Learning Overview
Religious Exploration (RE) is one of the ways that UUFC supports faith development at all stages of life. RE offers participants opportunities to develop spiritual practices, connect with our liberal religious heritage, cultivate understanding and respect for diverse religious traditions, clarify our own personal values, and utilize our unique gifts to create a better world for all.
Religious Exploration
Children’s Exploration
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Rainbow Room (walkers-preschool)
OUR PHILOSOPHY The Rainbow Room, our space for toddlers and preschoolers, is located in room 4 of the classroom wing. This is a space where our youngest members can build the foundational trust and sense of community necessary to flourish as spiritual and emotional beings at UUFC and beyond. At this age, we want our…
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Spirit Play (grades k-3)
OUR PHILOSOPHY Spirit Play is based in story and ritual, play and creativity. It gives children the tools to make meaning of their lives and questions such as Who am I, Where did I come from, and What is my purpose, within the container of Unitarian Universalism. We use the Montessori approach with key elements of a prepared classroom…
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Seeker Space (grades 4-6)
OUR PHILOSOPHY The Seeker Space is designed to capture the energy and enthusiasm that are characteristic of this age group. Lessons around our shared values are kept short and interactive, and followed each week by child-initiated project-based learning and community building. In this space, we prioritize: Registering for Seeker Space Before the service, we ask…
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OMG! (Open Minds Group, grades 7-12)
OUR PHILOSOPHY Our youth programs are designed to prioritize the immediate needs of the youth above the regularly scheduled programming, recognizing that these can be turbulent and fruitful years with a high degree of need for compassionate mentoring and social support. Our formal programming aims to help participants notice their experiences with the sacred, clarify…
College Exploration
This newly forming group aims to serve college students from around Linn and Benton counties with food, fellowship, and spiritual community rooted in UU values. Our regular meeting time is still being sorted out. If you’re keen to join, you can weigh in HERE. Team contact information coming soon. For now, reach out to the Director of Religious Exploration and OSU Spiritual Life liaison, Skyla, at dre@uucorvallis.org for the latest information.
Adult RE
Adult RE
What’s in store for Adults in Religious Exploration for the 2025/26 Fellowship year? I’m so glad you asked!
Some upcoming Adult RE opportunities include:
Mosaic Antiracism Series (September and October)
Music Theology (January)
Adult Coming of Age (February and March)
UUA Common Read Brown Bag Book Group (July)
ONGOING OFFERINGS:
Parent Peer Support Group (2nd Thursday of each month @ 61;30 in room 3, with free childcare provided)
Neurodivergence and Mental Health Peer Support Group (1st and 3rd Sundays at 8:30 AM in Room 9)
Family Breakfast (2nd Sundays, October through May)
All past RE event listings can be viewed here!
We very much appreciate you taking the time to pre-register so that we can arrive well-prepared to provide you with the best RE experience possible.
If you have a special interest and would like to facilitate an exploration opportunity for adults, email Skyla King-Christison at dre@uucorvallis.org. The RE Council loves it when our members help co-create the gatherings they would like to see, and I’m happy to support you in launching your RE-related ideas.
Religious Exploration Council
The role of the Religious Exploration Council is to provide support, guidance, and coordination of RE programs. The RE Council works closely with the Director of RE to monitor learning needs across the lifespan of our congregation and develop materials and structures to help address those needs through classes, workshops, events, and volunteer mobilization.
The primary tasks of the RE Council include:
~Developing and promoting programs that deepen our community’s capacity for spiritual and faithful living;
~Assessing unmet congregational needs for learning and communicating those with staff;
~Identifying potential volunteers and connecting them with the opportunities best suited to their skills and interests.
RE Council Teams
The Religious Exploration Council is made up of the team leads from each RE Council team. We gather twice a year (usually in September and February) to coordinate the ongoing, behind-the-scenes work that keeps our programs running smoothly. Our meetings are open to anyone curious about the inner workings of the RE Council.
And because even administrative work deserves a little joy, we’ve embraced the unicorn as our council mascot. We show up in sparkly horns, committed to bringing a bit of magic into the life of the Fellowship. After all, a group of unicorns is called a blessing, and that feels just about right.
Got a spark? A dream to try?
A question deep, a wondering why?
A way to help our spirits grow,
Or seeds of faith you’d love to sow?Come join us—bring your hopeful schemes,
We’re here to help you grow your dreams.
With hearts (and maybe unicorn flair),
We’ll build something meaningful together there.
College Ministry
This newly forming group aims to serve college students from around Linn and Benton counties with food, fellowship, and spiritual community rooted in UU values. Our regular meeting time is still being sorted out. If you’re keen to join, you can weigh in HERE. Team contact information coming soon. For now, reach out to the Director of Religious Exploration and OSU Spiritual Life liaison, Skyla, at dre@uucorvallis.org for the latest information.
Inquirers Series
This is a 9-session learning series offered at 11:45 AM every Sunday in Room 7, for the purpose of helping visitors and newcomers feel oriented and answer the most common questions people have while they are deciding whether UUFC is right for them. This series is offered in partnership with the Membership Team and is facilitated by a variety of leaders from a cross-section of Fellowship life. Sessions can be taken in any order, and sessions 1 (or 9), 2, and 8 are encouraged before signing the membership book. Bring your questions and your coffee and join us!
