Sunday, December 10, 2017: Extreme Practices

Robert

Prelude: Avanti – Corvus Corax
https://youtu.be/Zyu9ur8iX4g

Welcome: To learn more about being human – Erika A. Hewitt

Welcome to this morning, this day, and this opportunity to be together in community — which is a time of joy, comfort, and sometimes challenges. This Unitarian Universalist congregation is a place where we come to learn more about being human. We’re not here because we’ve figured out life’s questions, or because we think we’ve got it right, or even because we think we know what the questions are.

We come here to learn more about being in relationship together: how to listen, how to forgive, how to be vulnerable, and how to create trust and compassion in one another.

Let us move into worship, willing to be authentic with each other, honest within ourselves, and open to connection in all its forms.

Come, let us worship together.

Chalice lighting: Blessed is the fire that burns deep in the soul – Eric A Heller-Wagner

Blessed is the fire that burns deep in the soul. It is the flame of the human spirit touched into being by the mystery of life. It is the fire of reason; the fire of compassion; the fire of community; the fire of justice; the fire of faith. It is the fire of love burning deep in the human heart; the divine glow in every life.

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Chalica 2017 Day One 

CZ

For each day of Chalica we will offer activities, some are fun and some are more reflecting, a chalice lighting, and a meditation. Gather everyone together, light the chalice, and breathe into the principles with us each day.

Activities:

  • Watch a Christmas Carol. (Scrooge learns an important lesson)
  • Make “I am Thankful for you because” cards for your friends and family.
  • Make nice notes, cookies, or a small craft for your neighbors, especially the ones you don’t get along with.
  • Write in a journal what the first principle means to you.
  • Spend time with people you don’t usually get along with, those with different religions, political views, or cultural identities. Find things you like about them
  • Go serve at a homeless shelter
  • Donate toys, blankets, or clothes to a shelter (do it in person so you can see who you are helping).
  • Write an apology letter to someone you hurt this year.
  • Write a letter of forgiveness to someone who hurt you this year.

Chalice Lighting: (If you don’t have a chalice at home, remember that the point of a chalice is that it is a symbol so any candle will work.)

Love can transform the world By Maureen Killoran

Love is the aspiration, the spirit that moves and inspires this faith we share.
Rightly understood, love can nurture our spirits and transform the world.
May the flame of this chalice honor and embody the power and the blessing of the love we need, the love we give, the love we are challenged always to remember and to share.

Meditation:
Our Meditation today is about Love. Focusing on love helps us to remember that each person is important.

Psalm 23 for This Moment by Kevin Tarsa

Here is a musical meditation as well. “Perfect” by P!nk is about knowing that you have worth and others have worth. Enjoy.

Season’s Blessings,
Cricket

Chalica 2017

CZ

Chalica is a week-long celebration of our Unitarian Universalist Principles. The holiday first emerged in 2005 out of a wish to have a holiday organized around Unitarian Universalist values.

Chalica begins on the first Monday in December and lasts seven days. Each day, a chalice is lit and the day is spent reflecting on the meaning of that day’s principle and doing a good deed that honors that principle. Not all Unitarian Universalists celebrate Chalica, but it has a growing following. There is a Chalica Facebook page, blog, and many Chalica-themed videos on YouTube – from the UUA Website. 

This year we will share some activities and meditations everyday to help us all celebrate Chalica. 

Season’s Blessings, 

Cricket

Sunday, December 3, 2017: Revelation Is Not Sealed

LdeG

…the heretic, acquainted with loneliness, has nothing to offer but himself. He has no claim to present but that of his own soul, and its right to recognition. He is convinced that not through churches, or books, but men, does God speak His word and reveal His will. He does not deny that revelation has come to other men in earlier times, and that what they saw has become the precious tradition of a church, or the holy testimony of a Bible; but he insists that this “Revelation is not sealed; Answering unto man’s endeavor. Truth and right are still revealed.”

-John Haynes Holmes

Perhaps the greatest function of Unitarian Universalist congregations is the relief of the loneliness of the heretic. Lisa deGruyter will lead the service.

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.

This Sunday we will be learning UU songs at 10, and perhaps trying some singing meditation.

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, November 26, 2017

CZ

“Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote seven Principles, which we hold as strong values and moral guides. We live out these Principles within a “living tradition” of wisdom and spirituality, drawn from sources as diverse as science, poetry, scripture, and personal experience. These are the six sources our congregations affirm and promote:” Where do African Proverbs fit into our sources? Cricket Hall will answer this question on Sunday.

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

Viewing of Documentary 13th at UU Fellowship of Morgantown

CZ

At the UU Fellowship, Morgantown on November 9, at 6:30 p.m. Free. This movie has been well received, receiving praise from the Washington Post (some of their words below). The movie was nominated for an Oscar.
“Slavery technically ended over 150 years ago. But Ava DuVernay wants you to take another look at the amendment that abolished it. Her documentary “13th” is a powerful look at how the modern-day prison labor system links to slavery. The film offers a timely and emotional message framed by the election and the Black Lives Matter movement.
“13th” received a standing ovation at the New York Film Festival, where it became the first documentary to open the prestigious festival. The title refers to the 13th amendment, which formally abolished slavery. But DuVernay zeroes in on the amendment’s exception clause, which states that slavery and involuntary servitude are illegal “except as a punishment for crime.”

Sunday, November 12, 2017: Extreme Practices

Robert

Over centuries, people have developed many practices intended to help them develop and maintain connections to the spiritual, to God or the gods, however that might be defined. Most of these practices imply a certain regularity, a discipline, maybe training. Some of these practices are, perhaps, too easy; many other practices are difficult. And some practices might seem unnecessarily extreme. This Sunday we’ll talk about some of these. Robert Helfer will lead the service.

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, November 5, 2017: Remembering Our Dead

LdeG

All Hallows, All Saint’s, All Souls, Samhain, Dia de los Muertes. The end of the harvest, when the veil grows thin, we remember our dead, and prepare for the dark and rest of winter. Lisa deGruyter will be leading the service.

Please bring objects for our altar to remember our dead if you would like.

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