Due to the conflict with the Holiday Fair, we are rescheduling the Fifth Annual Tree Planting with the City to a Saturday in January. Look for more info to come.
Cameron
UUFC Giving Tuesday, 12/2
UUFC’s Giving Tuesday is an opportunity for us celebrate and put into practice our UU values of Generosity and Justice. For 2025, our contributions will benefit the South Corvallis Food Bank, where the need is greater than ever. Video: <https://kval.com/newsletter-daily/need-for-food-reaches-all-time-high-in-corvallis-food-bank-says>
You can contribute
- via Breeze by selecting Giving Tuesday from the Give To drop-down menu
- via check payable to UUFC with memo “Giving Tuesday”
- via cash in an envelope marked with your name and “Giving Tuesday”
Thank you.
Questions: treasurer@uucorvallis.org
November 16, 2025 – Desire in the Spiritual Life
Throughout history, humans have expressed a sensual desire for the divine in such texts as Song of Solomon and the Bhagavad Gita. And, many spiritual autobiographies record longings of the heart. How can we be alert to the role of desire in our spiritual lives?
Rev. Alex McGee will preach
Reflections on a week of Care and Planning
This past week at the Fellowship has continued our focus on safety as a way to care for each other. Our fire drill on Sunday showed many learning opportunities. If you are interested in helping carry this foward, please be in touch with Wolfgang Dengler. On Monday, 20 UUFC leaders spent three hours learning about how to respond if ICE comes to the building. This was emotionally draining but gives us concrete information to begin to implement plans.
The interim ministry process of reviewing history and clarifying identity continues to show up in many ares of Fellowship life. In many conversations, new members are learning from long term members about the dreams, efforts, and successes in this congregation. One example is the congregation’s strong work to get volunteers to help with staffing programs for people who are unhoused. Another example is the strong history of supporting food access programs. And now, even more, these programs are being bolstered. If you would like to help, please be in touch with Mike Jager, Roberta Smith, and Roz Keeney.
A wonderful book called In the Interim has been created by the Unitarian Universalist Association for congregations to understand more about the opportunities to use this time well — after a Settled minister leaves and before another arrives. Three copies of the book are in our library – please check one out and see what insights you gain. Staff, board, and the Transitions Team each have a copy and report they are getting relief from seeing how other congregations have thrived in their interim time. A wonderful conversation starter!
Also, in the past week, I have seen the many quiet ways members of this congregation care for each other during hospitalizations and in nursing homes. These connections happen through cards, phone calls, texts, and visits. Much sweetness is exchanged in these supportive moments. This is one more way the spiritual life shows up and nourishes us, as we give and as we receive.
Looking forward to more joy, connection, and justice,
Looking forward to more listening, learning, and growing,
Looking forward to more history and honoring the past,
With gratitude for the marvel of this amazing Fellowship — how it touches inward and outward,
In peace
Rev. Alex McGee
Connect Up: Rich hosting Thanksgiving Dinner/Potluck, 11/27
Thanksgiving will be here in just a few days: why not celebrate it with eighty or more people at UUFC? Members, friends, family, and out-of-town guests are welcome. Instead of staying home and doing all the work and cooking, come here and do just a little work (if you are willing and able), a little cooking, and with little expense. The Fellowship provides turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, beverages, and the Social Hour appetizers. Also a five pound tofu turkey, vegan and GF. Each family unit (of 1 or more humans) brings a potluck dish (salad, bread, dessert, veggie side dish, vegetarian/vegan main dish, cranberries, potatoes/yams, stuffing, etc.) or cooks one of the 4 turkeys (cost reimbursed). The suggested donation is $5.00/person to cover costs, but no one is turned away for lack of funds. Any surplus money will go to the Minister’s Discretionary Fund, or the South Corvallis Food Bank.
We need to know how many tables and chairs to set up for dinner, so sign up after Sunday service (starting at 10 AM) on 11/23, or call/email Rich, or sign up on Breeze, by Wednesday night, November 26, and also tell him what food you will probably bring, and if you are able to volunteer for a job.
Schedule:
10:30 a.m. Set up at UUFC.
4:30 p.m. Social hour at UUFC.
5:30 p.m. Turkey dinner with vegetarian/vegan alternatives. $5.00 suggested. RSVP.
7:30 p.m. Conversation, table games, and clean up. Please stay and mellow out, visit, or bring a favorite board game. Is anyone interested in doing charades?
