Good Friday Meditation

CZ

In the Christian tradition, Good Friday is the day when Christ was crucified and died. It is an integral part of Holy Week and is often used as a day of somber meditation.

For years, I wondered why it was called “Good”. “What’s so Good about Good Friday?” by Justin Holcomb has a good explanation.

I really wanted to focus on what good means and I found a sermon by Rev. Alice King at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Loudon, Virginia that discusses good and perfect. I believe it is a good thing to listen to on this holy day. Perfection is the Enemy of the Good In this sermon Rev. King discusses a familiar and popular song. I will leave a link to the version she talks about most here.

I hope that focusing on good and perfect help you today.

Namaste,

Cricket

Sunday April 1, 2018: Rebirth

LdeG

Please bring flowers to share.  Whatever is blooming, or a twig in bud, is fine.

We will have our Flower Ceremony, which was created by Dr. Norbert Čapek for the Liberal Religious Fellowship he founded in Prague, then Czechoslavakia, in 1925, and which became the largest Unitarian Church in the world. He sought a ceremony that would celebrate love and community and the interdependent web of life and love among a new and diverse congregation drawn from many backgrounds, and which would be a celebration not tied to any older religious ceremonies, which many of his congregation had rejected. Nearly a hundred years later, it is celebrated by Unitarian Universalist congregations everywhere.

Our services are Sundays at 11 a.m. at the Progressive Women’s Association Uptown 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 childcare and an activity for young children during the service.

The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park on the south side of the building, which is marked reserved for the PWA.

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, March 25, 2018

CZ

The bad news is nothing lasts forever,
The good news is nothing lasts forever.

J. Cole

This Sunday, John Hall will bring us “Good News: Things that are going well and things that are getting better.”

Our services are Sundays at 11 a.m. at the Progressive Women’s Association Uptown 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 childcare and an activity for young children during the service.

The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park on the south side of the building, which is marked reserved for the PWA.

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

Image credit

Sunday March 18, 2018: The Great Showman

Robert
P.T. Barnum Circus poster

Our forays into Unitarian and Universalist history normally focus on our heroes, the stars of social justice and liberal religion. But perhaps we need to be equally aware of our slightly less reputable past. This Sunday Robert Helfer will venture into the world of Phineas Taylor Barnum, Universalist, the master of “flimflam” behind the revelation that “there’s a sucker born every minute“.

Our services are Sundays at 11 a.m. at the Progressive Women’s Association Uptown 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 childcare and an activity for young children during the service.

The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park on the south side of the building, which is marked reserved for the PWA.

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

Lent 2018 – Day 8 – Comfort

CZ
Warmth in Winter
By Ben Soule

Now has come hard winter,
With whip of wind and slash of snow
and the diamond-bright stars in the black ice of the heavens.
Just as we resist the season with shovel and scraper, wool and windbreaker,
we embrace it with sled and snowboard, cocoa and comforter.
Winter is here: let us find warmth in this time of being together.

 

As REM said, “Everybody hurts”

But what do we do about it? What do we need? Comfort would be the answer.

Merriam Webster defines Comfort:

1: to give strength and hope to: cheer

2: to ease the grief or trouble of: console
We come to church to find comfort in the fellowship and spirit. We need to bathe in warmth and love. Comfort is necessary to help us keep moving towards all of our goals. We are making ourselves strong for another day when we allow ourselves to be comforted. We are making others strong when we comfort them. 
In the reading, “Comfort Ye My People” Barbara Rohde reflects on comfort in all its forms.
Namaste,
Cricket

 

Sunday, February 25, 2018

CZ


“The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.” – Isaiah 11:6

We would love to have you come worship with us.

This Sunday our youth will present a service about inspiring children, youth, and young adults who are working to change our world.

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.

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

Lent 2018 – Day 7 – Power

CZ

What is power? Who has power? What does it mean to be in a place of power or position of power? These questions are coming up more often and for many, it has become part of a spiritual practice to answer them.

But there are many kinds of power.

Matthew Johnson wrote For Five Thousand Years or More about spiritual power.

There is natural power like the falls in the picture for this post.

So, how can we best use our power? How can we find our power?

Namaste,

Cricket

Lent 2018 – Day 6 – Prayer

CZ

What is prayer? According to Wikipedia, “Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. Prayer can be a form of religious practice, may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private.” Prayer is seen as definitively religious. Prayer can be healing. Prayer can be a destination for our thoughts. There are as many ways to prayers as there are people who pray.

Beliefnet collected The Essential Prayers of World Religions. They are the Refuge Prayer from Buddhism, the Lord’s Prayer from Christianity, the Faitha from Islam, the Gayatri Mantra from Hinduism, and the Shema from Judaism.

Some people sing. Some people use prayer beads. Some color mandalas. Some pray out loud. Some pray silently.

“The Atheist Prays” by Barbara J. Pescan wrestles with the questions about praying when you are unsure if anyone is listening.
I am going to leave you with a song from Kesha’s new album.

 

Peace and Prayers,

Cricket

Lent 2018 – Day 5 – Mercy

CZ

Mercy is defined in the dictionary as “compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.”

What does Mercy mean to you? Is mercy something we do? Is mercy just for the Divine?

Here is some beautiful music to listen to while thinking about mercy.

Seeking Mercy, Seeking a Home by Erika Hewitt

May we learn mercy. May we breathe it in ourselves and breathe it out for others.

Namaste,

Cricket