Questions about conscientious objection, what it is, and what role it plays in Unitarian Universalism are bubbling up more often as the world feels increasingly destabilized. In an effort to address this interest and support our families during uncertain times, a small team has formed to offer resources. Our aim with these offerings is not to convince anyone that Unitarian Universalism has a definitive stance on military service (it does not!) but to help parents and young people collectively explore how their deeply held values and religious beliefs may inform their decisions in the future, and what steps they can take now to safeguard their right to choose should the time ever come when they are compelled into service.
The first 2 offerings in this series are open to any interested adults, with parents strongly encouraged to attend. The film contains graphic footage from war zones and is not suitable for young children. The presentation and Q&A does not contain graphic images or descriptions, but the very reality of having to register for selective service is one that many find disturbing, so please monitor your own and your child’s readiness for those conversations when making decisions about attendance. And finally, the third offering is a workshop to assist youth and their parents in the practical steps of documentation. This session is ONLY open to parents and/or youth who have the written consent of a parent to participate.
If you have any questions or are interested in joining the CO Awareness Team of the RE Council, please contact Skyla King-Christison at dre@uucorvallis.org.
Join veteran professional puppeteer, Linda Zittel, for 5 days of using puppetry and folktales to explore our shared values. Children will create puppets, props and sets, learn performance skills, and put on an original puppet show at the end of the week.
Camp is for children in grades K-5. Space is limited.
Camp is a formative experience for UU youth, and we want as many young people to have the chance to go as possible! As such, the UUFC Endowment Fund has set aside funds to supplement the cost of camp. PLEASE take advantage of these funds! You do not need to prove need to apply. We just want to get you to camp! Very often, these scholarship funds go unutilized, and we deeply want to use them up to create memories and connections for our youth.
$2,000 is available for Camp Blue Boat or Eliot camp attendance in 2025. Four $500 scholarships are available but higher amounts of funding may be possible if the $2,000 is not allocated in $500 lots. Please apply for UUFC scholarships HERE by March 31st, and know that additional scholarships are available from the regional organization HERE.
Early registration for Camp Blue Boat (rising 6th graders through seniors in high school) is open now, and the discount ends on March 17th. If we have youth attend, I will drive the group to Seattle to catch the bus with other youth to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, so please be sure to select that option unless your family plans to drive all the way to Coeur d’Alene.
Budgeting season means we’re looking ahead to next year’s RE programs and we’re dreaming big! A piece of our plan for the coming year involves a banner for each age group, on which they will write a word or phrase for what they learn each week, and we can enjoy watching the banner fill with new ideas and knowledge over the course of the year. If you have the skills and time to contribute to this dream, I would love to hear from you. I will supply the materials for willing quilters to piece together. If you can offer this gift of time to the RE program, call or email Skyla King-Christison for more information!
Do you trip over your words when someone asks you about your religion? Do you find it hard to articulate what UUs believe when you’re feeling on the spot? Well, struggle no more, my friend! There’s a workshop for that!
Join Skyla for a 3-part workshop to help you clarify your thoughts on what UUism means to you. By the end of our time together, you’ll have a short, meaningful elevator speech in your pocket for the next time someone says, “You’re a Unitarian Universalist? What does that even mean?”
April 8, 15, and 22nd from 6-7 PM in the social hall.
It feels like spring has sprung and lots of fresh energy is popping up in Religious Exploration. Get your calendars ready, so you don’t miss any of the fun!
UPCOMING EVENTS for FAMILIES
3/9 Family Breakfast, 8:45-9:45, pre-register HERE by 3/5
3/20 Parent Peer Support Group, 6:30-8PM
4/6 Seeds of Generosity Pitch Party, noon in the Foyer, pre-register HERE by 3/12
UPCOMING EVENTS for YOUTH
3/2, 3/16 OWL workshops
3/14-16 Youth Coast Retreat, pre-register HERE by 3/2
4/6 Youth Service at Heartland Humane 9:45 to noon, pre-register HERE by 3/28
More information about our events can be found below, and info for all events can be found at uucorvallis.org by clicking “News” in the menu bar and then selecting “RE Council” from the drop down menu.
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I genuinely hope that all of our families will choose to participate in this very cool program made possible by an endowment from the Bob Ozretich Memorial Fund. Children, youth, and families in any combination (teams, pairs, solo, whole family) will make a Shark-Tank style pitch for how they would spend $100 to generously benefit our local community, and then all partiers will vote on a winner, who will receive $100 cash to give in alignment with their pitch. Everyone who pitches will be entered into a drawing to win $50 in cash to give in a manner of their choosing, and everyone who attends will get a pizza and cake lunch in the social hall after the winners are announced. Please consider helping your child work on a pitch to make either as individuals or as a family, and then register each pitch they plan to make HERE so we know how much food to buy. You do not have to make pitch to participate. Still use the registration link but indicate you will not be “pitching.”
