hall Theater. Tickets can be purchased here.
From the Wikipedia article about the Laramie Project:
The Laramie Project is a 2000 American play by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project … about the reaction to the 1998 murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming. The murder was denounced as a hate crime and brought attention to the lack of hate crime laws in various states, including Wyoming.
An example of verbatim theatre, the play draws on hundreds of interviews conducted by the theatre company with inhabitants of the town, company members’ own journal entries, and published news reports. It is divided into three acts, and eight actors portray more than sixty characters in a series of short scenes.
See the full announcement for the Fairmont State University production here.
Today is the International Day of Non-Violence.
… celebrations in most countries outside of India and South Africa have been, at best, muted.
Perhaps that is because the Non-Violence promoted by the commemoration is not just a sort of vague warm fuzzy pacifism, but an active strategy for social change.
— Patrick Murfin, “The International Day of Non-Violence” (Patrick Murfin on blogspot.com)
To Hindus the universe itself was a perpetual motion machine, and there seemed nothing absurd in an endless and spontaneous flow of energy. Bhāskāra speaks of the siphon as though it were a device for perpetual motion, and his fourteenth-century European imitator insists that his mercury wheel is in perpetual motion, even though when he made it experimentally he applied heat to its lower part, and is quite aware that it turned because the heat made the mercury rise. A windmill on a hill with constant breezes, a water-mill in a stream which never runs dry, were, to the Middle Ages, perpetual motion machines. The significant things about the idea of perpetual motion in late Medieval Europe, in contrast to India and Islam, are the indications of the intense and widespread interest in it, the attempt to diversify its motors, and the effort to make it do something useful.
— Lynn White, Jr., Medieval Technology and Social Change (1962).
We have Spiritual Outings on the first Sunday of each month through the summer (very loosely defined). For this year’s October outing, we will gather on October 6 at Valley Falls State Park for a celebration of early Autumn, the joys of nature, the perpetual (we hope) flow of water, and the challenges of fellowship. Come join us on the banks of the Tygart Valley River.
We will meet at 11 a.m. in the picnic area for a short service followed by a potluck picnic, conversation, and walking. Bring food to share if you are able and wish to share; otherwise, just bring food for yourself and share our company.
We would love to have you come worship with us.
Note that ZOOM will not be available for this service.
For a map, please use this link: https://goo.gl/maps/CiiqyDAXiw42
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
West Fork Unitarian Universalists 