Sunday, December 8, 2019: Quillen Shinn’s Travels

LdeG

October’s theme was “Belonging.” Sometimes, when most people around us seem to believe differently, we feel we don’t belong. Unitarian Universalist seems like a new and different belief here, now – but for a century and more, Universalism was alive and well in our area, rising from the beliefs of some of our earliest settlers.  Rev. Quillen Shinn, born and raised in Bingamon, was a Universalist minister and well-traveled missionary, is known as the “St. Paul of the Universalist Church.” He has been credited with starting at least 40 churches and inspiring nearly 30 persons to enter the ministry. He also founded the Ferry Beach UU camp and conference center in Maine.

Lisa deGruyter will talk about Rev. Shinn and early Universalism in Harrison Co. – and we will sing the Quillen Shinn song which is still sung by campers at Ferry Beach.

[Postponed from October 26]

Join us for Worship:

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. There are classes for children and adults 10 to 10:45 am, and a coffee gathering before the service. More about us.

Classes and worship are replaced by Spiritual Outings on the first Sunday of each month during the summer, with brief worship, a potluck picnic, and outdoor activities. The schedule is in the sidebar.

We would love to have you come worship with 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, December 1, 2019

CZ

“One of the tragic ironies of history is that such original and creative geniuses as Buddha and Jesus have been extolled as perfect patterns for all to emulate. In the very struggle to be like someone else rather than to be one’s own true self, or to do one’s own best in one’s own environment, a child is in danger of losing the pearl that is really beyond price – the integrity of his (or her) own soul.” – Sophia Lyon Fahs in Today’s Children and Yesterday’s Heritage (1952)

Join us for Worship:

This Sunday, our youth and children will present a service on the revolutionary religious educator Sophia Lyon Fahs.

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. There are classes for children and adults 10 to 10:45 am, and a coffee gathering before the service. More about us.

We would love to have you worship with us!

Classes and worship are replaced by Spiritual Outings on the first Sunday of each month during the summer, with brief worship, a potluck picnic, and outdoor activities. The schedule is in the sidebar.

We would love to have you come worship with 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

Declaration of the Marginal Mennonite Society

Robert

The Marginal Mennonite Society is a loose association of people who identify themselves as Mennonites but hold a number of principles similar to those held by many who identify themselves as Unitarian Universalists. At the end of each month, the Facebook page “Marginal Mennonite Society” posts its Declaration. This Declaration, it seems to me, is a good summary of much of my own religious attitude, even though I have no connection to Mennonitism.
— Robert Helfer

We are Marginal Mennonites and we’re not ashamed. We’re marginal because no respectable Mennonite organization would have us. Yet we are also, we believe, amongst the legitimate heirs to the Anabaptist tradition.

We are inclusive. There are no dues or fees for membership. The only requirement is the desire to identify as a Marginal Mennonite. If you say you’re a Marginal Mennonite that’s good enough for us.

We are universalists. In our view, everyone who’s ever lived gets a seat at the celestial banquet table. We claim kinship in this belief with Anabaptist leader Hans Denck, Brethren leader Alexander Mack, and Quaker leader Elias Hicks, among many other universalists throughout history.

We reject creeds, doctrines, rites, and rituals. Because they’re man-made, created for the purpose of excluding people. Their primary function is to determine who’s in and who’s out.

We see God as Mother as well as Father, a heavenly parent who cares for all her children. (Isaiah 49:15: “Can a woman forget her nursing baby, or show no compassion for the child who came from her womb? Even these may forget, yet I won’t forget you.”)

We like Jesus. A lot. The real Jesus. The human teacher who moved around in space and time. The Galilean sage who was obsessed with the Commonwealth of God. The wandering wise man who said “Become passersby!” (Gospel of Thomas 42).

We believe the Commonwealth of God is a state of being, a state of transformed consciousness, available to everyone. (Luke 17:21: “People won’t be able to say it’s over here or over there. For God’s Commonwealth is inside you and around you now.”)

We oppose the proselytizing of non-Christians. For us, religious diversity is beautiful. It would be a shame if all Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Jains, Pagans, Rastafarians, Pastafarians, Sufis, etc., were converted to Christianity. So we reject evangelism and missionary programs, no matter how well-meaning they claim to be.

We endorse the “Sermon on the Mount.” In particular the sayings identified by modern scholarship as most authentic. Especially the ones on the following themes:

      1. Nonviolence (Matthew 5:39-40/Luke 6:29);
      2. Generosity (Matthew 5:42a/Luke 6:30);
      3. Unconditional love (Matthew 5:44/Luke 6:27-28);
      4. Universalism (Matthew 5:45b/Luke 6:35d);
      5. Mercy (Matthew 5:48/Luke 6:36);
      6. Forgiveness (Matthew 6:14-15/Luke 6:37c/Mark 11:25);
      7. Non-attachment to things (Matthew 6:19-21/Luke 12:33-34/Gospel of Thomas 76:3);
      8. Freedom from anxiety (Matthew 6:25-30/Luke 12:22-28/Gospel of Thomas 36:1-2);
      9. Non-judgment (Matthew 7:3-5/Luke 6:41-42/Gospel of Thomas 26:1-2);
      10. Compassion (Matthew 7:9-11/Luke 11:11-13).