In preparation for this event, Russ Karrow will be sharing with the children and youth during RE on March 2nd about his experience with the local Power of 100 program that does a larger scale version of our Seeds of Generosity program.
We have the funds to offer three rounds of this pitch-party style giving program, so those who don’t win have two more chances, which we hope will foster the qualities of resilience and persistence in all who participate. Winners will be asked to share an account of their giving to inspire others to participate.
On February 28th, the youth worked collaboratively to design this year’s Earth Month t-shirt. I will be putting in orders for shirt for all youth on March 5th, so please email me your youth’s t-shirt size preference. I will make an effort to order for everyone, and if I don’t hear back from you, I will make a guess at sizing for your youth and err on the larger side.
On April 6th, youth should be dropped off at the Heartland Humane Society at 9:45 for a brief chalice lighting and service project. We will likely be doing some combination of cleaning, feeding, sorting donations of food, folding laundry, etc., and will end with socializing time, AKA playing with the pets! Youth will be delivered back to the Fellowship around 12:15. Please pre-register for this service project HERE by March 23rd.
It’s that time of year again! The youth will be heading to the beautiful Wavecatcher Beach House right on the beach in Waldport for 2 nights of community building and worship. Youth will cook together, play together, and write their own worship service collaboratively before being delivered back to the Fellowship as the service lets out (or as close to it as can be managed) on Sunday morning.
Pre-registration is requested HERE no later than 3/2. If cost is an obstacle, please register anyway and we’ll cover the fee. This is the most anticipated and highly bonding gathering of the year, so we want everyone to be able to participate!
We’ve had a lot of fun opportunities in RE over the past month! Weather allowed the younger children to go outside most Sundays, and a lot of our Bluey lessons included activities with balloons as we explored friendship, caretaking, and patience. Balloons are ALWAYS a hit!
Some of our youth traveled to Eugene for an overnight and participated in games, service and worship while we got to explore ways that other groups “do church.” And thanks to a generous gift from Joyce Marvel-Benoist, a small group of youth had a Splatter Party at SplatterBox in Albany and got super messy while making a piece of collaborative art for our new youth room when the classroom wing reopens. Thanks, Joyce!
I was so impressed by our very own Raya and Mirielle during the overnight trip to Eugene! These two spent a substantial amount of time in the kitchen cooking for the burrito bar dinner and washing breakfast dishes in a commercial kitchen. They also helped decorate the social hall for Valentines Day and participated in some technological troubleshooting when the movie set-up wasn’t cooperating. At every turn, they were exercising their skills in community building and service! It was a proud day for Corvallis to be represented so beautifully while visiting a neighboring congregations.
If you have any questions about what’s happening in RE, send them my way. And if, for some strange reason, you ever want to be removed from the monthly RE Newsletter list, let me know. Wishing you a joyful March!
We are aware that the new confines and acoustics of our Sunday morning building use are less than ideal, and for some, quite overstimulating. While we lack the space to create a quiet zone on Sunday mornings, we have constructed 2 Sensory Break kits, which will be stored in yellow bags — one will hang on the back of the rocking chair in the gallery of the sanctuary and the other will be in the Spirit Play cart in the social hall.
Any time you or your child need a quiet moment or support in recovering from overstimulation, you are invited to grab one of these bags for as long as you need. While some of these items have toy-like appeal, they have been carefully selected for the support of those with exceptional sensory needs. We ask that they not be used as sanctuary entertainment so that they are available when the need arises.
Each kit contains sound cancelling headphones that can be adjusted for adult and child fit, and a variety of items for visual and tactile distraction.
This is part of our ongoing effort to be more welcoming and inclusive, recognizing that a wide range of needs come with us into the Fellowship each week. If you would like to know more about these efforts, please contact Skyla King-Christison.
There is so much positive energy in RE these days. Can you feel it? Read on so that you don’t miss any of the good stuff!
UPCOMING EVENTS for FAMILIES
2/9 Family Breakfast, 8:45-9:45
2/20 Parent Peer Support Group, 6:30-8PM
3/16 Seeds of Generosity pitches from children, youth, and Families, noon
6/1 River of Life Sunday with children’s performance and rituals
UPCOMING EVENTS for YOUTH
2/2, 2/16 OWL regular workshops
2/15-16 Eugene youth overnight and Non-romantic Ball
3/14-16 Coast Retreat
More information about our events can be found below, and info for all RE events can be found at uucorvallis.org by clicking “News” in the menu bar and then selecting “RE Council” from the drop down menu.
