Thanks to Steve Ferrell for persevering to find a system that will work for us. The doors are usually locked – ring the bell if you arrive during office hours. If you or your group need to get into the building outside of open hours, please contact office@uucorvallis.org to get the code for the key box.
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Fall Building Hours
The Fellowship office and building are open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 10 AM – 12 PM (noon), with volunteers and sometimes staff present. New doorbells are now working.
Condolences
We send condolences and prayers to the family of Kim Johansen, who died on September 21.
Reminder to Register for R.E.
Thank you to all who have already registered for the new Fellowship year in RE! If you have not yet registered your child, please do so either at the iPad on the tree stump in the classroom wing OR by using the registration links on our website. Thanks!
Announcement Screens
Have you noticed the screens in the foyer and in the Social Hall? Newly installed, with thanks to Ginny Gibson and Anya Ballinger, they will offer the weekly announcements for each Sunday morning. This is one more way to help as folks as possible to know what’s happening at the Fellowship. Stop and have a look!
Choir Goes to Portland First Church
The UUFC choir will be heading to First Unitarian Church in Portland on Sunday October 8th to fill in while their music program is on retreat. We are hoping this is the beginning to a long and harmonious relationship with their ensembles. We will share in some of the music that unites our congregations around the world.
Inquirers Series 11/5
Designed especially for newcomers seeking more information about UUism and the Fellowship AND open to all comers. 11:45 AM Room 6C. This week: Religious Exploration, with Dawn Dirks.
Join the “Secure Housing and Food for All” Team
Our October Justice Outreach offerings will support the South Corvallis Food Bank. Their mission is to increase sustainable food security in Corvallis by providing emergency food boxes, information and opportunities with compassion and respect. Donations can be made in person on Sundays, or at uucorvallis.org/donate.
Information about the Monthly Outreach Offering, as well as about UUFC Justice Teams, is posted on the bulletin board at the northeast corner of the Social Hall. This month the South Corvallis Food Bank open hours and lists of needed food are on the Bulletin board in the Social hall for October.
Did you know that in addition to providing food the South Corvallis Food Bank has cooking demonstrations and recipes, collects cold weather items, diapers, personal care, and household items? Volunteer opportunities include helping shoppers, restocking, gleaning, assisting with incoming deliveries, driving for monthly home delivery. Youth ages 12 and up are welcome with their guardian’s permission.
Questions? Contact them at (541) 760-9382 or email info@southcorvallisfoodbank.org
Join the Secure Housing and Food for All team meeting at 11:30 am in the library after the Sunday Service Oct. 8 and have your questions answered (or researched) by the team working to provide food, clothing, housing, shelter, and volunteers to the unhoused in Corvallis/Benton County.
Daily Practice: A Weekly Reminder
Autumn is a season of amazing contrasts. One could spend much of a day simply watching the sky. The colors of the clouds – from white to gray-brown to gray to dark deep blue-gray – all can be present at the same time. And when sunlight illumines red and yellow trees against the dark clouds – it is often breathtakingly beautiful. From cool rainy days to hot sunny days, as trees seem to turn colors overnight. Not to mention the sun on the trees against the clouds, which sometimes quickly turns to hail, which turns to sheets of rain, which eventually becomes a drizzle.
‘There is a deep kindness at the heart of everything,’ wrote John O’Donohue. I love that idea, yet the contrast with what seems like immense destructiveness – a collective insanity, a growing instability – is stark. I remind myself of the ying-yang symbol of Daoism, which illustrates the constant presence of and movement between dark and light, life and death, evil and good – all always present and interwoven.
Every day is unique; its unfolding cannot be slowed nor can its path be predicted. And, we always have the choice to begin again, to be open to the unfolding, to let ourselves be carried and to bring our best selves and highest ideals to whatever comes our way. And so may we greet each day: the clouds, the rain, the light, the colors, the beauty, the presence of evil and good. May we be thankful for the breath which is given to us again and again.
Not So Like-Minded After All
It’s not uncommon for UU’s to note that they like being part of a congregation because they’re among “like-minded” people. It turns out, the more we learn about how brains function, and the more we listen to people instead of making assumptions about them, we’re not very like minded at all! What, then, do we offer one another for our religious lives?