Family Breakfast
Our monthly breakfast gathering for families with children is on the second Sunday of each month at 8:50 AM, one hour before the 10:00 AM service in the social hall. We —a family of 4—cook a hot breakfast (yes—there’s bacon!), and serve coffee and pancakes. Families may bring a dish to share or simply come as they are. While adults enjoy conversation, kids can spend time together getting to know one another in a welcoming environment. All families with children are warmly welcome! Registration is appreciated HERE.
ETC!
Elders Thriving in Community provides resources, information, and social connections to help us thrive as we get older and our needs and abilities are likely to change. We bring in speakers from our congregation and the community to present topics such as home safety, brain health, local senior services, and internet scams, and coordinate social events to bring older people together. Team leads are Alison Meyers and Gerri Buckles.
Neurodiversity Support Group
The Neurodivergence and Mental Health Support Group is a safe, welcoming space for discussions regarding neurodivergence. It discusses topics such as mental health, connection, and sensitivity to name a few. The group meets every second and fourth Sunday of the month at 8:30 AM in room nine upstairs at the Fellowship. For more information, contact neurodiv@uucorvallis.org.
Parent Connection Dinner
The Parent Connection Monthly Dinner is held on the 2nd Thursday of each month @ 6:30-8:00 PM. Parents meet in room 3 of the classroom wing, and free childcare is provided in room 4 or 6C.
All families are welcome to join us for a free light dinner with facilitated conversation and mutual support among the parents, and a child-friendly movie night and play time with background-checked childcare providers for the kids in a nearby space. Please bring your own place settings, as we do not have a dishwashing team for this gathering.
Registering HERE one time will place you on the reminder list, and clicking the RSVP button in the reminder will help us determine how much food to prepare.
Library
The Rita McDonald Library is a treasure trove of books and resources that you can’t find anywhere else. And some you can, but how convenient is it that they’re already right here? This project has been kept alive for decades by a series of dedicated volunteers, the most recent of whom have been Holley and Eric Lantz, with support from RE staff. We need more team members to keep this project alive. If your flavor of volunteering involves quiet, solo work and tending in a peaceful space that smells like old paper and is bathed in slanted sunlight, this is the role for you! Join the team by emailing Skyla at dre@uucorvallis.org.
RE Safe Congregation Support Team
We bolster the safety of all who engage in Religious Exploration environments by supporting uniform policy and procedure implementation and creating consistent processes to invite registered families, RE lay leaders, and RE staff back into covenant when Safe Congregation policies are violated within RE spaces.
OWL & Coming of Age
At UUFC, we offer OWL (Our Whole Lives) and Coming of Age on an alternating annual basis, and encourage 7th and 8th graders to participate in both programs. Together, these two programs serve the whole, developing humans. More information about each of these classic programs can be found below.
2025/26 is a Coming of Age year at the Fellowship! Please contact the Director of Religious Exploration at dre@uucorvallis.org to join the mailing list to be contacted when registration for either OWL or CoA opens.
Honest, accurate information about sexuality changes lives. It dismantles stereotypes and assumptions, builds self-acceptance and self-esteem, fosters healthy relationships, improves decision-making, and has the potential to save lives. For these reasons and more, we are proud to offer Our Whole Lives (OWL), a comprehensive, lifespan sexuality education curriculum for use in both secular settings and faith communities.
Our Whole Lives helps participants make informed and responsible decisions about their relationships, sexual health and behavior. With a holistic approach, Our Whole Lives provides accurate, developmentally appropriate information about a range of topics, including relationships, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, sexual health, and cultural influences on sexuality.
Because we aim, as people of faith, to never stop growing and evolving, UUFC doesn’t stop offering OWL just because you’ve become an adult. Adult OWL is not a children’s program made available to adults. Instead, we expand the conversation to include information about up-to-date terminology that may have changed in your lifetime and what that means for your conversations about sex and sexuality, as well as discussions around how our identities and challenges shift as we become sexual beings in aging human bodies.
OWL is only taught by teams of background-checked adults who have completed extensive training offered jointly by the Unitarian Universalist Association and United Church of Christ. You can find more information about the complete program by visiting this website.
Coming of Age is a core UU program that asks participants to explore what it means to become an adult in a Unitarian Universalist context. A lot of cultures have this kind of event in the life of their congregation or community. Close to home, our Jewish neighbors have bat and bar mitzvahs where young people are asked to learn a language and be able to reflect on a text. In other cultures, there are walkabouts, solo experiences in the wilderness, or even rounds of combat. In each of these examples, the community is expressing what is important to it. In our faith, we ask our members to reflect deeply on who they are as spiritual people, to be able to think metaphorically, and to express themselves as soulful, connected beings, capable of experiencing a spiritual passion and transforming that passion into service and dedication to a common good.
Because we aim, as people of faith, to never stop growing and evolving, UUFC doesn’t stop offering the Coming of Age program just because you’ve become an adult. Adult Coming of Age invites adults to explore the same themes in a small group setting, where they can reflect deeply on their personal history, current spiritual development, and future aspirations in community and as individuals of faith.
If you have questions about either of these programs, please contact the Director of Religious Exploration, Skyla King-Christison, at dre@uucorvallis.org.
More RE Offerings
Wheel of the Year Celebrations
Family Faith Formation Toolkit
Soulful Home Family Pancake Breakfast
Grandfolks Squad
Our Mission
Explore. Love. Act.
We gather as an inclusive religious community to search for meaning, build deep connections, and inspire action toward a better world for all.
