Fairmont WV

Sunday, March 3, 2019: 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. [postponed from January]

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 discussing current events at 10.

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, February 24, 2019: We’re All Mad Here

Robert
Cheshire Cat smiling

‘What sort of people live about here?’

‘In that direction,’ the Cat said, waving its right paw round, ‘lives a Hatter: and in that direction,’ waving the other paw, ‘lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.’

‘But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ Alice remarked.

‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the Cat: ‘we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.’

‘How do you know I’m mad?’ said Alice.

‘You must be,’ said the Cat, ‘or you wouldn’t have come here.’

― Lewis Carroll, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”

Are we all mad? If we’ve come here, is that proof enough? And can our madness teach us anything? 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 a.m., and a coffee gathering before the service. More about us.

From 10 to 10:45 a.m. we will be discussing “How Dare You? Mi Likkle, But Mi Tallawah!” and “Response to Hope Johnson” from the book Centering: Navigating Race, Authenticity, and Power in Ministry.

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, January 27, 2019: In Praise of Rot

Robert
Rotting Pumpkin

All human things are subject to decay,
And, when Fate summons, monarchs must obey.

― John Dryden, “Mac Flecknoe”

This Sunday we will celebrate decomposition, that bit of magic that, by stages, transforms death into life. 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 a.m., and a coffee gathering before the service. More about us.

From 10 to 10:45 a.m. we will be discussing “The Religious Educator of Color” and the “Response to Natalie Maxwell Fenimore and Aisha Hauser” from the book Centering: Navigating Race, Authenticity, and Power in Ministry.

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, January 20, 2018: 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 discussing current events at 10.

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, January 6, 2019

Robert
Potluck Brunch

Potluck Brunch! New Year’s/Epiphany Potluck Brunch!

We want to start 2019 off right, by having a potluck brunch. Bring food to share, or just bring yourself!

Come and join us at 10:30 a.m., Sunday, January 6, 2019, for good fellowship and food and a small devotion.

Our services are Sundays (usually at 11 a.m.) at the Progressive Women’s Association Event Center, 305 Washington Ave. in downtown Clarksburg, behind the Courthouse. More about us.

Children are welcome.

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, June 3, 2018: Valley Falls State Park

Robert
Tygart Valley River

Tygart Valley River at Valley Falls

We have Spiritual Outings on the first Sunday of each month during the summer. For this year’s first outing, we will gather for a celebration of summer on Sunday, June 3, at Valley Falls State Park — picnic and hiking on the banks of the Tygart Valley River.

We will meet at 11 a.m. in the picnic area for a short service, followed by a potluck picnic, conversation, and walking.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

For a map, please use this link: https://goo.gl/maps/CiiqyDAXiw42

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

Sunday April 29, 2018: But How Do We Fit In?

Robert
Storm Damage

We hear much about the importance of preserving the environment, preserving the natural world in contrast to the world that has been created by human artifice. But aren’t people part of the natural world, too? This Sunday Robert Helfer will contemplate the idea of “nature” and consider our place in it.

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 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 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

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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