Morgantown WV

Sunday, July 12, 2020

CZ

We are forgoing meeting in person during the coronavirus epidemic. But just because we are meeting online, doesn’t mean we can’t have guests.

This Sunday we are joining the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Morgantown as we worship with special musical guest Andrew McKnight.

The service he will present is called “Beyond These Walls, Beyond These Broken Hearts” Even as we navigate the daily uncertainties of pandemic life, we are bound by threads of grief and gratitude connecting across our physical isolation. Drawing lessons from our history and our ancestors, Andrew’s words and music help us reaffirm our empathy and our strength during our time of turning and metamorphosis.

We will be meeting on Zoom. The “doors” will open at 10:45am and the service will begin at 11:00am. 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.

We would love to have you worship with 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 during this time. Public announcements will continue to be posted here on the website and on our Facebook page and Twitter account, as usual.

 

Photo Credit: Christi Porter

Transgender Day of Remembrance

CZ

It is Transgender Day of Remembrance. Here are some thoughts: from Rev. Sean Dennison

Today is a sacred day,
a day to remember and mourn,
a day to count the cost of so much hatred.
But don’t think that saying the names
of my 368 siblings–
(a number that rises so fast that by the time
we are done with our rituals, it may be more,
and more again)
almost all of them my sisters,
black and brown sisters–
don’t think saying their names
is enough.
It will never be enough.
Each year I am asked to absorb
the losses of hundreds
of my people, my family.
To use the word “tragedy,”
instead of genocide.
To express grief
instead of rage.

I am tired.
For decades now, I have mourned.
For decades now, I have politely
listened to lists of names, mispronounced
and loved too late, honored only
posthumously.

I want to know.
Can you love me while I live?
Can you love my siblings?
My black and brown sisters?
Can you love them no matter
the choices they made to survive?
Can you love them politically?
Can you love them personally,
allowing them to come into your church?
your home?
your heart?

I am tired.
Because these hundreds of names
are not even all.
These are only the ones who died
at the hands of someone else’s hatred.
That number does not count the ones
I have lost to self-hatred, to despair,
to hunger and cold.
It does not count the ones who are dying inside
because seeing all this,
they don’t dare to live.

So today, when you ask me to perform
my grief and sorrow on your stage,
Do not be surprised if it comes with
rage. If it comes with weeping so fierce
that I cannot speak, cannot breathe.
If it comes with wailing so loud
that (if only, if only) it could wake the dead.

And tomorrow, when the world moves on,
and I am left alone again,
with all of this,
all my beloveds dead
all my people endangered,
all the pieces of my broken heart
still piercing and bleeding,
still enraged
still heavy with grief,
Will you still remember?
And more importantly,
What will you do?

 

TRUUsT calls on Unitarian Universalists everywhere to take immediate action to live out the above truths and directly support trans UUs. #TDOR #WontBeErased

This evening there is a vigil for Transgender Day of Remembrance this evening in Morgantown at the Morgantown Church of the Brethren-Mennonite at 6pm.

Reminder

CZ

We will be joining UUFM tomorrow at their church in Morgantown.
Sunday May 20 at 10:45 AM at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Morgantown, Rev. Rose Edington and Rev. Mel Hoover will present “Love Will Guide us,” as the guests of UUFM and West Fork UUs. “Mel and Rose,” as retirees, still work on the state and national levels to promote social justice on many levels. Active elders in Black LIves of Unitarian Universalism, they will talk about the Intersectionality of “Race” and “Choice,” reminding us that: Black and Women’s Lives Matter. We will celebrate the inherent worth and dignity of one another together on Sunday. Please come.

Sunday May 20, 2018

CZ

We will be joining the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Morgantown this Sunday. Rev. Rose Edington and Rev. Mel Hoover will be the guests of UUFM and West Fork UUs.

“Mel and Rose,” as retirees, still work on the state and national levels to promote social justice on many levels. Active elders in Black LIves of Unitarian Universalism, they will talk about the Intersectionality of “Race” and “Choice,” reminding us that: Black and Women’s Lives Matter. We will celebrate the inherent worth and dignity of one another together on Sunday. Please come!

Their service is at 10:45 am.

UUFM is located at 429 Warrick St, Morgantown, WV 26505

Here are directions from Clarksburg.

Shared route
From Clarksburg to Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Morgantown via I-79 N.

48 min (43 mi)
48 min in current traffic

1. Head east on W Main St toward S 6th St
2. Turn left onto S 3rd St
3. Take the I-50 E ramp
4. Merge onto US-50 E/Northwestern pike
5. Use the right lane to take the I-79 N ramp to Fairmont
6. Take exit 155 toward WV-7/W Virginia University
7. Turn right onto Chaplin Road (signs for Star City/Osage/WVU)
8. Turn left onto 8th St
9. Turn right onto University Ave
10. Keep left to continue on Warrick St
11. Turn right onto Beaver Ave
12. Arrive at location: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Morgantown

For the best route in current traffic visit https://goo.gl/maps/go7uU5TKyPy

Andrew McKnight Comes to Morgantown

CZ

When: Saturday, September 23, 2017

Where: The Monongalia Arts Center (MAC) 107 High Street Morgantown, WV

What Time: 7pm to 10pm

Andrew’s first concert in Morgantown in several years promises to be a rich celebration of music and community. His powerful and entertaining show is like one man theatre, delivered with warmth and down-home comfort. Andrew’s finely crafted songs are woven together with humorous stories and poetic drama, while the musical soundscape traverses influences from Appalachia, tasteful slide and jazzy blues, feisty anthems, rustic folk, and even a little fancy flatpicking on a Carter Family tune. While his skillful guitar work provides a tasteful foundation, the touches of native American cedar flute, resonator guitar, djembe (African hand drum) and even mandolin add delightful and mesmerizing embellishments to the show.