We are pacifists, in the tradition of Bayard Rustin, Vincent and Rosemarie Harding, Cesar Chavez, Dorothy Day, A.J. Muste, Kees and Betty Boeke, Peter Maurin, Mahatma Gandhi, Jane Addams, Leo Tolstoy, Adin Ballou, Lucretia and James Mott, Hannah Barnard, the nonviolent Anabaptists, and of course Jesus.

We are humanists, feminists, and freethinkers. We are gay, carefree, and fabulous. We believe in art, evolution, revolution, relativity, synchronicity, serendipity, the scientific method, and putty tats. We value irreverence, outrageousness, and a strong cup of tea.

We don’t want to take ourselves too seriously. As someone once said: “God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.” For us, hilariousness is next to godliness.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This declaration is not a creed or doctrinal statement. It carries no weight of authority. We are anti-authority. The above “beliefs” are suggestions only. We could be wrong.

The Marginal Mennonite Society was created in February 2011. Declaration last revised April 1, 2018. Charlie Kraybill, MMS Page administrator.

For more information, see marginal-mennonite-society.mn.co/ or the Marginal Mennonite Society on Facebook: www.facebook.com/marginalmennonitesociety/

Sunday, November 17, 2019

CZ

Circles, like the soul, are neverending and turn round and round without a stop. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Join us for Worship:

This Sunday, John Hall will present a service called “Counting on Circles.”

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. There are classes for children and adults 10 to 10:45 am, and a coffee gathering before the service. More about us.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

Children are welcome.  There is 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, November 2, 2019

CZ

“If your love for me requires that I hide parts of who I am, then you don’t love me. Love is never a request for silence.” By DeRay Mckesson

Join us for Worship: This Sunday, Cricket Hall will discuss the tension of Welcoming and the first principle.

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. There are classes for children and adults 10 to 10:45 am, and a coffee gathering before the service. More about us.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

Children are welcome.  There is an activity for young children during the service.

The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom.

Map

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

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

Sunday, October 27, 2019: Quillen Shinn’s Travels

LdeG

This month’s theme is “Belonging.” Sometimes, when most people around us seem to believe differently, we feel we don’t belong. Unitarian Universalist seems like a new and different belief here, now – but for a century and more, Universalism was alive and well in our area, rising from the beliefs of some of our earliest settlers.  Rev. Quillen Shinn, born and raised in Bingamon, was a Universalist minister and well-traveled missionary, is known as the “St. Paul of the Universalist Church.” He has been credited with starting at least 40 churches and inspiring nearly 30 persons to enter the ministry. He also founded the Ferry Beach UU camp and conference center in Maine.

Lisa deGruyter will talk about Rev. Shinn and early Universalism in Harrison Co. – and we will sing the Quillen Shinn song which is still sung by campers at Ferry Beach.

Join us for Worship:

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. There are classes for children and adults 10 to 10:45 am, and a coffee gathering before the service. More about us.

Classes and worship are replaced by Spiritual Outings on the first Sunday of each month during the summer, with brief worship, a potluck picnic, and outdoor activities. The schedule is in the sidebar.

We would love to have you come worship with 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

UUA Repair Process Shared Statement

CZ

From Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray’s facebook post

In the Spring of 2017, our association went through a significant institutional rupture that was also intensely personal for many at the heart of those events. Since then, the UUA has recommitted itself to the work of institutional change, to living into the aspirations of our beloved faith community that is anti-racist, anti-oppressive, multicultural and deeply inclusive. At the same time, as a religious community there was also personal repair work that needed to happen, including with the institution of the UUA.
Acknowledging this, a number of people impacted by the events of the Spring of 2017 gathered recently to engage in a restorative conversation. This process was not about expecting agreement nor getting to full resolution, or healing all that was broken. Rather, this was about making space to gather as people – people within a shared faith – to honor and recognize one another’s humanity with all of our feelings and experiences, and to own our own roles as well as our pain.
Together, with our facilitators, we created a statement to describe our gathering, its purpose and character, which I invite you to read. I shared this as part of my recent report to the UUA Board of Trustees and have permission from those who gathered to share it widely with our larger Unitarian Universalist community. I invite you to approach this statement with curiosity and care, and to let the possibility for restorative practices open your heart.

Here is the repair statement

Sunday, October 20, 2019: To Every Purpose

Robert
Autumn Crocus

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
— Ecclesiastes, 3:1

This Sunday we will talk about those times of transition when one season becomes another. Robert Helfer will lead the service.

Join us for Worship:

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. There are classes for children and adults 10 to 10:45 am, and a coffee gathering before the service. More about us.

Classes and worship are replaced by Spiritual Outings on the first Sunday of each month during the summer, with brief worship, a potluck picnic, and outdoor activities. The schedule is in the sidebar.

We would love to have you come worship with 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, October 13, 2019: Deegan and Hinkle Lakes, Bridgeport

Robert
Little Blue Heron at Deegan & Hinkle Lakes Park
Little Blue Heron at Deegan & Hinkle Lakes Park

We have Spiritual Outings on the first Sunday of each month during the summer. For this year’s fifth and final outing, we will gather on Sunday, October 13, at Deegan & Hinkle Lakes Park in Bridgeport at 11 a.m. for a short service, followed by a potluck picnic, ceremonial burning of the “Tree of Life”, conversation, and walking.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

For a map, please click on this link: goo.gl/maps/v33mWw5k3Wm

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