Join Jess and Bobbi and friends in the Fellowship Social Hall for a potluck with some icebreaker games. Bring a dish of food to share. All are welcome. We meet monthly on the 3rd Sunday in the afternoon. Join LGBTQ+ folx and allies for social gatherings centered on queer issues and themes.
We understand the importance of queer community, and our goal is to provide a safe space where people can find that sense of belonging right here in Corvallis. Questions: connect@uucorvallis.org
Samhain, Halloween, All Souls and All Saints Days. All describe a point on the Wheel of the Year when the veil between worlds is thinner, according to the ancient Celtic calendar and other traditions. Inwardly, it’s a time to remember that the world we live in is many worlds, many layers, constant connections between life and death; continual birth, continual growth, unending relatedness even among the cells of our bodies. Because even at the cellular level everything is in motion and constantly changing, we are not so much beings as “becomings.” The parts of Life we “see” and what we think we know, are fragments. Sometimes it takes being in the dark, like now when night comes sooner, being in states of “not seeing” to begin to feel the depth and breadth of our connectedness.
At the Fellowship we take time to honor ancestors, to bring to mind those who have died, to feel how the past and present are intertwined, to feel how we are connected to the lives of those who came and went before, to feel how we carry their lives in ours. We think about ourselves as ancestors and of our parts in this great progression. We think of what we may now be setting in motion for those who are coming after us.
We can do this with attention to breath – the coming and going of it, to us, through us, not of our own making. We can realize that waves upon waves of lives are carried on each breath, and that what we call “my life” is really simply Life moving in everything. We can let ourselves be carried.
This can be a daily practice – to give thanks for all the lives that are carried by each breath, which carries the possibility of “me” and all who are coming after. May we ask for the courage to be ancestors worthy of those who will live in the world to come, sources of peace and loving kindness, expressions of love, examples of compassion, nurturers of justice. Knowing that we are ancestors together, and that we are all carried by the breath of Life, may we bow to this day with gratitude.
Flowers deposited on All Saints’ Day in tombs in the cemetery of Cambados, Spain
There is no more important climate work than the influencing of legislation and policy, whether at the national, state, or local level. Climate Action Opportunities, refreshed weekly on Saturdays, provides three or four curated, quick opportunities to do just that. We have a list of organizations whose calls to action we amplify, and the number from each organization.
To help assess the engagement of UUFC members and friends in faith-based climate action and to encourage such action, please anonymously share the number of the actions below you take this week using this Climate Action Form. Optionally, you may anonymously also share other recent climate action.
GTN Xpress Project: On 10/19/23, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) authorized a huge expansion of fracked gas in the Northwest. Grassroots organizations, community groups, Tribal nations, and dozens of elected officials across the Northwest are joining forces to push back on FERC’s approval of GTN Xpress, a proposal by TC Energy to push more gas through its aging GTN pipeline. Our coalition is going to challenge FERC’s decision to approve the GTN Xpress project. Sign the petition to challenge FERC’s decision.
Single Use Packaging: Walmart is America’s largest grocer by revenue — but far too many shoppers are coming home with a pile of single-use plastic packaging that they didn’t ask for. Too often, this plastic packaging ends up as waste, clogging landfills and polluting the environment. Walmart can change its packaging practices and set a precedent for others to follow. Add your nameto Urge Walmart to put wildlife over waste
Western Arctic drilling: Oil companies are pushing for more drilling in the fragile Western Arctic landscape. .As people of faith, we have a moral responsibility to care for our Sacred Earth. We must ensure these irreplaceable landscapes are free from destructive oil and gas development. Tell the Bureau of Land Management: No drilling in the Arctic.
~Thank-you to Michael Hughes and Russ Karow for taking steps toward our vision of a renewed campus, by planting native sedge (and hopefully camas) in the small wetlands that crosses the back garden.
~Thank you to Susan Sanford, Claudia Hall, and Anna Coffman for working to create several sacred spaces, indoors and outdoors, to be places for centering and reflection, for contemplation and quieting, for nurture of mind and body. One of those places will be an altar to invite reflection, in the library.
We’ve moved into the season of longer nights and shorter days, and we arrive at the point on the Wheel of the Year called Samhain and Halloween. We’ll honor this season, considering our lives within in, considering the ancestors who made our lives possible and live in us still, considering our connectedness within the ever-turning wheel of birth and death.
All are invited to come in costume, if you like, and to join in Trick or Treat with UUFC teams and councils following the service.
Last Saturdays of the month, meet with Jim Wagner and other Unitarian friends for a casual hike in the Corvallis area. These are suitable for all ages. The intensity and difficulty of the hike will vary depending on interest. Meeting time will vary. Contact us to sign up and join the group! Connect@uucorvallis.org
March 2024 Hike Info:
March Connect Up will be the northern leg of Section 36 Loop in McDonald Forest. This is mature forest along the upper part of Calloway Creek. Early spring wild flowers can often be seen along this trail. Walk is about 4 miles and gains about 600′. About 1/4 of the distance is on trail and the rest on forest road. So, keep Saturday, March 30 (day before Easter) open! More info will be sent to the email list.
Our Fellowship youth group will be traveling to Eugene after the Trick or Treat event on October 29th to join other regional UU youth in a Corn Maze Social.
No one has responded to an invitation to help organize a Thanksgiving Festevent Supper, so far. Therefore there is no plan for a Fellowship event on Thanksgiving Day. Are there other ideas? A morning walk? Hosting small groups in homes? Sharing leftovers on Friday? Or? Please contact Rev. Jill if you’re interested in helping make plans.
~Thank you to Alison Smith for donating a new glass-topped stove and oven for the main kitchen, replacing the oldest of our two old ovens.
~Thank you to Jamie Petts, Ginny Gibson, Steve Ferrell, Michael Hughes, and Scott Bruslind for obtaining and installing a new refrigerator/freezer to replace the small freezer in the social hall which stopped working.
~Thank you to John Myers and Louise Ferrell for making a start on an oral history project for the Fellowship.
