UU World

Sunday, January 22, 2023

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“When someone deeply listens to you,

your bare feet are on the earth

and a beloved land that seemed distant

is now at home within you.” – John Fox

This Sunday, John Hall will present a service on finding our center within the first principle titled, “The Challenge of the First Principle.”

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. If you wish to join on ZOOM, please contact us for logon information. A coffee hour, a time for discussion and socializing (including ZOOM participants), follows from the end of the service until 12:00 noon.

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

image credit to UU World

UU Lent 2022 – Day 23 – Foundation

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According to Dictionary.com – Foundation means

  1. the basis or groundwork of anything:
  2. the moral foundation of both society and religion.
  3. the natural or prepared ground or base on which some structure rests.
  4. the lowest division of a building, wall, or the like, usually of masonry and partly or wholly below the surface of the ground.
  5. the act of founding, setting up, establishing, etc.: a policy in effect since the foundation.
  6. the state of being founded.

Our Faith Calls Us to Antiracist Work by Rev. Susan Frederick Gray

Our House by Michael DeVernon Boblett

It’s time for Chalica again

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Chalica is a week-long celebration of our Unitarian Universalist Principles. The holiday first emerged in 2005 out of a wish to have a holiday organized around Unitarian Universalist values.

Chalica begins on the first Monday in December and lasts seven days. Each day, a chalice is lit and the day is spent reflecting on the meaning of that day’s principle and doing a good deed that honors that principle. Not all Unitarian Universalists celebrate Chalica, but it has a growing following. There is a Chalica Facebook page, blog, and many Chalica-themed videos on YouTube.

Here is an article from  UU World about it.

This year we will have a daily blog post for all seven days of Chalica. It will include a few activities, a reflection, and a video reading.

Hope you enjoy celebrating this unique holiday with us.

Tips for Talking about the UU World Article

CZ

“This week the UU World published an article that was harmful to trans people people in the Unitarian Universalist movement. Many cisgender (non-trans) UUs are wondering how to best understand and support non-binary folks, trans women and men, intersex people, and others most affected by the article when they talk about it with other cis people. Here are some tips.”

Here is the full article from the Transforming Hearts Collective “Tips for Talking about the UU World Article“

We can do better. We should do better.

CZ

Earlier this week, UU World published a problematic, hurtful, and harmful article. Instead of writing my own response, I am passing the mic. In their article on Medium, CB Beal “Centering the Marginalized: symphony and triptych” describes why the UU World article was so upsetting and how we can do better in the future.

“When we want to do justice, and I believe that UU’s do, we have always to ask ourselves “Who is this about, and where is their story?”” – CB Beal

Alex Kapitan also made a public response on Facebook. 

And here is the Response from TRUUsT : “Putting the “T” First: Public Statement on This Week’s UU World Article” written by the TRUUsT Steering Committee.

Please read them and share them widely.

 

Image Credit to Su’ad Abdul Khabeer from their twitter account @DrSuad.

Unitarian Universalists offer homes to asylum seekers in caravan

CZ

Here is an article from Elaine McArdle published in UU World about the crisis at our border.

“Central American asylum seekers, fleeing violence at home, may be released from detention centers to sponsors’ homes.”

Photo Information:

“A volunteer lawyer informs migrants on what to expect when requesting asylum in the U.S., at an office in Tijuana, Mexico, Friday, April 27, 2018. Close to 200 migrants from Central America, mostly from Honduras, arrived in Tijuana seeking to enter the United States. (AP Photo/Hans-Maximo Musielik)”

Our Faith’s Complacency in Racism

CZ

“We have an absurd amount to learn, or unlearn, about race in this country. America allowed slavery to exist by seeking out personal and regional salvation at the expense of universal salvation. Our country felt better about itself because with the South as the identified patient, it never had to look at its own addiction.”

This reflection by Nathan Ryan is part of healing and of the work we need to be doing.

 

Photo Credit: UU World