HELP! As of newsletter deadline, I still need people to sign up for clean up, and putting away the tables and chairs, and to help with the social hour. Also, many people signed up to come but gave no indication of what they might be bringing to the potluck. At the moment we have only 4 desserts, and two vegetable side dishes.
Childcare is available!
Free childcare can usually be arranged for any Fellowship event by using this link 1-2 weeks prior to the event.
🐦Trick-or-Treat CAT Prize Winners🐦
Those who visited the Climate Action Team table at the UUFC Trick-or-Treat last Sunday and answered a bird question received a chance to win a bird suet feeder + 2 suet cakes.
The winning ticket number is CAT 97.
Two runner-up numbers, CAT 730 and CAT 30, were also drawn and will each receive 3 packets of hot chocolate mix.
Please contact cat@uucorvallis.org or Brian Lee by Nov. 16th to claim your prize.
LEGATO potluck, 11/12
We have so much to be thankful for. Let’s share that feeling over a meal. The LEGATO potluck is Wednesday November 12 at 6:30 PM. Come early if you can help set up tables. Everyone is welcome whether you’re singing or not. Choir rehearsal is at 7:00 PM.
Bring a dish to share (please identify all ingredients), a serving utensil (if needed) AND YOUR OWN PLACE SETTING & WATER BOTTLE – this is a low impact meal. We will not use the kitchen.
This is a Connect Up Event with the purpose of building community within the UUFC congregation.
Childcare is available!
Free childcare can usually be arranged for any Fellowship event by using this link 1-2 weeks prior to the event.
Partner Church team meeting, 11/9
Change Your Perspective with the Partner Church Team.
We are a standing committee of the UUFC Justice Council and our mission is to enhance and deepen the relationship between our congregation and our partner churches.
The process of “reframing” your perspective involves self-reflection, embracing humility to learn from others, and a commitment to challenging your own limiting stories and beliefs.
We will continue the conversation at our next meeting. Please join us.
To find out more and to join our team, please contact Heather E. via email.
Childcare is available!
Free childcare can usually be arranged for any Fellowship event by using this link 1-2 weeks prior to the event.
Kirtan with Bhakti Heart, 11/14
What happens when two inspiring, award-winning singer-songwriters and multi-instrumentalists join together to share their love of devotional music? The answer is the uplifting, joy-inducing duo Bhakti Heart, a collaboration between Laura Kemp and Len Seligman. Leading original and traditional sacred songs from diverse traditions, their gatherings are a heart-opening and moving experience. Their voices blend with rich harmonies, and their joy in creating music together is obvious and infectious. Both are highly accomplished musicians on several instruments, including guitar, harmonium, octave mandolin, and hand pan.
Please join us for a joyous, uplifting gathering, singing and chanting sacred songs and sounds from diverse traditions. All are welcome, regardless of musical experience or spiritual background. We look forward to singing with you!
Childcare is available!
Free childcare can usually be arranged for any Fellowship event by using this link 1-2 weeks prior to the event.
Volunteer for Holiday Fair, 12/6
The Holiday Fair team is looking for volunteers to help prepare for and run the event. We need help with various tasks leading up to the event, including baking goodies to donate to the event, posting flyers in Corvallis and nearby communities, organizing donated items for the recycled gifts room where children can shop for inexpensive items for themselves or gifts for family and friends, and making fresh greenery swags for people to hang on their doors. We also need a baked goods coordinator to accept and package/price baked goods on Friday and organize running the table on Saturday. And on the day of the event, we need volunteers to act as greeters, cashiers, musicians, and helpers to restore the sanctuary when the Holiday Fair is over.
The UUFC Holiday Fair is open to the public and is a great place to purchase unique handmade crafts as gifts for friends and family and yourself. The craft vendors retain most of the purchase price of their crafts, and a portion goes to the UUFC as one of our annual fund-raising events. If you are able to help, you’ll enjoy being part of a team that is working to support local craftspeople as well as the UUFC.
Sign up to help at one of the links below.
Volunteering Before the Holiday Fair
Volunteering During the Event
A document describing the different volunteering positions can be found here. Please reach out to holiday.fair@uucorvallis.org with questions.
Do you have small holiday decorations that we can add to the greenery swags? Bring them with you when you next come to UUFC and place them in the red holiday swag box in the foyer.
Do you have inexpensive gift items that a child could purchase for no more than $2 to give to a friend, sibling, or other relative? Bring them to a Sunday service at UUFC and give them to Judy Westlake, Rachel McGrath, or Bonnie Morihara.
Childcare is available!
Free childcare can usually be arranged for any Fellowship event by using this link 1-2 weeks prior to the event.