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CATweek 12/23/23

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Corvallis Carbon Offset Fund: At the end of service on Sun 17 Dec, Brian Lee talked to us about local carbon offsets available through the Corvallis Carbon Offset Fund (CCOF). We’ll share the video of Brian’s talk once it’s posted, but in the meantime, we invite and encourage you to estimate your/your family’s carbon footprint and reduce that footprint via donation to the CCOF or other appropriate climate action/climate justice group.

Towards Net Zero: For those ready to make reducing and taking responsibility for their carbon emissions an ongoing commitment, we invite and encourage you to sign up for UUFC Climate Action Team’s Towards Net Zero project. 

Tree Planting: We still need volunteers to help plant eight trees in the islands in the Crystal Lake/Willamette Park parking lot, 10:00 AM to Noon, Sat 20 Jan. This is our third year of collaborative tree planting with the City’s Urban Forestry Program. To volunteer, email michael.a.hughes1951@gmail.com with Subject Tree Planting.

Faith-based climate action this week

Good News

Climate-action Opportunities

Of Note

Save the Date

Cheers, Michael

To sign up for CATweek, the once-per-week, Saturday, email, email Michael Hughes and use the subject “CATweek sign up.”

The one thing we need more than hope is action. Once we start to act, hope is everywhere.

Greta Thunberg

Antiracism Learning Circles offered by First Unitarian in Portland

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You are invited to join Antiracism Learning Circles this winter and spring. It’s on zoom, so you can join from anywhere!  First Unitarian in Portland, OR is the organizer, and we are eager to include participation from all faiths and allies everywhere.  We hope you can join us and that you’ll help spread the word.

Full descriptions, schedules & registration information are HERE.

This winter & spring 2024 we are offering:

  • Seeing White –  the real history of the US, the one none of us were taught in school. This is where to start your journey! (podcast series) 
  • The Land That Has Never Been Yet – an examination of whether we have ever had a real democracy (podcast series)
  • The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story – edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones – a profoundly reveling vision of American past and present
  • Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication – by Oren J. Sofer
  • The Conspiracy to End America: Five Ways My Old Party is Driving Our Democracy to Autocracy – by Stuart Stevens
  • My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of our Bodies and Hearts – by Resmaa Menakem
  • The Sum Of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together – by Heather MaGhee
  • Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law – by Leah Rothstein & Richard Rothstein
  • Shielded: How The Police Became Untouchable – by Joanna Schwartz
  • (Additional offerings will be added to the link above as they become availalbe.)

LEARNING CIRCLES are small discussion cohorts based on a book or podcast that provide:

  • Important learning about white supremacy, racism, and our national history
  • The opportunity to build trust and go deep in small group discussions over time
  • A safe place to have difficult discussions and deal with discomfort
  • An opportunity to create and strengthen relationships with others
  • Connection, focus and purpose in a virtual setting

How Do LEARNING CIRCLES Work?

  • Each cohort (typically 4-12) gathers for a series (from 4-10 sessions) of facilitated Zoom discussions.
  • Register for a particular Learning Circle.  Meeting dates & times vary.
  • Each individual is given the opportunity to share reactions, then discuss as a group
  • We ask that you plan to attend all sessions so we can build bonds of trust and insight

For questions contact Jody Feldman @ feldmanjody@gmail.com 

Daily Practice: A Weekly Reminder 12/24

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It’s a beautiful Willamette Valley winter day – a mixture of rain and sun, dark clouds and blue sky, herons, rainbows, full and rushing rivers. The orbit of the earth shifted last night – the longest night – and we have entered into the time of lengthening days, tiny bit by tiny bit. It’s the height of the Christmas season – hustle and bustle sounds too calm to describe the traffic and crowds (and nothing can quite describe the amounts of “stuff” piled flowing out of stores into homes.) The old familiar story of Christmas is waiting to be told in just a few days.  As with all old familiar stories, there is much more to it than we assume. It is a gateway, a window into human needs and fears, triumphs and shortcomings still accurate after all these millenia.  

This year seems especially hard for allowing ourselves to enjoy holidays; to be joyful can feel like denying the truths of suffering and hardship which are so present in this world in danger from greed, power, and war, among other things. The danger is real, of course, and cannot be denied. And yet, and yet. The beauty of the turning earth cannot be denied either. The possibilities for love, for understanding and compassion, for letting go of entitlement, for reaching out to others, for being peacemakers and lovers and helpers and friends are always present – always present within us and between us. They are never far away. Even today, with all its complications, everywhere I go people are giving good wishes to others.  “Happy Holidays.” “Merry Christmas.” “Best wishes.”

The calendar of days will come to an end soon, and then we’ll begin again, as we always do. May we pause to give thanks for all the gifts of life as we are carried through the universe on this spinning earth. May we give good wishes, and have goodwill, for all we meet, including ourselves! May we renew our determination to be peacemakers, friends, companions and helpers, so to make this season of peace and goodwill real.  

For each and every one of you – may the days of this season be beautiful. I’m sending love to you all –    Jill

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“The Old Story in a New Way” 12/24/2023

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Join with Fellowship folks of all ages as we tell the story of Christmas again,  with with many of us acting it out as it’s told. We’ll sing familiar carols, light the Christmas candles, and encourage each other to be peacemakers in all the ways we can. 

