spiritual practice

Sunday, May 21, 2017

CZ 1 Comment

Prelude: “GONNA BUILD A MOUNTAIN” from Stop The World I Want to Get Off Composed by Bricusse and Newley  Performed by Penn Yan Community Chorus

Welcome: “You come into the world with nothing, and the purpose of your life is to make something out of nothing.”  – Henry Louis Mencken

Chalice Lighting: Global Chalice Lighting for May 2017 

The words of Aleks Zglinska offered to us by the British Unitarians

A sacred flame burns in my heart, tells me I’m one, sets me apart. Helps me to find that which is true, in reaching out to you. Once we’re a few a brighter light cuts through the darkness of the night. In these connections we shall see, strength in community. The light we find in others hearts brings us together. Then we start, transforming lives and making friends with this the light will never end.

Continue reading →

Sunday April 23, 2017

CZ

I enjoy the cleaning up—something about the getting of things in order for winter—making the garden secure—a battening down of hatches perhaps… It just feels right. —David Hobson

This Sunday Cricket will explore cleaning as a Spiritual Practice. 

We would love to have you come worship with us.

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

Sunday January 29, 2017

CZ

“Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free.” 
― Jalaluddin Rumi
Our youth and children will explore dance as a spiritual practice. The service will be fun and interactive.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

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.

Children are welcome. There is childcare and an activity for young children during the service.

The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom.

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

~
Namaste
Cricket

Sunday December 4, 2016: Walking In the Woods

Robert
Swallow Falls State Park, Oakland, MD

Prelude: Heyr himna smiður – Árstíðir

[Heyr, himna smiður (Hear, Smith of the Heavens) was written by the Icelandic chieftain and poet Kolbeinn Tumason, according to tradition, on his deathbed in 1208 AD. Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson set the poem to music in 1973. This recording features the Icelandic “Indie Rock” group Árstíðir. For more information, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolbeinn_Tumason.]

Welcome: The beauty of the whole, By Meg Barnhouse

We gather to worship, our hearts alive with hope that here we will be truly seen, that here we will be welcomed into the garden of this community, where the simple and the elegant, the fluted and frilled, the shy and the dramatic complement one another and are treasured. May we know that here, each contributes in their way to the beauty of the whole. Come, let us worship together, all genders, sexualities, politics, clappers and non-clappers, progressive or conservative, may we root ourselves in the values of this faith: compassion and courage, transcendence, justice and transformation.

Chalice lighting: Afraid of the dark, By Andrew Pakula

In sightless night, terrors draw near
Nameless fears of talon and tooth
Hopelessness yawns before us—an abyss
Alone and unknown in the gloom, longing for the dawn
O sacred flame blaze forth—wisdom brought to life
Guide us—
With the light of hope
The warmth of love
The beacon of purpose and meaning
Because we are all afraid of the dark
Let there be light

Song: Come Whoever You Are (5 times) Continue reading →

Sunday, September 4, 2016: Love in a Time of Fear and Loathing

LdeG

Prelude: Once to Every Man and Nation

Welcome: Thich Nhat Hanh (SLT 505)

Let us be at peace with our bodies and our minds. Let us return to ourselves and become wholly ourselves. Let us be aware of the source of being, common to us all and to all living things.

Evoking the presence of the Great Compassion, let us fill our hearts with our own compassion—towards ourselves and towards all living beings.

Let us pray that we ourselves cease to be the cause of suffering to each other.

With humility, with awareness of the existence of life, and of the suffering that are going on around us, let us practice the establishment of peace in our hearts and on earth.

 Chalice Lighting: The Gift of Love

Come, Spirit, come, our hearts control,
Our spirits long to be made whole.
Let inward love guide every deed;
By this we worship, and are freed.

Song: Gathered Here (3 times) Continue reading →

There’s a UU Book Club!!

CZ

There is a Unitarian Universalist Book club on GoodReads. It is called Justice and Spirit. There are UUs from all over reading and talking about books. This can help us all learn and and grow together while we search for truth and meaning in our world.

From the UUA “The September pick for the Justice and Spirit: Unitarian Universalist Book Club is “Cultivating Empathy: The Worth and Dignity of Every Person—Without Exception” by Nathan C. Walker. “This emotionally honest and personal exploration of conflict introduces a creative and compassionate way to develop empathetic responses using the spiritual practice of the moral imagination.” Order your copy of this Skinner House title from inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop, and join the conversation with the book club on GoodReads.”

Have fun reading.

Namaste,
Cricket

 

Sunday July 24, 2016

CZ

Cricket Hall will lead us in a service about spiritual practice of touchstones and how they help us connect to “that which is not us”.

We would love to have you come worship with us.

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 be from 10am to 10:45 am with a coffee gathering before the service. More about 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.

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

~
Namaste
Cricket

Sunday April 10, 2016: Our Quests and Spiritual Journeys

Robert
Mounted Knight

Prelude Tri Martolod – Alan Stivell

Welcome The beauty of the whole – Meg Barnhouse

We gather to worship, our hearts alive with hope that here we will be truly seen, that here we will be welcomed into the garden of this community, where the simple and the elegant, the fluted and frilled, the shy and the dramatic complement one another and are treasured. May we know that here, each contributes in their way to the beauty of the whole. Come, let us worship together, all genders, sexualities, politics, clappers and non-clappers, progressive or conservative, may we root ourselves in the values of this faith: compassion and courage, transcendence, justice and transformation.

Chalice lighting Embrace The Night – Jennifer Leota Gray

Universal mystery,
Guide us away from the desire to
Shine light in all the corners.
Teach us to embrace the night,
For without the darkness,
We never see the stars.
Continue reading →

Butterflies and Spring

CZ

Today is Good Friday. For our Christian friends this is a day of remembrance, meditation, and focusing on the dark times. Holy Week is in many ways the spiritual embodiment of the turn from Winter into Spring.  It is about how the darkness is necessary to bring the light.

This theme of coming through the darkness and into the light as a better version of one’s self is a theme through many religions. The winter is often dark and brooding. We suffer through the cold and dark, not realizing what it does to us. We don’t always see the work that we do within our spirit during that time, whether it is the actual season or a dark time in our lives. When Spring returns we rejoice and dance. We often do not see the transformation in ourselves. For those who are in a dark time, the picture below helped me a lot and I hope it helps you as well. Spring is just around the corner.

butterfly

 

Spring and Easter are often billed as for the children. I think it is because they get a lot of joy out of the season. I found a page that has 25 butterfly crafts and one that has 15 indoor/outdoor activities for spring. Yes, they are designed for children, but they are also designed for parents or grandparents to do with the children. Sometimes doing crafts can be a very meditative process. For those that prefer coloring here is a butterfly mandala to color. I hope that these simple things will bring you joy. Perhaps they can help you find the light in your dark time. Perhaps they can help you realize the growth you have made. Perhaps they will just bring you joy and that is all I wish for anyone.

Namaste,
Cricket