Sunday, June 7, 2020: Ferguson Memorial Park, Shinnston

Robert
Ferguson Memorial Park, Shinnston
Ferguson Memorial Park, Shinnston

We have Spiritual Outings on the first Sunday of each month during the summer. For this year’s first outing, we will gather for a celebration of summer on Sunday, June 7, at Ferguson Memorial Park in Shinnston.

During this time of covid-19 pandemic we are practicing appropriate social distancing; please wear a mask.

We will meet at 11 a.m. in the picnic area for a short service and a brief ceremony welcoming new members, followed by a modified potluck picnic, conversation, and walking. We will be practicing social distancing and wearing masks. Bring food to share if you are able and wish to share; otherwise, just bring food for yourself and share our company. [Note that the Shinnston pool is closed.]

We would love to have you come worship with us.

For a map and directions, please use this link: goo.gl/maps/enAartS4VNE2

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

Sunday, May 31, 2020: Small Acts

Robert
Spread The Love (6 Feet Apart)

Our topic this Sunday will be “Small Acts”. Phoebe Durst will lead the service.

We are forgoing meeting in person during the coronavirus epidemic. 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 Skype.

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

Sunday, May 24, 2020: Things Worthy of Remembrance

Robert
Ancient stone tomb called Trethevy Quoit, near Tremar Coombe, Cornwall

And lest things worthy of remembrance should perish with time, and fall away from the memory of those who are to come after us, I, seeing these many evils, and the whole world lying as it were in the wicked one, among the dead, waiting for death til it come, as I have truly heard and examined, so have I reduced these things to writing. — Friar John Clyn, 17th June, 1349

In uncertain times, preparing for an uncertain future, are we also leaving a record of what is important in the present?

Welcome before prelude

Good morning and welcome to West Fork Unitarian Universalists. I’m Robert and I feel blessed to serve this congregation as a lay leader. I’m glad to see all of you here today.

Thank you for joining us.

Let us use the prelude for centering. We are about to enter sacred time. We are about to make this time and this place sacred by our presence and intention.

Please silence your phones… and as you do so, I invite us also to turn down the volume on our fears; to remove our masks; and to loosen the armor around our hearts.

Breathe.

Let go of the expectations placed on you by others—and those they taught you to place on yourself.

Drop the guilt and the shame, not to shirk accountability, but in honest expectation of the possibility of forgiveness.

Let go of the thing you said the other day. Let go of the thing you dread next week. Be here, in this moment. Breathe, here.

Prelude Dust in the Wind – Kansas

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Sunday, May 17, 2020: Annual Meeting

LdeG

This Sunday is our Annual Meeting. We will gather as usual on Skype for check-ins and informal discussion at 10:30, and the Annual Meeting will begin at 11:00. Everyone is invited to participate in the discussion; decisions are by consensus of members.

Annual Business Meeting. The annual business meeting shall be held each year on the third Sunday of May, to hear reports of officers and staff, to appoint new officers and committees, to adopt an annual budget, and to transact any other business that may properly come before the congregation.

Treasurer’s Report

Election of Officers (Until the beginning of the church year after the membership reaches 15, the officers shall be the President, the Moderator, the Chair of Ministry and Oversight, and a Secretary/Treasurer, who will serve as the Board and Nominating Committee. The congregation as a whole will carry out the functions of the Committee on Ministry and Oversight.)

Annual Review of the Covenant of Right Relations.
https://westforkuu.org/about/covenant-of-right-relations

Planning and Budget for 2019-2020 Church Year (starts July 1)
Includes
Discussion of Spritual Outings under pandemic conditions
Planning services for June, July, August

We are forgoing meeting in person during the coronavirus epidemic. We experimented with a Skype video call on March 15, which allowed use to share music, readings, and hymns, on our usual presentation slides, and share joys and sorrows, as well as a virtual “coffee hour” discussion. We are continuing to do that. If you would like to participate, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link.

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.

Sunday, May 10, 2020

CZ

“Motherhood changes everything.” – Adriana Trigiani

This Sunday, John Hall will be doing a service celebrating Mother’s Day!

We are forgoing meeting in person during the coronavirus epidemic. We experimented with a Skype video call on March 15, which allowed use to share music, readings, and hymns, on our usual presentation slides, and share joys and sorrows, as well as a virtual “coffee hour” discussion. We are continuing to do that. If you would like to participate, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link.

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.

Partners with Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival

CZ

I am excited to announce a new council of UU clergy and leaders from across the country, co-chaired by the Revs. Beth Johnson and Abhi Janamanchi, and gathered to support justice organizing with our partners at the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. I am so grateful to each council member for their commitment to moving organizing forward during this pandemic.

Learn more about council leadership online and get details on how to participate in upcoming digital mass meetings on April 30 and May 28. I look forward to being with all of you as we join our voices to say that everyone has a right to live!

Here is the article on UUA.org

Photo credit

Partners with Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival

CZ

I am excited to announce a new council of UU clergy and leaders from across the country, co-chaired by the Revs. Beth Johnson and Abhi Janamanchi, and gathered to support justice organizing with our partners at the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. I am so grateful to each council member for their commitment to moving organizing forward during this pandemic.

Learn more about council leadership online and get details on how to participate in upcoming digital mass meetings on April 30 and May 28. I look forward to being with all of you as we join our voices to say that everyone has a right to live!

Here is the article on UUA.org

Photo credit

Sunday, May 3, 2020

CZ

Those who stand at the threshold of life always waiting for the right time to change are like the person who stands at the bank of a river waiting for the water to pass so they can cross on dry land. – Joseph B. Wirthlin

This Sunday, Cricket is going to lead a UU History service that will focus on those who crossed thresholds.

We are forgoing meeting in person during the coronavirus epidemic. 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 Skype.

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

AN UPDATE ON GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2020

CZ

“A 100% virtual GA comes at a time when many UU congregations have embraced virtual meetings and virtual Sunday services. Although this pandemic has been challenging for many, a silver lining is that UUs are adapting to and seeing the value of incorporating technology into their religious lives. With so many UUs already online, this year’s GA could well be our highest-attended Unitarian Universalist gathering in history! It will be accessible to a more diverse and global audience. It will  also help reduce our carbon footprint, which aligns with our commitment to care for the earth and environment.”

More here – https://www.uua.org/pressroom/press-releases/woyaya-general-assembly-update

UU Lent 2020 – Day 46 – Rejoice

CZ

We don’t live into our redemption very much, or get to win the fight over death. Jesus’ resurrection is a symbol and a promise that we are redeemed and that death’s dominion is not the final word. On Easter the Deep Magic breaks through. We proclaim and sing that love’s redeeming work is done — and then get back to that very work. – Sarah C Stewart

All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child. – Marie Curie

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. – George Bernard Shaw

Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war. – Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Alleluia! by Jeanne Lloyd

The Easter Egg We Need by Anne S. Howard