We have Spiritual Outings on the first Sunday of each month during the summer. For this year’s fifth outing, we will gather for a celebration of nature, fellowship, and the end of Summer on Sunday, October 4, at Deegan & Hinkle Lakes Park in Bridgeport.
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, led by Cricket Hall, followed by a modified potluck picnic, ceremonial burning of the “Tree of Life”, 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.
If you missed this Sunday’s service, we missed you. The full service has been updated here: The Courage to Be Disliked by Lisa deGruyter 20 September 2020
“There is beauty everywhere,” said Big Panda, “but sometimes it’s difficult to see.”
— James Norbury
We live in a world of spectacular contrasts. At times the beauty we see overwhelms us, but other times the ugliness around us seems more than we can bear. Yet even in those times of ugliness we’re surrounded by beauty. This Sunday Robert Helfer will consider how we can see beauty when ugliness has made it difficult.
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: “The Worker’s Funeral March”, from Symphony of Factory Sirens, Arseny Avraamov
We gather to worship, our hearts alive with hope that here we will be truly seen, that here we will be welcomed into the garden of this community, where the simple and the elegant, the fluted and frilled, the shy and the dramatic complement one another and are treasured. May we know that here, each contributes in their way to the beauty of the whole. Come, let us worship together, all genders, sexualities, politics, clappers and non-clappers, progressive or conservative, may we root ourselves in the values of this faith: compassion and courage, transcendence, justice and transformation
Aisha Hauser, Christina Rivera, Rev. Michael Tino, Quiana Perkins, Dawn Fortune, and Julica Hermann DelaFuente host this live Unitarian Universalist talk show discussing today’s topics from an anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and multicultural perspective. The VUU streams live on YouTube every Thursday at 12 pm ET. It is sponsored by the Church of the Larger Fellowship. Here is there most recent episode.
Good morning and welcome to West Fork Unitarian Universalists. I feel blessed to serve this congregation as a lay leader. I’m especially glad to have all of you here today.
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.
God Is A River- Peter Mayer
Opening
The world is holy. Nature is holy. The body is holy. Sexuality is holy. The imagination is holy. Divinity is immanent in nature; it is within you as well as without. Most spiritual paths ultimately lead people to the understanding of their own connection to the divine. While human beings are often cut off from experiencing the deep and ever-present connection between themselves and the universe, that connection can often be regained through ceremony and community. The energy you put out into the world comes back.
― Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America
We have Spiritual Outings on the first Sunday of each month during the summer. For this year’s fourth outing, we will gather for a celebration of summer, nature, and fellowship on Sunday, September 6, at the West Virginia State Wildlife Center at French Creek.
Please note that unlike most of the parks we visit, the Wildlife Center charges an admission fee from April 1 through October 31. Make sure you have cash to pay at the gate.
Adults 16 and over: $4
Children 6-15: $2
Children 5 and under: Free
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 near the elk enclosure for a short worship service followed by a modified potluck picnic, conversation, walking, and touring the animal enclosures. 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.
The noblest art is that of making others happy
— P.T. Barnum
Welcome before prelude
Good morning and welcome to West Fork Unitarian Universalists. I’m Robert and I am 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:Entry of the Gladiators, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus Band