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Our friends in Eugene have invited us to an overnight at their place. Come check out how other UUs “do church” and have fun helping with the non-romantic Valentine Ball. There will be food, opportunities for service, dancing, and midnight worship. Register directly with Eugene HERE by February 5th and don’t forget to email me and let me know you’re registered so that I can arrange for sufficient transportation.
Due to the joyful increase in attendance at the monthly RE Family Breakfast, (last month saw 30 participants!) our gracious hosts, the Polinders, kindly request that parents fill out THIS registration form each month a few days before the breakfast. If you forget, please do come anyway. All are always welcome! Registering simply allows us to be better stewards of the RE budget by helping us prepare adequate amounts of food without over-purchasing. We are grateful for your support as this warm gathering continues to grow!
Thanks to a generous endowment from the Bob Ozretich Memorial Fund and the creative minds on the UUFC Endowment team, we will soon launch a year-long program to cultivate a spirit of generosity in our children and youth.
The Seeds of Generosity program will involve 3 rounds of guest speakers sharing during Sunday morning RE about their experiences with generosity, and a pitch party at which families will enjoy food and drinks while children and youth make pitches for how they would spend $100 to make a difference in our community. Attendees of the pitch party will vote on who gets that round’s $100, and everyone who pitches goes into a drawing to win $50 to spend generously toward community betterment.
More details about the program will come home from RE with your child in late February, but for now, mark your calendars for our first Seeds of Generosity Pitch Party, after the service on March 16th and plan to be there to help us develop a culture of generosity!
I know it’s a long way off, but a LOT of preparation goes into our River of Life Sunday at the end of each church year. In order to pull off something meaningful for our children and youth, we need your help.
First, this year, we’re aiming to have the Spirit Play children offer a very short performance of the JETPIG song we’ve been using to learn the UU shared values. It would be so helpful if parents went ahead and made a plan to be in attendance on June 1st AND listened to the JETPIG song at home or in the car once in a while to help the children gain confidence with the words and motions.
Second, each year we honor children who are transitioning between classrooms with a stepping stone ritual on River of Life Sunday. If your child will falls into any of the following groups, please email me!
1. A new walker — meaning they’ll be planning to be join Chalice Children in the nursery in September.
2. Going into 3rd grade in September. We *may* have the capacity to split into 2 different elementary spaces when the classroom reopens, and if we do, we’ll be stepping the older kids into their own space! 🤞
3. Going into 6th grade AND planning to step into youth group. Because there is a wide range of development in 6th grade, we invite families to decide whether their 6th graders attend youth group (middle and high schoolers) or remain in the upper elementary group.
The Fellowship depends on community members like Russ Anderson and Brian Egan, who arrived with their tools and smiles bright and early just about every day for weeks last month so that our building would be ready in time for official construction to begin. We’re lucky to have their knowledge and skill so freely given! If you see them in the social hall, don’t forget to thank them for their service. They are two of the many volunteers who keep this place moving forward!
If you have any questions about what’s happening in RE, send them my way. And if you’re someone who enjoys being out of the loop, and you want to be removed from the monthly RE Newsletter list, let me know. Wishing you a love-filled February!
As we navigate this season of doing more gathering in less space at the Fellowship, it is important that each of us takes seriously the reality that sensitive and vulnerable sharing happens when our small groups gather. If you happen across a closed gathering that you are not a part of, please honor the sacred nature of the work that happens here by not entering unless there is a genuine emergency.
We understand that you may need time to set up or want to check on a detail of the space before your gathering, but that cannot reasonably happen during another group’s meeting. Additionally, it is no longer possible for teams to store supplies in a space for days or even hours prior to their scheduled room use. We kindly ask that all facilitators communicate with the members of their group and make sure we have a shared understanding of how to show care for one another during this time.
WHAT and WHERE? Youth overnight event at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Eugene
WHEN? REGISTER directly with Eugene and notify Skyla via email by 2/5 for event taking place on 2/15. Cars will depart from UUFC parking lot at 4PM on Saturday and return around 12:30 on Sunday afternoon.
DETAILS: Youth will share dinner and games, help set up and participate in the Sweetheart Aromantic Ball, have midnight worship, and attend services in Eugene before returning to UUFC on Sunday afternoon around 12:30. Don’t forget to email Skyla once you register so that we can plan for adequate transportation. The Fellowship will cover the requested fee for youth and advisors.
