Birth of The Unitarian Church in Transylvania

Robert

“Dávid Ferenc” (@unitariandavidferenc) posted this earlier today (6 January 2021) on Facebook:

On this day, January 6, in 1568 king John Sigismund assembled a Diet to be held in the town Torda (today Turda in Romania). At this Diet our Bishop Francis David inspired the delegates to later approve the first toleration edict of freedom of faith among the Christian religions.

This was a new and revolutionary idea of freedom of religion at that time, and therefore January 6 1568 also is considered by tradition to be the birth of The Unitarian Church.

Here’s the famous painting by Aladár Körösfői-Kriesch showing Bishop Francis David at the Diet of Torda. A painting well known by Unitarians.

Francis David at the Diet of Torda, 6 January 1568

Sunday, January 10, 2021: Where Are We Going?

LdeG

Unitarian and Universalist ideas have a 2,000-year history. Lisa deGruyter will review where we have been, what is meaningful to her from that history, and ways forward.

Please Join us for Worship.

We are forgoing meeting in person during the coronavirus epidemic, meeting on Zoom. We share music, readings, and hymns on our usual presentation slides, have a story and a talk, and share joys and sorrows, as well as a virtual “coffee hour” discussion starting at 10:30, with the service at 11. 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.

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 during this time. 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

Imagine New Beginnings

johnnyawwsome

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundation under them.” – Henry David Thoreau, Walden

“The prophet engages in futuring fantasy. The prophet does not ask if the vision can be implemented, for questions of implementation are of no consequence until the vision can be imagined. The imagination must come before the implementation. Our culture is competent to implement almost anything and to imagine almost nothing. The same royal consciousness that makes it possible to implement anything and everything is the one that shrinks imagination because imagination is a danger. Thus every totalitarian regime is frightened of the artist. It is the vocation of the prophet to keep alive the ministry of imagination, to keep on conjuring and proposing futures alternative to the single one the king wants to urge as the only thinkable one.” – Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination

A Month of Imagination

johnnyawwsome

“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells.  Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.  Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.” – Theodore Geisel (better known as Dr. Seuss)

This month we will be focusing on imagination in our services and our posts. We will have meditations about imagination posted on Wednesdays and articles/information about the spiritual practice of imagination on Saturdays. We hope you will join us on our imagination journey.

Here are some spiritual practices to consider –

The practice of waking up to possibility.

The healing practice of putting ourselves in other people’s shoes

                  The practice of completing the world by conjuring up its missing parts.

                 The practice of allowing hope to widen our view.

Sunday, January 3, 2021

johnnyawwsome

“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.” –

This Sunday, John Hall will give a lesson titled “Expect the unexpected.” J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan


We are forgoing meeting in person during the coronavirus epidemic, meeting instead through the magic of ZOOM. We share music, readings, and hymns on our usual presentation slides, have a story and a talk, and share joys and sorrows, as well as a virtual “coffee hour” discussion starting at 10:30, with the service at 11. 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.

Please Join us for Worship. And make sure you have a candle for a special meditation.


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 during this time. 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

Inner Peace and Stillness

johnnyawwsome

Breathed into the World by Rev. Sandra Fees

Whoever you are, wherever you go,

May you know the stillness of winter

and the call to love.

May you see the moon

silvering the night sky

and let the dark of midnight

plunge you into your truest self

and fling you back out again

to a world in need of who you are.

May there be the familiar carols

you know by heart

and new melodies to set you free.

May there be feasting and frolicking,

kindness and wonderment.

And may there be wise people

to follow a star in the East

and a child to teach us to love

and enough magic

to let the imagination go wild,

to let Christmas arrive with its enchantments,

with its glitter, glow, and gold,

to let what wants to be born break through.

May the presence of the holy

crowd out fear, hate, and worry

and proclaim in this moment

that peace and goodwill might yet

be breathed into the world,

and avow that we too can give birth to love,

wherever we go, whoever we are.

Sunday, December 27, 2020

CZ

“The Joy of brightening other lives, bearing each others’ burdens, easing each other’s loads and supplanting empty hearts and lives with generous gifts becomes for us the magic of the holidays.” – W. C. Jones

This Sunday, Cricket Hall will give a lesson titled “Putting the Holy back in the holidays.”


We are forgoing meeting in person during the coronavirus epidemic, meeting instead through the magic of ZOOM. We share music, readings, and hymns on our usual presentation slides, have a story and a talk, and share joys and sorrows, as well as a virtual “coffee hour” discussion starting at 10:30, with the service at 11. 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.

Please Join us for Worship. And make sure you have a candle for a special meditation.


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 during this time. 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


Mysticism is part of Stillness

johnnyawwsome

“What does it mean to be still and know I am God? The instruction to be still in Hebrew means to let go, stop striving, slacken and let drop. It’s a picture of loosening our clenched grip on the circumstances and outcome and trusting God… I’m the first to admit that being still goes against my instinct. We are fixers.  We want to make it happen and just keep pushing through. But the call to be still is a call to surrender.” – Lisa Apello

In This Time of Waiting (Advent Prayer) by Cricket Hall

Close-up study of a fir branch, with green needles

In this time of waiting, may we hold the world in our hearts.

In this time of waiting, may we hold each other’s hands.

In this time of waiting, may we be thoughtful and introspective.

In this time of waiting, may we delight in the darkness and all it teaches us.

In this time of waiting, may we rekindle the fires of hope, love, joy, and peace within ourselves and our communities.

In this time of waiting, may we become ready for the coming day.