Beloved Community

Sunday, 6 April 2025: With Feathers

Robert
Great Blue Heron striding along a drifting log in Reelfoot Lake State Park, Tennessee

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

— Emily Dickinson, “‘Hope’ Is The Thing With Feathers”

This Sunday we will consider “hope” and “things with feathers” as the reawakening we call Spring changes the world around us. Robert Helfer will lead the service.

Please Join us for Worship.

We currently conduct a full worship service on the first Sunday of each month, and discuss a different short reading each of the remaining Sundays.

**If you wish to join by ZOOM and do not already have the link, please email us at westforkuu@gmail.com**

Please Join us for Worship.

Our services are Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on ZOOM and in person at the Progressive Women’s Association Event Center, 305 Washington Ave. in downtown Clarksburg, behind the Courthouse.

Children are welcome. The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park in the lot on the west side of the building. Please enter through the door at the back on the west side of the building.

Map

A half hour for coffee, discussion, and socializing, including those who attend through ZOOM, follows from the end of the service until 12:00 noon. More about us.

If you have been a regular attendee and we had an email address for you, we have added you to our Google Group. If you have not gotten a group email already, please email westforkuu@gmail.com so that we can add you to the group. We encourage members to continue discussions through the week using the WFUU email group. Public announcements will continue to be posted here on the website and on our Facebook page 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, 18 February 2024: Building Your Own Theology, Volume 2, Session 6

Robert

A homogeneous community, one exhibiting almost total similarities of taste, habit, custom and behavior is culturally dead, aside from being downright boring. New and different life styles, habits and customs are the lifeblood of America. They are its strength, its growth force. Just as diversity strengthens and enriches the country as a whole, so will it strengthen and enrich a suburban community. Like animal species that over-specialize and breed out diversity and so perish in the course of evolution, communities, too, need racial, cultural, social and economic diversity to cope with our rapidly changing times.

— Justice Morris Pashman, concurring, “Southern Burlington County NAACP v. Mt. Laurel”, New Jersey Supreme Court, 67 N.J. 151 (1975)

This Sunday we will continue our religious education program with Exploring, volume 2 of Building Your Own Theology. In session six we will discuss justice and The Beloved Community — what is our place in the world as Unitarian Universalists? The course description and schedule are here.

We will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, after which Robert will guide us through the course of study and discussions.

Please note that you are welcome to participate whether or not you have been keeping up to date on the sessions. We are using the course plan as a guide for discussion, not as a formula to arrive at any specific educational goal — we are, after all, working on *our own theologies*, not learning anyone’s official doctrine. All are welcome to participate. The reading for session six is here.

** NOTE: If you wish to join us through ZOOM, please let us know before Sunday, so we can be sure to have the equipment in place Sunday morning. **

Please Join us for Worship.

Our services are Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on ZOOM and in person at the Progressive Women’s Association Event Center, 305 Washington Ave. in downtown Clarksburg, behind the Courthouse.

Children are welcome. The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park in the lot on the west side of the building; DO NOT PARK in the Washington Avenue pay lot. Please enter through the door on the west side of the building.

Map

Note: If you wish to join on ZOOM, please let us know so we can be sure the equipment is ready on Sunday morning. 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 ZOOM.

A coffee hour, a time for discussion and socializing (including ZOOM participants), follows from the end of the service until 12:00 noon. More about us.

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. 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

Beloved Community and What it Means

johnnyawwsome
8th Principle: “We the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountability dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.”

“In progressive religious circles, you will often hear calls to “build the Beloved Community,” but I’m not sure we always appreciate the full historic resonance of that phrase. The term “Beloved Community” was coined by the early twentieth-century American philosopher Josiah Royce (1855-1916). But most of us learned it not from Royce but from The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who often spoke of the “Beloved Community” as his ultimate goal.” In his essay, “What Do We Mean We When Say, “Building the Beloved Community”?” Rev. Carl Gregg expounds upon this idea.

Sunday, February 21, 2021: With Feathers

Robert
Great Blue Heron striding along a drifting log in Reelfoot Lake State Park, Tennessee

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
++That perches in the soul –
++And sings the tune without the words –
++And never stops – at all –

— Emily Dickinson, “‘Hope’ Is The Thing With Feathers”

This Sunday we will consider “hope” and “things with feathers” in anticipation of the coming reawakening we call Spring, though still so far away. Robert Helfer will lead the service.

Please Join us for Worship.

We are forgoing meeting in person during the coronavirus epidemic, meeting on Zoom. 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 ZOOM.

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, February 14, 2021: With Feathers

Robert
Great Blue Heron striding along a drifting log in Reelfoot Lake State Park, Tennessee

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
++That perches in the soul –
++And sings the tune without the words –
++And never stops – at all –

— Emily Dickinson, “‘Hope’ Is The Thing With Feathers”

This Sunday we will consider “hope” and “things with feathers” in anticipation of the coming reawakening we call Spring, though still so far away. Robert Helfer will lead the service.

Because of technical difficulties this service was deferred until Sunday, February 21, 2021.

Please Join us for Worship.

We are forgoing meeting in person during the coronavirus epidemic, meeting on Zoom. 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 ZOOM.

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

A Month of Beloved Community

johnnyawwsome

“Our ultimate end must be reconciliation; the end must be redemption; the end must be the creation of the beloved community. We have before us the glorious opportunity to inject a new dimension of love into the veins of our civilization. The type of love that I stress here is not eros, a sort of esthetic or romantic love; not philia, a sort of reciprocal love between personal friends; but it is agape which is understanding goodwill for all men. It is an overflowing love which seeks nothing in return. It does not begin by discriminating between worthy and unworthy people…It begins by loving others for their sakes and makes no distinction between a friend and enemy; it is directed toward both. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opposers into friends. It is love seeking to preserve and create community.  It is the love of God working in the lives of men. This is the love that may well be the salvation of our civilization.” – Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – From “The Role of the Church in Facing the Nation’s Chief Moral Dilemma,” 1957

This month we will be focusing on Beloved Community in our services and our posts. We will have meditations about beloved community posted on Wednesdays and articles/information about the spiritual practice of beloved community on Saturdays. We hope you will join us on our journey towards building a Beloved Community.

Here are some spiritual practices to consider –

The practice of bending the arc of the universe toward justice.
                                                             The practice of recognizing inherent worth.
                                                             The practice of dismantling the structures that divide us.
                                                             The practice of transforming opponents into friends.