5:30 PM Christmas Eve Candlelight Service

A quieter service of anthems and hymns, readings and silence, and lighting our candles into the beautiful darkness, as we deepen and renew our commitments to peacemaking. 

The special offering for Christmas Eve will support One Story At A Time, and their work with displaced persons and refugees at the American border in Mexico. 

Daily Practice: A Weekly Reminder, 12/15

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In ancient Chinese practices, there was recognition that peace begins in the closest place – within each human heart and mind. “If there is to be in the world, there must be peace in the nations. If there is to be peace in the nations, there must be peace in the homes. If there is to be peace in the homes, there must be peace in the people.” This wisdom has been understood through generations in almost every culture, yet, we forget — we forget. Forgetting has become our cultural habit, distracted and limited as we are by stuff and ego, anxiety and fear. We should be careful, and thoughtful, about our words and deeds in this season of holidays. If we are going to sing about peace, we must first consider and contemplate how much peace we are nurturing in our own hearts, and how much peace we are creating in our relationships. If we are going to celebrate the balance of light and dark, day and night, we must consider and contemplate how well we move between the two – how much we understand the necessity of both. If we hope for the accomplishment of “goodwill to all” we have to start with our own families and neighborhoods.

Has it ever been harder to cultivate peace and goodwill? Perhaps not, and yet we are not the only humans to be alive amidst war and strife. Perhaps this is why the old admonishments feel so welcome, and so comforting. Once again, we are invited to begin again. May this then be our practice, our observance of the holidays and holy days, our celebration of the season: to find peace in the gift of every breath, to let that peace move through us and into the world as love and respect, as consideration for the well-being of all. Yes, it’s hard, yet nothing is more needed. May we hear the invitations, and may we begin again.

Sending love to you all in this season of great possibilities –   Jill

Mid-Winter Dreams: A Yule Celebration

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All ages join together for this winter celebration of the longest night in story and song, followed by a sing-a-long of beloved songs from “Frozen”, because what better way to celebrate Winter? 

with Rev. Jill McAllister

Thinking About Year-End Gifts to Organizations You Appreciate?

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‘Tis the season when people plan for the upcoming holidays, look back at the year that has passed, and ponder how they can make our world a better place in the year(s) to come. And yes, also begin thinking about the upcoming tax season. If in your pondering you are thinking about making year-end gifts to the organizations you appreciate/love and the UUFC is among those, thank you!

Year-end gifts to the UUFC can be made in many ways:

  • Send a check to UUFC, 2945 NW Circle Blvd, Corvallis OR 97330.
  • Donate online using a debit, credit or ACH bank transfer. Go to the middle of the donation page and select yearend 2023 in the first drop down menu.
  • If you have appreciated stock that is burning a hole in your holiday stocking, transfer stock to the UUFC Schwab account (82873024) using DTC # 0164 Code 40 (you can use these numbers in an online transfer or your broker will know what these are used for).
  • If you are of an age where you need to make required minimum distributions from your retirement accounts, you can have a check written to the UUFC or send a message to office@uucorvallis.org and ask for the flyer on how to make such transfers. If you make these distributions directly to the UUFC, they won’t count as income for tax purposes.
  • Unlike NPR, OPB or an assortment of other non-profits, we have not yet accepted vehicle donations, but if this is of interest to you, send an email to office@uucorvallis.org and your inquisitive finance team will see if we can figure out how to make this happen.

We thank you for your efforts to make our world a better place for all. May you and yours have a joyous holiday season.

Your UUFC Finance Council

Daily Practice: A Weekly Reminder 12/10/2023

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Can you imagine that each season, as it arrives, brings with it a welcome? A welcome to the world as it is, in this particular season, at this particular time. Can you imagine being welcomed into winter, for example. What might it look like and feel like to know yourself welcomed by winter?

We could start with the soft grayness of the sky and hills, especially after rain – a softness which doesn’t move one to cover their eyes, but to quiet just a little and breathe in the fresh moistness. And the clouds – the variable and moving clouds, especially those that settle in to hug the fields and the valleys between the hills, like blankets. The darkness of course, with its invitations to rest, to reflect, to contemplate, to sleep, to keep covers on for longer each morning. And the stars – when the clouds part in the night sky, and stars can be seen even through the bare branches of trees. And here in this valley, at the edges of hills and woods, owls, who converse around the neighborhood as night begins and as morning begins as well. Don’t forget the cold – the breath of the north, the bringer of snow and ice and their unique expressions of beauty.

Can we allow ourselves to feel this welcome, to be welcomed, a few times a day, and to understand the welcome as generosity – the generosity of the turning earth, of the waxing and waning seasons. A generosity of variety, of breadth and depth of life, of life beyond our expectations. And if we can imagine this welcoming generosity, then might we ourselves become part of the welcome, part of the generosity, as a practice of understanding what we are part of? The season offers us all of this. All that’s needed from us is to enter in, with gratitude. May we feel the welcome of winter as a season of generosity, and may we respond with generous hearts and minds to spread the welcome to all who are in need of it.

“A Season of Generosity” 12/10/2023

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There are plenty of ads, jingles, mailings, and conversations encouraging us to give at this time of year. But how is the giving of gifts related to generosity of spirit, a generous open heart and open mind, a generous respect for the basic needs of all? Perhaps instead of focusing on giving we should be contemplating deep and broad generosity, beginning with this season.

with Rev. Jill McAllister