On any particular topic, people who are not experts lack the very expertise they need in order to know just how much expertise they lack. The Dunning-Kruger effect visits all of us sooner or later in our pockets of incompetence. They’re invisible to us because to know that you don’t know something, you need to know something. It’s not about general stupidity. It’s about each and every one of us, sooner or later.

— David Dunning, in an interview with Corey S. Powell, “The Psychologist Who Defined the Dunning-Kruger Effect Says You’re Probably Using It Wrong”

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.

On Sunday, 2 November, we will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, followed by our discussion. Robert Helfer will lead the service and discussion. This week’s reading is “The Psychologist Who Defined the Dunning-Kruger Effect Says You’re Probably Using It Wrong”, an interview with David Dunning by Corey S. Powell, ZME Science, October 17, 2025.

The article, “The Psychologist Who Defined the Dunning-Kruger Effect Says You’re Probably Using It Wrong”, by Corey S. Powell, can be found here.

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. 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 prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate online, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

Children are welcome.

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, or the north, where the reserved spaces are available on Sundays.

Map

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302

In the essay, published in 1729, Swift began by realistically detailing the grim condition of Ireland’s poor. Then, considering that Ireland’s landlords “have already devoured most of the parents” metaphorically, Swift declared that these same landlords therefore “seem to have the best title to the children” — literally.

Swift’s modest proposal was that the poor breed their children as food for the elites.

— Matthew Wills, “What Was Behind Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal?”

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.

On Sunday, 26 October, we will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, followed by our discussion. Robert Helfer will lead the service and discussion. This week’s reading is “What Was Behind Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal?”, by Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, September 30, 2025.

The article, “What Was Behind Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal?”, by Matthew Wills, can be found here.

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. 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 prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate online, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

Children are welcome.

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, or the north, where the reserved spaces are available on Sundays.

Map

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302

Humans have this propensity to want to resolve uncertainty, but when the resolution is threatening, people might flip to avoidance instead. I think there’s something to be said about being able to tolerate and even embrace some level of uncertainty. I think that might help in not falling prey to information avoidance.

— Radhika Santhanagopalan, quoted in Tori Lee, “Origins of the ‘Ostrich Effect’”, UChicago News, Sep 25, 2025

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.

On Sunday, 19 October, we will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, followed by our discussion. Robert Helfer will lead the service and discussion. This week’s reading is “Origins of the ‘Ostrich Effect'”, by Tori Lee, UChicago News, Sep 25, 2025

The article, “Origins of the ‘Ostrich Effect'”, by Tori Lee, can be found here.

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. 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 prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate online, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

Children are welcome.

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, or the north, where the reserved spaces are available on Sundays.

Map

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302

What would we say if someone threw rubbish into our room through an open window? And yet, isn’t the same thing happening in the realm of thoughts, when someone throws their mental rubbish into our consciousness and subconsciousness, from which bad moods then inevitably arise?

The way some people, instead of engaging in directed thinking, allow themselves to be ruled by undesirable thoughts reminds me of a lady we saw walking with her little doggie. It tugged her here and there, and the lady followed it everywhere. At times, the doggie stood on its hind legs, and the lady pulled and scolded it until it deigned to run to the nearest post. This is unworthy of a person.

— Norbert Čapek, To the Sunny Shore: A Guide to Living Joyfully, translated by Andrew J. Brown (originally published in Czech, 1939)

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.

On Sunday, 12 October, we will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, followed by our discussion. Robert Helfer will lead the service and discussion. This week’s reading is “Liberal, free-religion and the discipline of Verification–Deliberation–Accountability (VDA)”, by Andrew J. Brown, CAUTE — Making Footprints Not Blueprints, 3 October 2025

The article, “Liberal, free-religion and the discipline of Verification–Deliberation–Accountability (VDA)”, by Andrew J. Brown, can be found here.

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. 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 prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate online, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

Children are welcome.

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, or the north, where the reserved spaces are available on Sundays.

Map

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302

Now there’s another koan, question, riddle, invitation to encounter who we are at the deepest levels that has no backstory at all. It goes, “Save a ghost.” So, for all of us, how do we save a ghost? And who is that ghost that needs saving?

— James Ford, “Our Divided Hearts: A Zen Meditation”  Monkey Mind, 11 September 2025

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.

On Sunday, 28 September, we will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, followed by our discussion. Robert Helfer will lead the service and discussion. This week’s reading is “Our Divided Hearts: A Zen Meditation”, by James Ford, Monkey Mind, 11 September 2025

The article, “Our Divided Hearts: A Zen Meditation”, by James Ford, can be found here.

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. 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 prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate online, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

Children are welcome.

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, or the north, where the reserved spaces are available on Sundays.

Map

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302

More than 80% of the world’s population identifies with a religion. Yet in many parts of the world – especially in the west – religion is treated as a private matter, something best kept out of polite conversation, or at worst, a source of division and danger. We live in a paradox: a deeply religious world that increasingly doesn’t know how to talk about religion.

This silence isn’t neutral. It creates a kind of cultural illiteracy – especially at a time when religion continues to shape geopolitics, social movements and personal lives, from the rise of religious nationalism to faith-based responses to humanitarian crises. And in places like the United States, it’s becoming even more central to public discourse, often with high political stakes.

So how do we talk about religion in a world that needs moral clarity but fears moral language?

— Kat Eghdamian, “What If the World’s Religions Aren’t Competing But Rather One Unfolding Truth?”  The Guardian, 29 June 2025

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.

On Sunday, 21 September, we will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, followed by our discussion. Robert Helfer will lead the service and discussion. This week’s reading is “What If the World’s Religions Aren’t Competing But Rather One Unfolding Truth?”, by Kat Eghdamian, The Guardian, 29 June 2025

The article, “What If the World’s Religions Aren’t Competing But Rather One Unfolding Truth?”, by Kat Eghdamian, can be found here.

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. 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 prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate online, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

Children are welcome.

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, or the north, where the reserved spaces are available on Sundays.

Map

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302

“In all your years and all your travels,” I asked, “what do you think is the most important thing you’ve learned about life?”

He paused a moment, then with the twinkle sparkling under those brambly eyebrows he replied: “In three words, I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life. It goes on. In all the confusions of today, with all our troubles . . . with politicians and people slinging the word fear around, all of us become discouraged . . . tempted to say this is the end, the finish. But life — it goes on. It always has. It always will. Don’t forget that.

— Ray Josephs, quoting Robert Frost in “Robert Frost’s Secret”, 1954 September 5, The Cincinnati Enquirer (Cincinnati, Ohio), Section: This Week Magazine.

Robert Helfer will lead a service on endings and forever, the finite and the infinite.

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. 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 prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate online, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

Children are welcome.

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, or the north, where the reserved spaces are available on Sundays.

Map

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302