david

Building New Ways of Communication

We’re trying out a new online version of the weekly announcements here at uucorvallis.org/news. It contains all the same information as the pdf version of the Weekly Announcements that is emailed to you, but in a little different format. This page also includes easy links to the latest information about everything that’s going on at the Fellowship here in one place. 

Here are a few things to note:

  1. Under each announcement headline is a short excerpt with link that takes you to the full text.
  2. Like the pdf version, the announcements aren’t in any particular order, expect for that we’ve curated a few of them to appear at the top.
  3. To see announcements from of a specific type, click on one of the tabs on the left. Each tab will have the latest announcements, as well past info. The newest info will still appear under Weekly Announcements, so if you only read the main weekly announcements tab, you should still be up to date.
  4. To see past announcements from previous weeks, you will no longer have to search through your emails. Just click on the button that says “past announcements” at the bottom of the list. It will only show past announcements that have appeared here — not weekly announcements from years past, sorry. 
  5. If you want to see a pdf version, you should still be getting it in your email. You can also still find all the Weekly Announcements Archives in the filing cabinet.

In the spirit of the theme for this year, “Building a new Way,” we are working on building new ways of communication to help everyone stay connected. 

If you have questions, comments, or ideas about this format for the weekly announcements, or about the website, please email David Servias.

Another Way to Support the Fellowship!

Link Your Fred Meyer Rewards Card!

The Fellowship is now a part of the Fred Meyer Community Rewards Program. What’s needed from you?

Please visit: https://www.fredmeyer.com. Once logged into your Fred Meyer account, search for Unitarian Fellowship of Corvallis either by name or FN605 and then click Enroll. New users will need to create an account which requires some basic information, a valid email address and a rewards card.

*You must have a registered Fred Meyer rewards card account in order to link to the Fellowship.

*If you do not not yet have a Fred Meyer rewards card, they are available at the customer service desk at any Fred Meyer.

Once your rewards card is registered, then purchases will count for your the Fellowship!

A reminder that participants must swipe their registered Fred Meyer rewards card or use the phone number that is related to their registered Fred Meyer rewards card when shopping for each purchase to count.

Grounds Stewards

With fall here, we are recruiting help for UUFC leaf clean up. To help, please email Michael Hughes, subject Fall Clean Up.

October 15th, 2023, Daily Practice: A Weekly Reminder

When we first entered into the pandemic shut-down, in March of 2020, we also entered into a shared daily practice to help ourselves stay connected to each other and to our religious lives. Over several months we began to consider skills that could help us, including cultivating inner nobility and steadiness, naming our fears and counting our blessings at the same time, and nurturing courage and trust within ourselves and between us. Later, we talked about “the art of embracing” as a practice of turning toward and moving toward what the world brings us — moving in that direction of with arms opened wide, as much as possible.

It has been three and a half years since we shut down and entered into pandemic living, and a little over a year since we finally returned to indoor Sunday services. There will never be a time when everything simply reverts to the way it was “before.” We are living in, and are part of, calamitous and fractious years in the human world. We worried in 2016, and then during the pandemic, and then the invasion of Ukraine, and now the horrible situation for Israelis and Palestinians. Horrors, and more horrors. For those of us dedicated to a practice of peace and justice making, there are constant opportunities to start over, to begin anew in a changed world, as always. The organizer /humanitarian / activist Valerie Kaur says this: “Our most powerful response to the horror in Israel and Palestine is to refuse to surrender our humanity. Opening our hearts to grief—others and our own—is how we hold our humanity in a world that would destroy it. It’s how we will begin to survive this.”

May our practice be dedicated to this – to maintaining and nurturing humanity, in all the ways we can. The question is, “What are you willing and able to move toward for the good of all?” Everything we have been practicing will help us. The way stretches before us, and we can only take one step at a time. There are blessings that live in the very act of reaching out. May we find the needed courage.

“What Is Transformation?”

It would be hard to argue that things don’t change, or that they aren’t changing constantly, and not always in ways we understand or are prepared for. Take this week for example, or almost any of the past seven years. A new generation of UU’s describes a need for us to be able and willing to not only change, but be changed, in order to keep adding love into the world.

Rev. Jill McAllister

UUFC Members-Only Facebook Group

Members of the Fellowship are invited to join the UUFC Community Page for Members and Friends on Facebook. Request to join! This is a great place not only to hear about what’s going on at the Fellowship, but also to share resources within our community and to share other community events that aren’t directly related to the work of the Fellowship, but would be of interest to folks. 

But First, Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving Day Festevent was long a regular feature of the Fellowship year – before the pandemic. Shall we do it again? What became a Thanksgiving dinner for 100+ people needed lots of hands to plan and prepare. Lots of hands will be needed again, if we decide to do it. If you are interested in helping the Festevent return this year (maybe in new ways), please contact Rev. Jill McAllister.

Holiday Fair In Person, December 2nd

Our annual Holiday Fair is returning on December 2, 2023. Calling all UUFC crafters and artisans. Sign up to let your creations become someone’s special gift. Contact Isabel or Tom Prusinski.

Thank You!

Thank You.

A special thank you to master carpenter Russ Anderson who upgraded our shed with new siding and a new mower ramp. Russ and Nick Houtman painted the shed with our new Fellowship siding color. Russ then assisted Jim Good with the precision repair of the water-damaged exterior Gallery door. Many thanks to all of. you for volunteering your time and expertise If you would like to help occasionally with short projects to maintain our building, contact Building Stewards Steve Ferrell, Nick Houtman, or Wolfgang Dengler.

“Future Design” — Conversation: Building New Ways at the Fellowship 11/5

Sunday, 11/5 after the service

So much is in flux, in the world and at the Fellowship. Former systems, groups and events are changing, new ways are emerging and being created. Have you had questions about some aspect of Fellowship operation or participation? Wondering how to find out about things? We want to hear from you! Let’s have a conversation to inform this process of change. Join us after the Sunday service on November 5th in the Sanctuary. If you have questions, talk to Rev. Jill McA or Skyla King-Christison.