Andrew has performed at many prestigious venues like the Kennedy Center, the International Storytelling Center and the Atlanta Olympics, has been part of the Rocky Mountain, South Florida, Boston and Delmarva Folk Festival lineups, and a guest on NPR’s “Art of the Song” and “River City Folk” shows.

Tickets available at the door starting at 7pm at the Monongalia Arts Center – come early for a good seat!

For more information check out the Event Page for the Concert

 

penned in black

CZ

In celebration of national poetry month, Showing Up for Racial Justice (“SURJ”) Morgantown, invites you to “Penned in Black: An Open Mic Poetry Night.”  Community members may share their original or covered poetry from authors of color, as well as other poems exploring race, privilege, and our shared humanity.  SURJ looks forward to welcoming you on Friday, April 21, at the Blue Moose Cafe from 7pm-9pm for a night of unforgettable spoken word poetry. 

Coming Soon: Andrew McKnight

CZ

Keep your eyes peeled for more details, but on Sunday April 9th we will be hosting Andrew McKnight for our Sunday morning service.

Here is a short biography of Andrew and more can be found on his website.

Since permanently leaving his corporate environmental engineering career in 1996, award-winning folk/Americana artist Andrew McKnight’s musical journey has traced nearly a million miles of blue highways, and earned him a wealth of critical acclaim and enthusiastic fans for his captivating performances and seven recordings. Andrew’s powerful and entertaining show is like one man theatre, delivered with warmth and down-home comfort. His finely crafted songs are woven together with humorous stories and poetic drama, while the musical soundscape traverses influences from Appalachia, tasteful slide and jazzy blues, feisty anthems, rustic folk, and even a little fancy flatpicking on a Carter Family tune. While his skillful guitar work provides a tasteful foundation, the touches of native American cedar flute, resonator guitar, djembe (African hand drum) and even mandolin add delightful and mesmerizing embellishments to the show.

Andrew has performed at many prestigious venues like the Kennedy Center, the International Storytelling Center and the Atlanta Olympics, has been part of the Rocky Mountain, South Florida, Boston and Delmarva Folk Festival lineups, and a guest on NPR’s “Art of the Song” and “River City Folk” shows.

Andrew will be sharing his service “Beyond Borders” with us.

We hope you can attend.

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.

Our Religious Education/ Life Long Learning Class will meet at from 10am to 10:45 am with a coffee gathering before the service. More about us.

Adult religious education, at 10, will be a discussion on applying our beliefs to current events.

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 can park on either side of the PWA building. The lots are marked as private, but are available on Sunday mornings.

Map

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information

or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302

High Spirits: A Burlesque Review

CZ

In true Vaudeville style, the production will make a circuit around town with several performance stops:
Sept. 8 at the Monongalia Arts Center
Sept. 9 & 10 at M.T. Pockets Theatre
Sunday, Sept. 11 a special Service Industry Night.
All performances start at 8 pm.

Tickets are $25.

A Dancing Elephant is coming to town in September, ladies and gentlemen and it’s bringing along a talented group of friends. Dancing Elephant Productions is pleased to announce its inaugural event: High Spirits: A Burlesque Review.

High Spirits is a naughty little variety show that pays tribute to the golden age of vaudeville and burlesque and offers the audience an opportunity to get dolled up and step out for an evening of live music, dancing, comedy and burlesque style strip tease. The fabulous cast includes Seret Cole, Nicki Davis, Tawnya Drake, Wren Flannery, Justin Grow, Kaici Lore, and  Melissa Ryan.

Proceeds will benefit The Monongalia Arts Center, M. T. Pockets Theatre and Vintage Theatre Company.

Photos by All Around Morgantown

Sunday 1 June 2014

Robert

On Sunday 1 June 2014, members and friends of the West Fork Unitarian Universalists will join with the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Morgantown to celebrate a Flower Communion to be conducted by Rev. Rose Edington and Rev. Mel Hoover of Charleston.

The Flower Communion is conducted in many Unitarian Universalists churches as an annual spring-time ritual. It was created in 1923 by Norbert Čapek, minister of the newly formed Unitarian church in Prague, as a way to bind the members of the congregation more closely together. His wife, Maja Čapek, brought the ceremony to the United States in 1940. For more information about the Čapeks and the Flower Communion, see Reginald Zottoli’s description of The Flower Communion: A Service of Celebration for Religious Liberals or the brief biography of Norbert & Maja Čapek provided by the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Essex County (Orange, New Jersey).

The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Morgantown is located at 429 Warrick Avenue, Morgantown, West Virginia. The service begins at 10:45 a.m. Each person please remember to bring one flower of your choice, from your own garden or from the field or from the roadside.

Those who would like, please join us for lunch following the service.